Jan 9, 2024

Oscar Candidate Interview: Directors Karni Ariely and Saul Fried Discuss Their Favorite Shots from "Wild Sammon" (Exclusive Interview)

We invited the makers of the 15 films nominated for this year's Academy Awards for Best Animated Short to share their favorite shots from their films and why. Each film is listed in the order in which the materials were received.

In this piece, we take a look at Wild Summon by filmmakers Karni Ariely and Saul Fried. The film premiered at Cannes, screened in competition at Annecy over the summer, won Best Animated Short at Raindance, and won the Special Jury Prize at L.A.'s Animation is Film.

This fantasy/natural history short follows the life cycle of a salmon, but the fish in this film take on human form. The surreal nature of "Wild Salmon" is supported by surreal VFX and animation.

Below, Ariely and Freed share their favorite scenes from the short and tell us what they mean:

This shot of a baby wild salmon in its eggs instantly expresses the concept of the film. There is a human fetus inside what looks like an underwater fish egg. And it is wearing a diver's mask! At this moment, the audience will wonder what they are seeing: it is a science fiction film, a natural history documentary, and you can hear the wonderful narrator, Marianne Faithfull, telling us that this is a salmon, a fish, and that we can see hope for the next generation and the entire species. The remarkable journey of the wild salmon is in the first few moments.

The idea of our baby fish period was to create an emotional connection with the viewer, to tap into our instinctive human response to young babies, and to make it a human journey that creates empathy and connection.

It is also one of the only shots repeated in the film. In doing so, it closes the perfect cycle when the protagonist returns to the flow of birth and gives life to the next generation.

Finally, what makes this shot one of our favorites is its hidden homage to cinema master Stanley Kubrick and his film 2001: A Space Odyssey. We are forcing the audience to look at themselves. The fetus is a universal, archetypal image of innocence, a symbol of our own human future.

Read other entries in the series so far: