{"id":33378,"date":"2025-01-30T09:19:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T14:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=33378"},"modified":"2025-03-03T20:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T01:13:00","slug":"a-lien-2025-academy-award-nominee-for-best-live-action-short-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/a-lien-2025-academy-award-nominee-for-best-live-action-short-film\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Film Review: A LIEN (2025) \u2013 Oscar\u00ae Nominee for Best Live Action Short Film. Timely Beyond Belief? Ripped from the Headlines of Breaking News?<\/span><\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Film Festival Audiences Have Been Eating It Up!<\/strong><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33382\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/A_LIEN-Screenshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"529\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/A_LIEN-Screenshot.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/A_LIEN-Screenshot-300x159.jpg 300w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/A_LIEN-Screenshot-768x406.jpg 768w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/A_LIEN-Screenshot-560x296.jpg 560w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/A_LIEN-Screenshot-260x138.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/A_LIEN-Screenshot-160x85.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">A family confronts a perilous immigration process on the day of their green card interview.<\/h3>\n<p>A LIEN, by writer-director brothers Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz, also was recently named to Vimeo\u2019s 2024 Best Breakout Video Creators of the Year. The cinematic verisimilitude and cinematography is stunning. Starring Victoria Ratermanis and William Martinez (GREY\u2019S ANATOMY), the short is produced by Tara Sheffer and Rebecca Eskeris. Adam McKay and his HyperObject Industries serve as executive producers. Ratermanis and Martinez also serve as executive producers.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-33391\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/david-and-sam-271x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"136\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/david-and-sam-271x300.jpg 271w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/david-and-sam-260x288.jpg 260w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/david-and-sam-160x177.jpg 160w, https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/david-and-sam.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 136px) 100vw, 136px\" \/>Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz (Picture right):<\/strong> <em>\u201cA LIEN is a call to action for comprehensive immigration reform urgently needed in the United States. A hard look at the complex bureaucracy and enforcement incentives is desperately needed to build a more compassionate and straightforward immigration process.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;A LIEN speaks to the tangled structure and unending labyrinth of paperwork, rules, and red tape that defines the immigration experience. At its heart, A LIEN is a story about Americans and their desire for family, unity, and identity; a tender tale of wrinkled shirts, braided hair, and the longing to just feel at home.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe\u2019re honored that the film is nominated and that the story found resonance with so many Academy members. Simultaneously, we are deeply troubled by the recent immigration news from the new presidential administration. There is an urgent and grave need for humane immigration reform in the United States &#8211; one that recognizes immigrant families as integral threads in the fabric of our nation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Producer Adam McKay:<\/strong> <em>\u201cA LIEN is pure cinematic tension. And then it hit me, this is reality for thousands<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>*<\/strong><\/span> of people every day.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr align=\"center\" noshade=\"noshade\" size=\"1\" width=\"60%\" \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A LIEN has played a number of film festivals, including the Austin Film Festival. It has won a number of festival prizes such as the Special Jury Award from Salute Your Shorts 2024 and the Grand Prize Narrative Awards from the Washington Film Festival 2024. It is\u00a0 streaming on Vimeo Staff Picks. Sam &amp; David Cutler-Kreutz\u2019s work includes 2024 SXSW Film and 2024 Palm Springs ShortFest winning short \u2018TRAPPED\u2019. They are represented by 42. Salaud Morisset is spearheading the international sales of the film.<\/p>\n<p><small><strong>*<span style=\"color: #800000;\">Could be millions by the time this review is published \u2013 either today, January 20, or sometime tomorrow.<\/span><\/strong><\/small><\/p>\n<p><strong>{Live action short films are short movies that use real people, props, and sets to tell a story. They are made using photographic techniques to capture the actors, props, and location}<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Awards \/ Film Festivals:<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Austin Film Festival 2023<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Seattle International Film Festival 2023<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Vancouver International Film Festival 2023<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Rhode Island International Film Festival 2023<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Brooklyn Film Festival 2024<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Flickerfest 2023<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Salute Your Shorts 2024 &#8211; Special Jury Award<\/em><br \/>\n<em>March on Washington Film Festival 2024 &#8211; Grand Prize Narrative Short<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Indie Street Film Festival 2024<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Ennesimo Film Festival 2023<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Postira Seaside Film Festival 2023<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Houston Latino Film Festival 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Film Review<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Riveting, heart pounding. Audiences from the get-go should make sure they have a strong grip wherever they&#8217;re seated, and expect to be glued to the edges of their seatings of choice for the full 14 minutes and a few seconds. This film smokes.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m changing the regular <em><strong>WORD<\/strong><\/em> film review format, allowing me to avoid spoilers as well as nipping and tucking that might interfere with the adrenaline rush generated by this film short. I expect, because this film is freely available on Vimeo, many, many in the audience are going to want to see A LIEN more than once.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7155\" style=\"width: 110px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7155\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7155\" src=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/gwm-700x700-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"200\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7155\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Publisher, Editor, Reviewer- Gregg W. Morris<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Timely beyond belief, Oscar\u00ae Nominee looks as if it is surrealistically ripped from rippling breaking news headlines. A LIEN by writer-director brothers Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz was recently named to Vimeo\u2019s 2024 Best Breakout Video Creators of the Year.\u00a0\u2013 Review by Gregg W. Morris<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/a-lien-2025-academy-award-nominee-for-best-live-action-short-film\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":33418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33378"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33428,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33378\/revisions\/33428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}