Apple and the BBC have won an animated short Oscar for "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse," a magical fable by writer and artist Charlie Mackesy.
Winning at the 95th Academy Awards over the weekend, the film follows the dreamlike friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy's search for home. It stars Tom Hollander as The Mole, Idris Elba as The Fox, Gabriel Byrne as The Horse, and Jude Coward Nicoll as The Boy.
Apple Original Films acquired the production last year and it debuted on Apple TV+ and the BBC during Christmas 2022.
Apple CEO Tim Cook congratulated the team involved in making "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" in a tweet, adding "Your beautiful short tells an enduring story about the meaning of kindness, acceptance and hope."
The Oscar is Apple's first for an animated short. It was Apple's only win at this year's Oscars, with Apple receiving one other nomination, for Brian Tyree Henry for supporting actor in Apple TV+ drama "Causeway."
Congratulations to the team behind The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse on their Academy Award! Your beautiful short tells an enduring story about the meaning of kindness, acceptance, and hope. — Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 13, 2023
At the 2022 Oscars, Apple became the first streaming service to win the best picture prize for "CODA," in addition to wins for Troy Kotsur for supporting actor and director Siân Seder for adapted screenplay.
Top Rated Comments
That's not how these things come about except for maybe one out of several millions of projects.
There's always some kind of investor behind these kinds of things. Either small ones at the start and then bigger ones later on. Or big ones from the start.
And even though I don't know whether Apple helped fund the development of this short or they just jumped in once it was done. I can tell you that there's no way these kinds of projects get the exposure they deserve unless some huge entity, like Apple, gets in the mix.
No, the big corporation can't make a short like this without the artists. But Apple is just as much a part of making this movie as any other party involved and it's completely justified to claim that "Apple Wins Oscar".
Did they? Tim's tweet is congratulating the team behind it. I don't see Apple claiming the win, but the MacRumors header sure do. :)
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy,_the_Mole,_the_Fox_and_the_Horse_(film)
Production Companies:
Apple Studios
Bad Robot Productions
NoneMore Productions
Distributors:
AppleTV+ (United States)
BBC One
BBC iPlayer (United Kingdom)
Apple funded and distributed the film in the US and BBC got paid to distribute it in the UK.
Bad Robot Production means Producer and team JJ Abrams proposed the film and bulk of production costs to several studios with Apple Studios winning the contract.
When their studio is built in Culver City I imagine a lot of projects will rely less on Bad Robot Productions and more on screenwriters directly soliciting and not selling their screenplays to JJ Abrams for a song who then sells rights including production costs for a huge profit on their part, not unlike the traditional Music Industry model.