Husband-and-wife filmmaking team Jared and Jerusha Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) have entered the animated short Academy Awards race with Ninety-five Senses — a heartfelt tribute to the bodily experience, delivered by a death row inmate with limited time to enjoy it. Premiered at HollyShorts 2022, the film marks the Hesses’ first foray into animation, and heads into Oscars season with the Academy Awards-qualifying Grand Jury Award for Best Animated Short from the Florida Film Festival.
Tim Blake Nelson, known his roles in the Coen brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou? and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs as well as his recurring turn as The Leader in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, lent his voice to the main character, Coy — a folksy philosopher facing his own mortality. As Coy bids a final farewell to each of his five senses, he reflects on his troubled past and dreams of a vibrant, multisensory afterlife.
Ninety-five Senses has been selected by 17 Oscar-qualifying film festivals around the world, winning awards at Animation Dingle in Ireland (Best International Professional Short), the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico (Rigo Mora Special Jury Award) and most recently the Flickers’ Rhode Island Film Festival (First Prize, Best Short Animation).
Ninety-five Senses was produced as part of the MAST program of the non-profit Salt Lake Film Society. MAST provides grants, training and mentorship to animators and filmmakers, with a special emphasis on projects that change minds and change the world. Its program includes a fellowship, labs, mentorship, career advocacy, networking, contests, productions and funding.
The film’s producers are MAST co-founders Miles David Romney, a veteran Broadway investor and co-producer (Moulin Rouge!, Hadestown, Life of Pi), and Tori A. Baker, CEO of Salt Lake Film Society and Board VP of The Cinema Foundation. More information available at maststudio.org.
While Ninety-five Senses is their first animated short film, the Hesses also collaborated on the Netflix Original animated feature Thelma the Unicorn (2024).
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