Vice Picks up Canada's Oscar Contender Eternal Spring
When narrative structure meets real-world events
Great news! Variety reports that the documentary Eternal Spring --for which I played a small part in helping craft the narrative--was just picked up by Vice.
Brendan Kennedy, VP development at Vice News, said: “This is an important movie that covers so many of the topics important to Vice – censorship, creativity, religious freedom and displacement – all done in some of the most exquisite animation I’ve ever seen. We’re lucky to have this one on our slate.”
Totally agree about the quality of animation. And the level of heart and human-understanding throughout this documentary is off the charts.
Also--I did not know this:
Eternal Spring is Canada's first choice for the Oscars! 🥳😃
[Eternal Spring] is the first documentary, first animated film, and first Mandarin-language film to be chosen by Canada for the Oscars. Since its March premiere at Thessaloniki, the film has been on on an award winning spree, including two top prizes at Hot Docs.
This would be the first time a project I was involved with could end up with an Academy Award!🤯
And this would be the first animated film, the first documentary, and the first Mandarin-language film chosen by Canada to be in the Oscars! 🤯🤯
Technically, I played a super small part in helping out with The Mitchells vs. The Machines --my first Oscar contender--but Eternal Spring is something all together entirely different, a film where my narrative skills were put to great use. I wrote about my experience developing the latter film in the blog post Eternally Grateful for Being a Part of Eternal Spring.
Writer/director Jason Loftus:
Loftus added: “Over the nearly six years of making ‘Eternal Spring,’ it’s always been our goal to share this incredible story with the widest audience possible. Vice’s ‘The Short List with Suroosh Alvi,’ presents an excellent slate of politically engaged docs and in depth conversations on an accessible platform. This, combined with our fall theatrical release and international broadcasts, will provide the impact we are seeking for the film and its brave subjects.”
I watched several cuts of this film over the time that I was working on it, and I can say that I was moved to tears every single time--and I already knew what was coming.
I'm so grateful that many experience a similar response.
If you want to learn more about this very special film, visit the Eternal Spring website.