OKC's deadCenter Film Festival is an Oscar-qualifying event for short films: What that means

Over the past three years, the deadCenter Film Festival has gotten bigger on short films.

In 2021, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that hands out the Oscars, designated the popular Oklahoma City event as an Oscar-qualifying festival in two categories — animated short film and live-action short film — a prestigious honor that has made deadCenter even more sought after by the makers of those types of mini-movies.

"They're spread out across the program ... and it's getting very competitive. Even though we had 1,800 submissions — and only 8% of the films get in — live-action shorts is still a majority of the material that is in the final program," Sunrise Tippeconnie, deadCenter Film's programming director, told The Oklahoman.

"And we have a good number of animation shorts from all over the world."

The 24th Annual deadCenter Film Festival is June 6-9 in downtown OKC, with screenings at Harkins Bricktown 16, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Rodeo Cinema Film Row , Scissortail Park, First Americans Museum and the new dC Hub at the Fordson Hotel (formerly 21c Museum Hotel).

The state's only Oscar-qualifying film festival is showcasing about 160 short films, narrative features, documentaries, music videos and more, including numerous world, U.S. and Oklahoma premieres.

What does deadCenter Film Festival's Oscar-qualifying status mean?

Starting with the 2022 festival, deadCenter award winners in the live-action and animated short films categories have been eligible to enter those short film competitions for the Academy Awards.

The designation places Oklahoma's largest film fest on the Academy Awards Short Films Qualifying Festival List , a roster of only about 125 events around the globe, from Belgium and Brazil to Egypt and India.

The list includes some of the most esteemed festivals in the world, including Italy's Venice International Film Festival, Canada's Toronto International Film Festival , Germany's Berlin International Film Festival, France's Cannes International Film Festival and America's Sundance Film Festival, South By Southwest and Tribeca Film Festival .

"That's not something that every festival has, and there's a pretty rigorous process to even get that status. Ever since we've had that Oscar-qualifying status, that has really shot up the amount of submissions that we receive," said Paris Burris, one of two shorts programmers for the OKC fest.

"There are deadCenter films that have gone on to compete in the Oscars , and it's just really cool. ... You spend months with these films, having watched them and talked about them, and then they finally screen. And it's just so rewarding when you're like, 'Oh, wow, that played here, and now it's competing for an Oscar.'"

Selected by juries that are made up of filmmakers, film critics and other film industry creatives, the winners in the live-action and animated shorts categories will be announced, along with the winners in other categories, during the 2024 deadCenter Film Festival Awards at 11 a.m. June 8 at th OKC Museum of Art.

How does deadCenter's Oscar-qualifying status affect how the programming team selects short films?

Fellow shorts programmer Camila Chaves Rojas said the deadCenter programming team is mindful of its ability to qualify live-action and animated short films for the Oscars when it picks those titles.

"I feel like there's more conversation, in being more selective and more intentional with our choices, not to say that we weren't before," she said. "But now, it feels like we are having more conversations, more meetings, more discussions about the themes, what is important to us, what we see across other festivals, and how it informs our selection process."

But the deadCenter team also resists the impulse to favor shorts that could be considered Oscar bait, Burris said.

"We're not looking for films that the Oscars typically choose. ... There are plenty of films that we accept into our festival that, in all reality, probably would never get attention from the Oscars in a million years," she said.

"Unfortunately, there is a specific kind of film that they tend to look for. ... We don't want to cater to that, but we also want to highlight films that would have that (high) quality."

Attracting high-quality shorts also allows deadCenter to introduce its attendees to the top filmmakers of the future: Before their hit feature "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won best picture at the 2023 Oscars, directors The Daniels' showed their short "Interesting Ball" at deadCenter 2015.

How can deadCenter attendees see the short films that might contend for Oscars?

The animated and live-action short films contending for Oscars eligibility at deadCenter are spread throughout the dozen or so short film blocks on the festival schedule.

"Most blocks are a combination of documentary, narrative and animated (shorts). We created an animated block specifically for people who are big fans of animation, just to give it its own space. But it is certainly not the only place to see animated films," Burris said, adding that the deadCenter team is working to achieve Oscar-qualifying status in the short documentary category, too.

Unlike many festivals, the deadCenter team groups its short films into blocks by themes, and many of those themes and block titles change every year based on the selections.

Here's a look at a few of the thematic short film blocks showing at deadCenter 2024:

Okie Shorts

When and where:5 p.m. June, Harkins Bricktown, and 2 p.m. June 8, First Americans Museum.

