Short Film: This Way Up

"This Way Up" directed by Smith & Foulkes

This Way Up is a fun short that was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award.  It tells the story of a pair of undertakers trying to deliver a body to a graveyard and all the misfortunes they meet along the way.

"Laying the dead to rest has never been so much trouble.

This Oscar Nominated short is directed by Smith & Foulkes and written by Foulkes, Smith, and Christopher O’Reilly, and produced at Nexus by Charlotte Bavasso and Christopher O’Reilly, the film follows two dour unfortunates as they battle a series of misadventures while trying to deliver a coffin to the graveyard.


The animated caper is a series of emotional and literal pitfalls for the pall-bearing team, as their journey and relationship unravel on an epic scale culminating in the pair joining the old lady in a trip through the underworld.

‘This Way Up’, was nominated for an Oscar® for best animated short at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

Before its Oscar win, “This Way Up” won numerous awards at film festivals around the world, including an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, the Public Prize for Best Short Film at the 2008 Ottawa Animation Festival, the Audience Award for Animated Short at both the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Mundos Digitales in Spain."

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