$9.99 Gets Oscar-Qualifying Run

Wednesday, October 08, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

The independently produced stop-motion feature $9.99 will get a limited theatrical engagement to qualify for Academy Award consideration. Handled by Regent Releasing in the U.S., the Israeli-Australian co-production will open on Dec. 12 at the Music Hall in Los Angeles. It premiered at the Toronto Festival in September.

$9.99 marks the feature debut of Israeli-born director/animator Tatia Rosenthal, whose short A Buck's Worth played at Sundance in 2005. Rosenthal has worked as an animator on such TV series such as Blue's Clues and The Wonder Pets!.

Co-financed by the Israeli Film Fund, $9.99 is based on a collection of macabre short stories by Etgar Keret (Wristcutters: A Love Story, Jellyfish). Australian actors Geoffrey Rush and Anthony LaPaglia provide voices for the production, which revolves around a group of characters living in an apartment complex in Sidney, each searching for meaning in their lives. The film is an expansion of A Buck’s Worth, a Sundance Lab project.

Reader Comments

• Kristen Miller : Animator : Kris10 Cartoons

  Thursday, October 09, 2008

  We saw this film at the Toronto Film festival. Fantastic style, the quality was very high, however, the stories seemed a bit disjointed. The common thread linking the different characters and stories was a little weak, however, the stories themselves we very interesting and dramatic. It certainly deserves Oscar consideration.