Breaking the Habit (film)

Last updated

Breaking the Habit
Directed by John Korty
Produced by Henry Jacobs
John Korty
Production
company
Distributed byModern Talking Picture Service
Release date
  • 1964 (1964)
Running time
5 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Breaking the Habit is a 1964 American animated [1] short documentary film directed by John Korty about cigarette smoking and lung cancer. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Contents

Content

Two men are discussing about the benefits of giving up smoking, while themselves puffing cigarettes. [2]

Production

Freelance animator Korty moved to Stinson Beach, California, where one day he met sound artist Henry Jacobs who had prepared the soundtrack for a future short film about smoking, sponsored by the California division of American Cancer Society. Korty began work on the film under his own company Korty Films, employing cutout animation, conceptualized the characters and prepared the animation frames in his home studio and finally shooting them using a homemade camera stand. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Modern Talking Picture Service distributed the film. [7]

Reception

Described variously as "[d]one in semi-surrealistic style" and having "deadpan dialogue with a minimalist animation style", Breaking the Habit received a nomination at the 37th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category but lost to Nine from Little Rock . [2] [7] [8] An article in The Kingston Daily Freeman stated that the film "reveals both the danger and the essential silliness of smoking". [2]

The Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction included Breaking the Habit in its list of prescribed films to be shown in schools to discourage smoking and creating awareness regarding medical issues caused by it. [9] It was also screened at the 1st Chicago Film Festival held in 1965, the following year's Melbourne International Film Festival and won a Silver Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival. [10] [11] The soundtrack of the film was included in the album The Wide Weird World of Henry Jacobs. [12] As of August 2017, the Academy Film Archive was working on restoring the short film. [7]

Related Research Articles

The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931–32, to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman McLaren</span> Scottish Canadian animator (1914–1987)

William Norman McLaren, LL. D. was a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. McLaren was also an artist and printmaker, and explored his interest in dance in his films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Plympton</span> American illustrator, animator, and film director

Bill Plympton is an American animator, graphic designer, cartoonist, and filmmaker best known for his 1987 Academy Awards-nominated animated short Your Face and his series of shorts featuring a dog character starting with 2004's Guard Dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Larkin</span> Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor

Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic Oscar-nominated short Walking (1968) and the acclaimed Street Musique (1972). He was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.

George Garnett Dunning (1920–1979) was a Canadian filmmaker and animator. He is best known for producing and directing the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.

Henry Sandy Jacobs was an American sound artist and humorist.

Roland Frederick Godfrey MBE, known as Bob Godfrey, was an English animator whose career spanned more than fifty years. He is probably best known for the children's cartoon series Roobarb (1974), Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk (1976–77) and Henry's Cat (1983–93) and for the Trio chocolate biscuit advertisements shown in the UK during the early 1980s. However, he also produced a BAFTA and Academy award-winning short film Great (1975), a humorous biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Further Academy Awards nominations received were for Kama Sutra Rides Again (1971), Dream Doll (1979), with Zlatko Grgic, and Small Talk (1994) with animator Kevin Baldwin.

Colin Archibald Low was a Canadian animation and documentary filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was known as a pioneer, one of Canada's most important filmmakers, and was regularly referred to as "the gentleman genius". His numerous honors include five BAFTA awards, eight Cannes Film Festival awards, and six Academy Award nominations.

John Korty was an American film director and animator, best known for the television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and the documentary Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?, as well as the theatrical animated feature Twice Upon a Time. He has won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and several other major awards. He is described by the film critic Leonard Maltin as "a principled filmmaker who has worked both outside and within the mainstream, attempting to find projects that support his humanistic beliefs".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Munro (filmmaker)</span> Canadian animator, filmmaker and actor

Grant Munro LL. D. was a Canadian animator, filmmaker and actor. In 1952, he co-starred with Jean-Paul Ladouceur in Norman McLaren's Neighbours. His film, Christmas Cracker, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1965.

Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak is a 1964 Canadian short film about Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak, directed by John Feeney and produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). It won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film in 1964 and, in 1965, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerald Potterton</span> British-Canadian animator and director (1931–2022)

Gerald Potterton was a Canadian director, animator, producer and writer. He is best known for directing the cult classic Heavy Metal and for his animation work on Yellow Submarine.

Christmas Cracker is a 1963 animated short about Christmas, co-directed by Norman McLaren, Gerald Potterton, Grant Munro and Jeff Hale for the National Film Board of Canada. It was nominated for an Oscar in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Daly (filmmaker)</span> Canadian film producer, film editor and film director

Thomas Cullen Daly was a Canadian film producer, film editor and film director, who was the head of Studio B at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).

John Spotton C.S.C. was a Canadian filmmaker with the National Film Board of Canada.

Robert Verrall is a Canadian animator, director and film producer who worked for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) from 1945 to 1987. Over the course of his career, his films garnered a BAFTA Award, prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and six Academy Award nominations.


The Drag is a 1965 anti-smoking animated short film, animated and directed by the Italian artist Carlos Marchiori for the National Film Board of Canada.

Animation historian Jerry Beck had posted on Cartoon Research lists of animated shorts from various studios considered for nomination of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, beginning with 1948 and ending for the time being with 1986.

Breaking the Habit or breaking the habit may refer to:

<i>The Windshield Wiper</i> 2021 American film

The Windshield Wiper is a 2021 Spanish-American computer-cel adult animated short film directed and co-produced by Alberto Mielgo alongside Leo Sánchez. The film won the award for Best Animated Short Film at the 94th Academy Awards.

References

  1. ↑ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1964". Cartoon Research. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Film Program Is Launched By ACS". The Kingston Daily Freeman . Kingston, New York. June 9, 1965. p. 14. Retrieved March 24, 2018– via Newspapers.com. Lock-green.svg
  3. ↑ "After 50 years in film, John Korty is still true". Point Reyes Light. October 27, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  4. ↑ "Breaking the Habit (1964)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on March 24, 2018. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  5. ↑ Jessen, Taylor (June 2004). "Damsel in Distress Currently on Fire: 20 Years later, Twice Upon a Time still burns". Animation Blast. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  6. ↑ "John Korty Shorts Program". Brooklyn Academy of Music . Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Beck, Jerry (August 7, 2017). "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award 1964". Cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  8. ↑ "The 37th Academy Awards (1965) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved August 24, 2011.
  9. ↑ Bruno, Louis. "Smoking and Health Guide for Elementary and Secondary Schools" (PDF). Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. p. 79. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  10. ↑ "1965 — 1st Chicago Film Festival". Chicago International Film Festival. Archived from the original on October 15, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  11. ↑ "MIFF 2018 | Festival Archives 1952–2017". Melbourne International Film Festival . Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  12. ↑ "Wide Weird World of Shorty Petterstein (Henry Jacob MP3s)". WFMU. October 25, 2006. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.