The short film premiered at last year's Cinema on the Bayou festival.
According to Lafayette's Cinema on the Bayou founder Pat Mire, a movie that premiered at this fest last year called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, by William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg and Shreveport's Moonbot Studios, was nominated Tuesday for an Oscar in the Short Film (Animated) category. "I told them last year it was gonna win, I knew it! We're just so proud to have premiered it here," Mire says.
The 2012 Academy Award nominations came out early this morning.
Lessmore was produced by Lampton Enochs and co-directed by Brandon Oldenburg and William Joyce, who also wrote the screenplay. The three formed Moonbot after Joyce, a Shreveport native, heard the call of home and wanted to find a way to return to Louisiana. It's a 15-minute piece about a man who devotes his life to books and the life it brings. The film has a more subtle animation style, less Pixar and more of a warm aesthetic.
Cleverly and with honoring the original idea, Moonbot turned Lessmore into a book app available for $4.99 on iTunes. It currently can be downloaded for free until the Feb. 26 Academy Awards ceremony. Look for a hardcover book later this year to hit shelves.
Check out today's blog regarding the 2012 Cinema on the Bayou schedule for movies that may be nominated next year.