Lachlan Pendragon: Griffith University student film nabs Oscars nomination

Move over, Cate Blanchett. 26-year-old student filmmaker Lachlan Pendragon is Australia's big Oscars hope.

An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It

Move over, Cate Blanchett. 26-year-old student filmmaker Lachlan Pendragon is Australia's big Oscars hope.

With Aussie superstar Blanchett vying for Best Actress and top designer Catherine Martin up for her three Academy Awards, Pendragon will represent the nation in the Oscars' animated short film category.

An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It, for which Pendragon wrote the screenplay, directed, and acted in, has been nominated for Best Short Film. It tells the absurd story of a toaster telemarketer who is plunged into an existential crisis after a mysterious talking ostrich tells him that his universe is actually a stop motion animation.

Scoring an Oscar nomination is something that, Pendragon says, he never thought would happen. “When you make a student film, it’s not really something that’s on the table,” he says, admitting that he’s feeling “very overwhelmed” by everything.

“It’s been amazing to see it snowball to the heights of the Oscars. It’s incredible. It’s probably a once in a lifetime kind of thing.”

“It’s weird having to think about all these exciting things coming straight out of film school,” says Pendragon.

The student film was supposed to be shot at Griffith Film School in Brisbane, but those plans were interrupted by lockdown. “We made the decision to quickly relocate to my mum’s living room, where I animated this film for like ten months,” he says.

The director, who made his first stop-motion film in high school, initially planned to study live-action filmmaking, but was knocked back. So he defaulted to studying animation, where he experimented with several mediums, before settling on stop-motion. “Nothing really grabbed me as much,” he says. “I realised that this is what I want to do, and I’ve never looked back.”

Lachlan Pendragon, whose film, An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It, has earned an Academy Award nomination. Photo: Griffith Film School

Pendragon, who grew up watching classic Aardman productions like Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, and later graduated to Wes Anderson fare like Fantastic Mr. Fox, says the film was his way of “really celebrating the tactile, handmade qualities of stop motion.”

The film also won Best Australian Short Film and Melbourne International Film Festival. So with a MIFF win under his belt, and an Academy Award nomination, what’s next? “It’s weird having to think about all these exciting things coming straight out of film school,” he admits. “Definitely I would love to do something with stop motion, because I love it so much.”

Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis scored a nomination for Best Picture.

Meanwhile, Elvis, Tár, The Banshees of Inisherin, Top Gun: Maverick, Women Talking, Triangle of Sadness, Avatar: The Way of Water, and the Fablemans are all up for Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars.

Baz Luhrmann was overlooked for best director, but Elvis swept the board, notching eight nominations including best actor, cinematography, make-up, hairstyling, editing, sound, and best picture. Producer Catherine Martin, who has won more Oscars than any other Australian with four, picked up an additional three nominations. And cinematographer, Mandy Walker is the third woman ever nominated for best cinematographer, following Rachel Morrison (Mudbound) and fellow Australian Ari Wegner (The Power of the Dog). No woman has won this award.

Catherine Martin, Austin Butler and Baz Luhrmann. Photo: Getty

In snagging her eighth Oscar nomination for her role as the abusive, power-hungry conductor in Tár, Cate Blanchett joins screen legends like Marlon Brando, Judi Dench, Peter O’Toole, Geraldine Page, and Glenn Close, as the only actors who have been nominated eight times. Only nine actors have ever received more than eight nominations.

Blanchett also snagged Best Actress at the Critics Choice, and Golden Globe Awards for her role as Lydia Tár.

Snubbed were Margot Robbie, for her unbound performance as a cutthroat 1920s Hollywood actress in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, and Hugh Jackman, who played a New York lawyer in The Son.

Everything Everywhere All At Once had the most nominations, with 11. Martin McDonagh’s black comedy The Banshees of Inisherin, and Netflix’s German-language All Quiet on the Western Front each had nine nominations.

Michelle Yeoh in a scene from Everything Everywhere All At Once, which leads the pack with eight nominations. Photo: A24.

Full list of nominations:

Best Picture:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: the Way of Water

The Banshees of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fabelmans

Tár

Top Gun: Maverick

Triangle of Sadness

Women Talking

Best Actor in a Leading Role:

Austin Butler, Elvis

Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

Brendan Fraser, The Whale

Paul Mescal, Aftersun

Bill Nighy, Living

Best Actress in a Leading Role:

Cate Blanchett, Tár

Ana de Armas, Blonde

Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie

Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans

Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

Brendan Gleeson, Banshees of Inisherin

Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway

Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans

Barry Keoghan, Banshees of Inisherin

Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Hong Chau, The Whale

Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin

Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Director:

Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin

Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once

Steven Spielberg, The Fablemans

Todd Field, Tár

Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

Best Adapted Screenplay:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Living

Top Gun: Maverick

Women Talking

Best Original Screenplay:

The Banshees of Inisherin

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fabelmans

Tár

Triangle of Sadness

Best Animated Short Film:

My Year of Dicks

An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Believe It

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

The Flying Sailor

Ice Merchants

Best Costume Design:

Babylon

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Best Live Action Short Film:

An Irish Goodbye

Ivalu

La Pupille

Night Ride

The Red Suitcase

Best Animated Feature Film:

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Turning Red

The Sea Beast

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Batman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Elvis

The Whale

Best Original Score:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Babylon

The Banshees of Inisherin

Everything Everywhere All At Once

The Fablemens

Best Sound:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

Elvis

Top Gun: Maverick

Best Cinematography:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Elvis

Empire of Light

Tár

Best Documentary Feature Film:

All that Breathes

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Fire of Love

A House Made of Splinters

Navalny

Best Documentary Short Film:

The Elephant Whisperers

Haulout

How Do You Measure a Year?

The Martha Mitchell Effect

Stranger at the Gate

Best Film Editing:

The Banshees of Inisherin

Elvis

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Tár

Top Gun: Maverick

Best International Feature Film:

All Quiet on the Western Front Germany

Argentina, 1985 Argentina

Close Belgium

EO Poland

The Quiet Girl Ireland

Best Original Song:

Applause from Tell It Like a Woman

Hold My Hand from Top Gun: Maverick

Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Naatu Naatu from RRR

This Is a Life from Everything Everywhere All At Once

Best Production Design:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

Babylon

Elvis

The Fabelmans

Best Visual Effects:

All Quiet on the Western Front

Avatar: The Way of Water

The Batman

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Top Gun: Maverick