''Garden Party'' is a 2017 French 3D computer-animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by Illogic Collective, six French 3D artists during their studies at MoPA, animation school in France. This short film is their graduation film. The short has been presented and won awards in a number of festivals including the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, the SIGGRAPH, and the

Nashville Film Festival The Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm), held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2016, Nashville Film Festival received more than 6,700 submissions from ...

where it won the Oscar Qualifying prize of Grand Jury Prize for best animation. The short was nominated for the

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...

at the

90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...

Plot

In a deserted rich house, a couple of amphibians explore their surroundings. An emerald green frog swims through a murky swimming pool while being followed by a bigger

toad Toad is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands. A distinction between frogs and toads is not made in scient ...

. They eventually end up in a bed room that has all its sheets scattered about. A small yellow

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

tries and fails to catch a

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

to eat and a larger fatter toad awakens in a kitchen full of rancid food. This does not stop it from dining on

caviar Caviar (also known as caviare; from fa, خاویار, khâvyâr, egg-bearing) is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread. Traditionally, the te ...

and

macaron A macaron ( , ) or French macaroon ( ) is a sweet meringue-based confection made with egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond meal, and food colouring. The macaron is traditionally held to have been introduced in France by the ...

s. The yellow frog makes its way into the house through one of the numerous bullet holes in the glass windows. An open safe and a gun can be seen, implying that a violent gun fight occurred there. As the night falls, the yellow frog finds the house's security room and begins accidentally turning on numerous switches; lighting up a painting that reveals the house's owner. Lights, music and water effects turn on outside as more amphibians show up to enjoy their new paradise. As they do so, the body of the house's owner, clad solely in a bathrobe, floats to the top of the pool, having been pickled and swollen from resting at the bottom for so long. The amphibians pay no mind to him.

Reception

Critical response

''Garden Party'' has an approval rating of 100% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 9.00/10.

Awards

Since its launch, the film has received numerous awards, and selected in more than 180 festivals around the world. The short was part of the world touring screening

The Animation Showcase The Animation Showcase is a travelling film screening collection, showcasing animated short films. The showcase started in 2016, with the support of the private members club Soho House, with the intention of spotting upcoming creative talents i ...

2017.

References

External links

* * * * 2017 films 2017 3D films 2017 short films 2017 comedy films 2017 computer-animated films 2010s French animated films 2010s fantasy comedy films 2010s animated short films French 3D films French computer-animated films French animated fantasy films French fantasy comedy films French animated short films 3D animated short films Animated films about frogs Anthropomorphic amphibians Films about parties Works about suburbs Animated films set in France Films set in 2016 Summer in culture Animated films without speech {{2010s-short-animation-film-stub