Once Upon a Line

This was on the 10-film Oscar shortlist and is one of three "Highly Commended" films that round out this year's theatrical program. In terms of innovative use of the medium, it's in a league of its own, and I thought it edged Disney's delightful PIPER, which doesn't push the envelope of animation an iota, as the best of the eight. I look for animated films to show us *something we've never seen before*, and ONCE UPON A LINE does that in a way that is transfixing and beautifully artful from start to end -- and yet is fundamentally simple. I suspect it didn't get the nomination because voters knew it was a student film. But that just makes it all the more remarkable.