Joseph Pierce, Belgium, United Kingdom, France, Czech Republic, 2022
This is a HollyShorts Film Festival 2022 award winner and now an OSCAR®-qualifying short film for the Best Animation category
Joseph Pierce directs a compelling narrative film using the form of animation to describe the power of addiction in SCALE. Pierce creatively depicts and visualizes how easy it is for an addict to have a skewed view of their reality.
Pierce magically allows the audience to feel Will's pain.
Will (voice of Sam Spruell) is a closet addict and tries to keep his addiction hidden from the ones he loves. While driving one night, Will loses his orientation of the road and a frightening experience shakes him to his core, but not enough to change. His condition deepens. He struggles and wants to be whole again. Will believes that part of his journey is to figure out how he got to such a desperate place in his life but wonders if he is just one step from no return. (KP)