Oscar Shortlist Interviews: Directors Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier, And Yannick Jacquin Share Their Favorite Shot From ‘Boom’ (Exclusive)

We invited the filmmakers behind each of this year’s 15 Oscar-shortlisted animated shorts to share their favorite shot from their film and explain why it’s special to them. The pieces are being published in the order that materials were received. Nomination voting begins today, January 11, and runs through January 16.

In this piece, directors Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier, and Yannick Jacquin discuss their film Boom, which has already secured Academy gold by winning a Student Academy Award in September of last year. The trio’s film was produced at the École des Nouvelles Images in Avignon, France, and was the institution’s first production to win a Student Academy Award.

In the delightfully charming and vibrantly colored film, two dumb birds try their best to protect their eggs from a volcano eruption. Boom has the wit and youthful energy of a student film, but the polish and high stakes of a big-time action blockbuster. We’ll be looking forward to see more from its filmmakers in the near future.

Below, Augerai, Augier, and Jacquin shares their favorite scene from the short and tell us its significance:

This is our favorite shot from the short film because it is the exact first drawing Romain made when he presented his idea to the educational team. [Augier’s first drawing can be seen here, along with early artwork from all 15 shortlisted shorts.]

It means a lot to us because throughout the production we wrote, storyboarded and threw a lot of gags but the original one stayed and made it to the final cut so we’re very proud because it shows that we stayed consistent and true to the original idea throughout the whole production.

Read the other entries in the series:

• John Musker on I’m Hip
• Flóra Anna Buda on 27
• Tal Kantor on Letter To a Pig
• Dave Mullins on War is Over!
• Bret Parker on Pete
• Yegane Moghaddam on Our Uniform
• Karni Arieli and Saul Freed on Wild Summon
• Rita Basulto on Humo
• Jared and Jerusha Hess on Ninety-Five Senses
• Stephen Vuillemin on A Kind Of Testament
• Priit Tender on Dog Apartment
• Stéphanie Clément on Pachyderme
• Lucija Mrzljak and Morten Tšinakov on Eeva
• Dan Abraham and Trent Correy on Once Upon a Studio