Timecode

When you are in any town or city, you know that you are being observed by a security (CCTV) camera, whether in a shop, office, or the street. We’ve all grown used to it – even complacent. So it’s not surprising when the security cameras and the watchers themselves become subjects for a film, as in Timecode.

This isn’t new, of course. The Anderson Tapes, starring Sean Connery and released in 1971, was about a robbery that is, unbeknown to the crooks, being filmed by security cameras and audio surveillance. Following on was the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film classic, The Conversation, starring Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, the surveillance expert who can capture conversations anywhere. Admittedly The Conversation was about audio surveillance (bugging), but it went on to be nominated for three Academy Awards. So more than forty years later another surveillance film, Timecode, has been nominated for an Oscar – in the Shorts (Live) category.

Timecode is a Spanish entry, set in an underground car park where Luna and Diego are the security guards, and where the entire action takes place. Diego (Nicolas Ricchini) does the night shift, and Luna (Lali Ayguadé) does the day shift. .They have the same brief conversation, checking if everything went well, at their changeover to each shift. Spanish-born director, Juanjo Giménez, has created a film about ordinary people in an ordinary environment, that, almost imperceptibly, becomes less ordinary until it becomes extraordinary. Unfortunately, with a film that is only 15 minutes long it is impossible to say very much without it being a spoiler.

Timecode has already accumulated an amazing number of film awards including, to name just a few, the Best European Short Film at the Ghent International Film Festival in Belgium, the Special Jury Award at the Asiana International Short Film Festival in South Korea, Top Audience Favourite at the São Paulo International Short Film Festival in Brazil, the Audience Award at the Rio De Janeiro International Short Film Festival in Brazil, and the Audience Award at the Festival Cinéma Méditerranéen Montpellier.

Director, .Giménez, received a message via his FaceBook from someone saying “Hi, I'm Jimmy, I work as a parking attendant. I just saw your short, I just wanted to say that I thought it was wonderful." Well, Jimmy, I thought it was wonderful too, and so did all those film festivals, and now … on to the Oscars!