Top 5 under the radar Oscar treats on Kanopy

Earlier this week we gave you an overview of the different film resources accessible for free through the Library. We mostly focused on the big Best Picture winners, so we wanted to come back and give some love to the less high profile award categories.

All these resources are available through Kanopy (https://www.kanopy.com/), a streaming service that allows the Library to bring to you a range of diverse and thoughtful entertainment. There are no fees and no adverts to interrupt your viewing pleasure. All you need to get started is to sign up with your name, University email address and computing username and password. You’re not restricted to watching Kanopy in an internet browser; there is an app available for a whole host of devices including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Android, Android TV, Chromecast, Roku, Fire TV and Fire Tablet.

If you need any help getting started with Kanopy check out our user guide.

Without any further delay, here are five under the radar picks from the award categories that get less love:

1. RBG
Betsy West and Julie Cohen direct a revelatory documentary about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s exceptional life and career. Nominated for Best Documentary and Best Original Song (“I’ll fight” penned by Diane Warren and sung by Jennifer Hudson) at this year’s Academy Awards. Why not give it a watch before you find out if it wins?

Watch it at https://canterburyuk.kanopy.com/video/rbg

2. The Silent Child
The winner of last year’s Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film is an incredibly moving glimpse in to how isolating the world can feel for deaf school children. This film is presented with English subtitles throughout the film at the request of the filmmakers due to the extensive use of sign language and to make the film fully accessible to deaf audiences.

Watch it at https://canterburyuk.kanopy.com/video/silent-child

3. Mr. Hublot
Oscar winner of best animated short in 2014, Mr. Hublot couples a gorgeous steampunk world with a charming OCD suffering lead character. The steampunk aesthetic here is beautifully realised with its smoke stacks and robot inhabitants. In its tiny runtime it crafts a world that is rich and detailed. It’s funny, beautiful and intriguing. By the end of the short I wanted to spend more time with these characters and in this world.

Watch it at https://canterburyuk.kanopy.com/video/mr-hublot

4. Black Orpheus
Winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film. Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. A gorgeous looking film with an amazing soundtrack.

Watch it at https://canterburyuk.kanopy.com/video/deadly-deception-general-electric-nuclear-weapons-and-our-environment

5. Deadly Weapons: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and our Environment
For anyone doubting that films can have a real impact on the world, you should check out this Best Documentary Short Oscar winner from the 64th Academy Awards in 1992. The film investigates the stories of workers and neighbours whose lives had been devastated by the company’s involvement in building nuclear bombs, revealing decades of negligence and misinformation. Nine months after this film won the Oscar, GE pulled out of its work in the nuclear weapons industry for good…