Dec 9, 2024

2025 Oscar Nominee for Best Short Film: “The 21?” directed by Todd Polson

Cartoon Brew spotlights an animated short that has been nominated for the 2025 Academy Awards.

In this issue, we present “The 21” by American filmmaker Todd Polson. The theatrical release of this short qualified it for an Academy Award.

The 21, a short film honoring the 21 Coptic men killed by ISIS in Libya in 2015, is made in the style of Coptic iconography by a global team of over 70 artists from over 24 countries. The film, a mix of live action and animation, is both a powerful tribute to the martyrs and a lively message against obscurantism.

Cartoon Brew: How has the new Coptic iconography inspired you and your team? Also, how did this global community of artists inspire you to create this film? As well, I wanted each frame of the film to give the audience a deeper connection to the stories of the martyrs, their faith, and everything they went through. To provoke contemplation. Stylistically, I leaned toward the strong, clean forms of Neo-Coptic iconography. Since many of the icons were painted on wood or plaster, it was important to maintain a handmade aesthetic in the textures and linework.

Most icons are vertically composed and symbolize the relationship between God and man. Therefore, I decided to construct most of “21” in the old square academy ratio (4:3). In the final sequence of the film, the aspect ratio is changed to 16:9 to accommodate clips of live action footage from the original ISIS video. Much of the color palette was inspired by traditional iconography. My initial concept drawings were too saturated, so Nicolas Sarich developed a sophisticated color palette early on. Throughout the film, I used gold to signify the presence of the divine, allowing the subtle glow of gold to illuminate the design even in the darkest scenes. Blue symbolizes the heavens, while black conveys the nature of evil. Each color was carefully chosen for its traditional meaning and used to reflect and enhance the emotional depth of the story. In keeping with the iconographic tradition, many of the film's compositions are rooted in sacred proportions and incorporate principles such as golden division, labatment, and dynamic symmetry to enhance the spiritual and symbolic resonance of the visuals. There are many other aspects of the film that are connected to the divine. Even if the audience does not understand all of these symbols, they should sense that there is more going on than meets the eye.

The video released by ISIS in 2015 depicting the horrific killing of 21 Coptic Christians was shocking and deeply disturbing. The faith they demonstrated in the face of death was deeply disturbing. But what struck me most was the reaction of their families and their amazing message of forgiveness. Despite their overwhelming grief, the family refused to hate and take revenge. Instead, they prayed for the militants, hoping that some would come to know the love of Christ. Later, their message of forgiveness became even more powerful when they sat with the martyrs' families in Egypt and saw both pain and sincerity in their eyes as they dressed in blood-stained orange jumpsuits in the next room. It was a life-changing moment.

Inspired by this same testimony, producers Mandy Hart and Mark Rogers pursued the idea of making a film about the martyrs. They were able to raise much of their budget through donations and crowdfunding. When they approached me to direct the film, I had recently resigned from my position as Creative Director of Cartoon Saloon to focus on personal films that explore faith, such as “21.” Everything seemed to be falling into place. While this is just one of countless acts of violence in the region, the stories of these martyrs shed light on a message of forgiveness that feels especially urgent in our increasingly divided world. 21 does not glorify violence, but rather exposes its absurdity.

What did you learn about the production, filmmaking, creative aspects, or subject matter through the experience of making this film? During the making of the film, I had the opportunity to meet some amazing people from all over the world: journalists, iconographers, animators, theologians, historians, and more. When I began my research, I had only a handful of friends in Egypt and knew very little about Egyptian culture, let alone Coptic Christianity. My understanding of iconography was also basic and insufficient to engage meaningfully. Although I am a Christian, I endeavored to tell the story of “21” from a neutral perspective. I relied heavily on testimonies gathered through leaders of the Coptic Church, interviews with families of martyrs who were in Libya at the time of the kidnapping, testimonies from imprisoned ISIS guards, and reports from journalists who had infiltrated the Libyan police and Libyan army. During the making of this film, I learned how dark hatred can be. But the overwhelming love I experienced from most of the people I came in contact with far outweighed it.

Tell us about how you developed your visual approach to this film, why you settled on this style/method, and how it shaped the final product. Coptic Egyptians have a long tradition of martyrdom and have made icons of martyrs. An icon-inspired design approach seemed the best and only realistic choice for this short. The icons by Nicolas Sarich, Edmond Kamel, and Tony Leszuk were created shortly after the ISIS video was released and had already become a powerful symbol in the Coptic community by the time I began work on the film. Fortunately, all three artists had a say in the style of the film. Edmond had actually painted many of the icons in the martyrs' home churches in Upper Egypt and was acquainted with their families. He and his wife Marina were a great bridge to the families of the martyrs.

Artists working in Lviv, Ukraine, have long been an inspiration to me. Lyuba Yatskiv, Ivanka Demchuk, Fristina Kubik, Sergiy Radkevich, Kostko Markovich, and others are doing new and exciting things with traditional themes. Their work is very personal, figurative and emotional at the same time. I took the same approach in developing the look of “21,” absorbing different aspects of iconography and filtering them through my own worldview. The look of the film was also heavily influenced by art movements such as Volticism, Precisionism, Futurism, and Cubism. Most of these movements rejected sentimentality and traditionalism and embraced the idea of fascism. I was trying to project the emotions of my characters through a hard, shattered, and broken world.