Review by The Boston Motion Picture Awards Founders.

Winter, an animated short by Andy Collen and Amy Blumenstein-Collen, stands as a reminder in today's film world-a world dominated by computer-generated explosions and pop oundtracks-that narrative filmmaking is about telling a story. Winter captures a orning in the life of a young girl with a sick, bedridden mother. As the young girl tends to her mother, the family dog asks to go outside. The young girl takes her pet for a walk and returns with a gift for her mother. When her mother fails to respond, the young girl fears the worst. With no dialogue, this pen-and-ink, animated tale subtly filters this winter morning through the eyes of its main character.

Illustrated with carefully chosen low and high-angle shots, we are able to see both how large the world appears to her and how small she appears in her surroundings. Moreover, the small details given to her actions-her need to use two hands to move her mother's arm, for example, and the matter-of-fact way she contends with a banister out of reach-help define her place in the world around her.

Andy Collen, Amy Blumenstein-Collen, and their team have put together a motion picture that is more than simply well-crafted. Its touching, intimate story without the inclusion of so much as one spoken word-a rarity in modern film-is a much-needed reminder that filmmaking is first and foremost a visual medium.

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