A perennially popular deadCenter staple, the Okie Shorts are billed as "dynamic stories told straight from the heart of Oklahoma."

Already on her fourth deadCenter, Ella Janes, a recent Classen School of Advanced Studies graduate who's earned a scholarship to the USC School of Cinematic Arts, returns to Okie Shorts with the Oklahoma premiere of her new short "Happiness in the Palm of Her Hand," about a young woman who must confront her abusive childhood as she unexpectedly embarks on motherhood.

From Tulsa-based Cherokee and Kiowa filmmaker Loren Waters ("Reservation Dogs"), "Meet Me at the Creek" tells a story of interconnectedness and Cherokee values through the lifelong fight of Rebecca Jim, a Cherokee Nation citizen and Waterkeeper Warrior leading the effort to restore Tar Creek in Miami, Oklahoma . U.S. government officials have designated Tar Creek a Superfund Site , deeming the creek "irreversibly damaged" by decades of lead and zinc mining. But Rebecca refuses to accept that the damage cannot be undone.

And director Cheyenne Scarborough 's "Vivian" is a portrait of a working-class woman who tries to make $300 in one day to avoid eviction.

Love, Sex & Death Shorts

When and where:3:30 p.m. June 7, Rodeo Cinema Film Row, and 4:30 p.m. June 8, Harkins Bricktown.

The Love, Sex & Death Shorts are billed as a group of mini-movies that "evoke the full spectrum of the human experience." With Oklahoma writer-director Kaitlyn Shelby 's "House in the Clouds," this block also shows that not all Sooner State filmmakers' shorts will be screened in Okie Shorts.

"House in the Clouds" rests on a seemingly perfect couple who does almost everything together in the comfort of their bed. Soon, they realize they might not know each other or themselves as well as they thought.

The block also includes writer-director Jonah Weinstein' s irreverent 11-minute tale "The Eighth Day," which follows a gay Jewish couple celebrating the arrival of their newborn son. When the baby's grandparents come to visit expecting a traditional bris, the new parents reveal that they've decided not to have their son circumcised.

Coming of Age Shorts

When and where:4 p.m. June 8 and 4:15 p.m. June 9, Harkins Bricktown.

As the title implies, the selections in the Coming of Age Shorts block tap into the "angst, innocence and nostaglic bliss of adolescence." Fittingly, half of the six films in this collection were made by first-time filmmakers.

In "Tayal Forest Club," director Laha Mebow — Taiwan's first Indigenous female film director and the first Taiwanese and Indigenous filmmaker to win the Golden Horse Award for Best Director — shares a tale that interweaves Tayal characters, settings and symbols with the complexities arising from her community's interactions with contemporary society.

Animated Shorts

When and where:8:30 p.m. June 7 and 11:15 a.m. June 9, Harkins Bricktown.

With its adult content, the global Animated Shorts collection reminds festivalgoers that animation isn't just for kids.

Sean Pecknold 's Mandarin-language short "Tennis, Oranges" is set in a pandemic-era hospital, where a robotic vacuum, overwhelmed by its demanding job and lack of friends, decides to quit.

Seeking a more meaningful existence, it ventures into a serene and quiet street in Chinatown, where it encounters two solitary rabbits.

Told in French and Hebrew, Rachel Gutgarts' "Via Dolorosa" follows the filmmaker as she searches for her lost youth by wandering the streets of Jerusalem. And Nina Gantz's Belgium short story "Wander to Wonder," told in English and Dutch, focuses on three miniature human actors who star in an 1980s kids' TV series and are left in dire straits when the show's creator dies.

Free Family Fest Shorts

When and where:Free at 12:30 p.m. June 7, First Americans Museum, and 11 a.m. June 9, Harkins Bricktown.

A deadCenter favorite, the free Family Fest Shorts block provides cinematic entertainment suitable for children and adults alike.

This year's offerings range from the animated adventure "Coquille," about a hermit crab named Bernard, to the live-action romp "Vroom Vroom," about a romantic adolescent determined to take his crush for a cruise, to the short doc "The School of Canine Massage," about just what the title indicates.

2024 DEADCENTER FILM FESTIVAL

• When: June 6-9.

• Where: Multiple venues in downtown Oklahoma City.

• Schedule: https://dcff.eventive.org/schedule .

• Tickets and information: https://deadcenterfilm.org .

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: deadCenter schedule: A guide to Oklahoma's only Oscar film festival