The Phone Call wins Academy Award for Best Live Action Short for the UK

The UK walked away with the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short this past Sunday night with The Phone Call winning for director Mat Kirkby. The film, about a suicide helpline worker who deals with a heartbreaking call, has been popular across the festival circuit including winning Best Fiction at the 2014 Krakow Film Festival, Best Narrative Short at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Leeds International Film Festival. The film stars Sally Hawkins and Oscar winner Jim Broadbent.

Kirkby’s speech saw him give an impassioned thanks to all those who work in call centres across the world (and he also probably managed to get free doughnuts for life after he thanked his local bakery).

You can see the moment when Kirkby and team found out they were nominated in this video given by the director to Cineuropa Shorts:

The film was up against stiff competition including BAFTA winner Boogaloo and Graham and Swiss film Paravaneh.

US films won the Best Short Animation and Best Short Documentary categories with Feast and Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 respectively. While the Polish Film Industry may have been slightly disappointed with not walking away with Best Documentary – with Our Curse and Joanna both nominated – the huge success of Ida must have meant that there was plenty of Vodka drunk in Hollywood that night.

The 2015 Oscar Nominated Short Films are being shown in selected cinemas across the world and are distributed by Shorts International. For more information go HERE.