Nov 25, 2024

2025 Oscar Short Film Candidates: - Beautiful Male director Nicholas Kepens

Cartoon Brew is putting the spotlight on an animated short film nominated for an Academy Award in 2025.

Today's film is the beautiful man of the Belgian film director Nicolas Kepens. It was nominated 3 times in the Short Animation category at the Academy Awards, won the Best Short at the Kaboom International Film Festival, the Best Animation at the Aspen Shortsfest, and the Grand Prix at the Hiroshima Animation Season.

Following 3 bald brothers on a trip to Istanbul for hair transplant surgery, Kepens' stop-motion short focuses on the anxieties of this inspiring trio. Between the realm of fantasy and reality, beautiful men unfold as a benevolent and compassionate view of aging as men in modern society. It was produced by Animal Tank (Belgium), Ka-Ching Cartoons (Netherlands) and Miyu Productions (France).

Comic Brewing: A Mix of Dreams and Reality In your film, why did you choose to include this fantasy space in the realistic setting of this story?-

Nicolas Keppens: In short, because that's what I like in movies. I'm a big fan of Federico Fellini, Alice Rorwacher and Apichatpong Weerasetakun, among other things, all filmmakers who use this media to tell something about their existence in a dream state. What I want to do is explore very specific people that the viewer can know in real life. Beautiful men (and my earlier short Easter eggs) have a very simple story, but I've added much more elaboration to the character.

Once these characters and their struggles are known, it turns into a story about their feelings and the world around them, which is (for me) a dreamy space.I don't care too much about the plot, I prefer to focus on small stories, but with big details in the character descriptions. When we share funny or touching stories about someone, it's like, "Oh, what a wonderful, funny, weird...I often end up saying, "I'm a person.""I have friends who are really good at telling these random stories, and they often use beautiful little metaphors. I'm trying to make my own film in the same way.

What was forced to connect with you and direct the film about this story and concept -

During a business trip in Istanbul, we stayed at a hotel that was affiliated with the hair clinic, but the trip was sponsored by the studio where I worked. And we did not know. The first morning, at breakfast, we were surprised to see other guests in the hotel. Almost all the tables were occupied by a European bald man who was there for flocking or just received 1. It was ridiculous, but at the same time very touching. This theme was the gateway for me to tell something about masculinity, feeling insecure and the ability to make such trips as a human being.

What did you learn through the experience of making this film, production-wise, filmmaking-wise, creative, or about the subject-

Beautiful Men My first Sto Easter eggs and Wildebeest were such a lovely experience, so I partnered again with the Belgian studio Animal Tank, but it learned a lot by listening to their first stop・mo animators, especially Iris Alexandre. This film was made very locally because I had to shoot in the local cultural center of Aalst, a small Belgian city where I live.

The floor was carpet and the ceiling was very low, so the only place they could give us was the conference room. In the eyes of many experienced crew members, it was a nightmare to start from there, but we had to do it anyway. By combining the experience of an experienced animator with the flexibility it showed to adapt to an inexperienced crew, it ultimately proved a great setting.

Can you explain how you developed a visual approach to cinema - why did you settle for this style/technique-

The first idea was to do a 3d animation with a 2d designed background. But when we finally rewritten the script with Angelo Tijssens, the film became much more about feeling lonely and skin-tactile. Suddenly changing technology felt like the right thing to do. It had results as it's more expensive, but loneliness from dolls all alone in scale models told me more than anything I could do in 3d.Also, the feel of silicone skin is much more efficient than the skin I painted and I think for this subject. That's why it finally became this film.

Drawing Istanbul was a budget option, so I had to reconsider some elements, but making it on a scale was absolutely out of the question at the level of detail I was aiming for. That's how I came up with fog, it became important, most characters of its own.

The sound design was done by Nicolas Snyder. I knew his work especially from his collaboration with Joe Bennett. I really like the way he mixes Foley and music into a vibrant soundscape. I'm such a fan, so I gave him a lot of freedom. 1. One of the important things was the way the existence of other brothers was always palpable. The idea of being lonely without being alone. I think he did a really great job in achieving this feeling.