It’s a good thing Terry and Oorlagh George‘s The Shore won Best Short Film (Live Action) at this past Sunday’s Academy Awards rather than Norway’s Tuba Atlantic. Turns out the latter would have eventually been disqualified.

Per a report by Norwegian newspaper Afterposten (translated by newsinenglish.no), the student film–made by Hallvar Witzø while attending the Norwegian Film School in Lillehammer–broke a strict category rule when it was aired on NRK2 TV in 2010. It aired a second time on NRK, right before the Oscars:

[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences administrator Torene] Svitil said she was “astonished” that “the filmmaker said the Academy knew about the television broadcast. This is certainly not the case as far as I know.”

Witzø, who was in Los Angeles for the Academy Award events over the weekend, had told Afterposten on Sunday that the Academy was aware of the showing, while film school dean Thomas Stenderup also claimed the Academy knew about them.

Svitil pointed out that on the official submission form to the Academy for Tuba Atlantic, the filmmakers had checked the ‘No’ box for the question asking if their entry had ever been shown on TV.

[Photo of Tuba Atlantic lead character Oskar (ahem) courtesy AMPAS]