By Brendan Swift
Australian short film Miracle Fish has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Live Action Short category.
Costume designer Janet Patterson was also nominated for her work on Jane Campion’s Bright Star at the announcement in Los Angeles this morning. However, indigenous drama Samson & Delilah missed out on the foreign XXXX while Adam Elliot’s animation Mary & Max was also overlooked.
Miracle Fish tells the story of 8 year old Joe, who has a birthday he will never forget. After friends tease him, he sneaks off to the sick bay wishing everyone in the world would go away. He wakes up to find his dream may have become a reality.
The film was written and directed by Luke Doolan and produced by Drew Bailey, in conjunction with Nash and Joel Edgerton’s production company, Blueâ€ÂÂTongue Films.
It stars Karl Beattie, Brendan Donoghue and Tara Morice,
The film was self funded with support from Italian pay TV channel Qoob TV and post-production support from Screen Australia.
After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009, Miracle Fish has since screened at over sixty film festivals worldwide.
It has won several awards including the Dendy Award for Best Live Action Short at the Sydney Film Festival. It was this award which qualified the film to be submitted to the Academy Awards together with 70 other short films.
Doolan and Bailey started work on the short film after working on Nash Edgerton’s The Square, which Doolan edited and Bailey performed first assistant director duties.
The Square will be released in the US by Apparition on April 9.
“Miracle
Fish”
director
Luke
Doolan
also
edited
fellow
Blue-â€ÂÂTongue
filmmaker
David
Michôd’s
“Animal
Kingdom”
which
has
just
won
the
World
Cinema
Grand
Jury
Prize
at
Sundance.
Both
Doolan
and
producer
Drew
Bailey
are
currently
in
the
United
States
developing
feature
film
projects,
one
of
which
is
part
of
Screen
Australia’s
SPRINGBOARD
initiative.