With the ninety-fourth annual Academy Awards just around the corner, filmmakers and studios are preparing their projects to be submitted for Oscar contention, and Disney isn’t wasting any time submitting some of its Star Wars content for consideration. The studio has officially submitted one of its Star Wars: Visions shorts, The Village Bride, for consideration in the Best Animated Short Film category, officially making it eligible by hosting a screening of the eighteen-minute short.
The Village Bride was originally presented as one of a number of shorts within the Visions collection on Disney+, which brought together seven anime studios to create all new content surrounding existing and brand-new Star Wars characters and lands. According to Cartoon Brew, in order to be considered for an Academy Award, animated films under forty minutes must place at a qualifying film festival or play in theaters before being submitted, so the short was taken from its digital home to screen at the Disney-owned El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles from September 21 to September 27.
The original short, directed by Hitoshi Haga and animated by Kinema Citrus, follows a single Jedi on the run, voiced by Karen Fukuhara, as she witnesses the life and customs of a remote Outer Rim village under the control of a vicious warlord. The short is one of the few that does not center on familiar Star Wars iconography or locations (outside of a few battle droids), with other Visions shorts like Tatooine Rhapsody featuring characters that we all know and love.
There is no guarantee that The Village Bride will be nominated despite becoming eligible for consideration, though it is not the only short being submitted by Disney for the 2021/2022 season. Walt Disney Animation has also submitted Us Again, another Disney+ exclusive short, as well as two pieces from Pixar Animation, Twentysomething, and Nona. Star Wars: Visions as a whole will remain eligible for next year’s Emmy Awards, whether or not The Village Bride receives an Oscar nomination.
The Village Bride and the rest of Star Wars: Visions are available to stream on Disney+ now.