'Caroline' on shortlist for Oscar nomination
Work by a former Penn Township woman has been placed on the shortlist for an Oscar nomination.
The film “Caroline” by Celine Held and her husband, Logan George, is one of the 10 chosen for consideration for nomination as Best Live Action Short Film for the 91st Academy Awards.
“Caroline” was selected from among 140 entries in this category, having qualified by winning accolades at film festivals last year.
The shortlist and the final nominations are chosen by members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The other films on the Live Action Short Film shortlist are “Chuchotage,” “Detainment,” “Fauve,” “Icare,” “Marguerite,” “May Day,” “Mother,” “Skin” and “Wale.”
At the more than 60 festivals “Caroline” has entered, it garnered a couple dozen awards including wins last year for Audience Award at the Dallas International Film Festival, Best Narrative Short Film at the Athens International Film & Video Festival, and Best Narrative Short at the Downtown LA Film Festival.
“Caroline” made its U.S. premiere at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, and its international premiere at the Festival de Cannes in France, where it was the only short film selected from the United States.
The synopsis from the website says: “In the middle of a Texas summer, plans for a baby-sitter fall through and 6-year-old Caroline is left in charge of her two younger siblings.”
Held and her husband co-wrote and co-directed the film, and Held appears as the mother to the fictional “Caroline.”
The film features three real-life siblings — Caroline, Brooks and Sally Falk — and Held developed a rapport with the young actors prior to filming by staying with their family in Texas. She and her husband knew them before the project.
The nominations in all two dozen competitive categories for the Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday.
Held, who has lived in New York for about 10 years, graduated from South Butler elementary and middle schools, Vincentian Academy, and New York University with a degree in drama.
While she lived in Butler County, she acted in stage shows with the Musical Theatre Guild of Butler, the Butler Little Theatre and the Butler Summer Dramatics program.
She met her husband at college; they were both drama majors and have done some acting.
Her parents, Belinda and Craig Held, live in Penn Township.
To view the just-under 12 minute film, visit https://vimeo.com/295591903.
