WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
2023 · 11m · USA
Directed by Dave Mullins
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
In an alternate World War I, two soldiers on opposite sides of the trenches play a long-distance chess game via a carrier pigeon that ferries their moves across no-man's-land, neither knowing whom they are playing. As the game deepens into friendship, the war closes in and forces a final, devastating move.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone's going to eat this up because it's sweet and anti-war, but Mullins is playing it safe—the chess metaphor is doing all the heavy lifting while the pigeon does cute work nobody asked for. I wanted the film to break its own elegant premise, not genuflect to it.
A formally exquisite meditation on Yoko's original vision, where the constraint of wordlessness and the geometry of chess become the film's native language; the pigeon as courier isn't sentimentality but structural necessity, positioning the work squarely in the lineage of animated allegory that trusts its audience to sit in silence.
The decision to let the chess moves themselves carry all narrative and emotional weight—no exposition, no names, just the accumulating weight of each turn—is what transforms a high-concept premise into something that actually lands; that final move hits because we've earned it through pure formal restraint.
Reviews
War Is Over! is one of the most unforgettable short films spotlighted by the Oscars, brought to life with imagination and skill.
It's sweet but otherwise lacking in flavour — feels rather underdeveloped compared to most of its competitors, more like an extended music video than a fully developed film.
Festivals
- Academy Awards 2024, Best Animated Short Film (Winner)
- Annie Awards 2024, Best Animated Short Subject (Winner)