Retirement not in sight for Oscar nominated director   

RETIREMENT is not in sight for the director behind the Oscar nominated short film  Retirement Plan.  

 John Kelly, who is the son of Newry born  chemical engineer  Professor John Kelly, will take his seat at this year’s Oscar ceremony safe in the hope that the effort he and his crew put into their renowned animated short film Retirement Plan will get the recognition it deserves. 

 The eponymous film follows the life of the lead character of Ray, who disillusioned with life and in the throes of his overstimulated, energy poor midlife  dreams of the beauty and joy he will find in retirement. 

 Although being an animated short Retirement Plan comes to only 7minutes and 17 seconds long  the film has already received critical acclaim garnering  five Oscar qualifying awards as well as 22 international awards and as John explains took both he and his crew over nine months to produce from scratch.    

Message in a bottle

“The plot of the film is about a guy called Ray who is imagining all the things he is going to do when he retires, everything from finishing all the articles on his reading list to learning about trees. However at a certain point as you are watching this unfold his own mortality gets in the way.   

 “It took 9 months in total to produce Retirement Plan”   

“It was quite a small team. We had two producers,  two animators, then myself and a co-writer. We were funded by RTE and Screen Ireland.

  “We all made it from a little bit DIY. I made it from my home office and the animators animated from their base in Wicklow.    

“The actual animation itself took about four months in total. We premiered it in the Galway film Fleadh in July 2024. If you make a short film it is bit like putting a message into a bottle. You never know if anyone is going to watch it. However we just made something very personal and something we thought would make us laugh.  

“It has got a mixture of comedy and melancholy, which is the stuff I like to watch. It has done really well in festivals, it went to over 100 film festivals last year. It got Oscar qualified at five of them. The thing that people have been reacting to most is the emotional message and emotional themes about making the most of your time and focusing on what matters.”  

Oscar nominated

Although the crew’s aspirations regarding the chances of Retirement Plan being nominated for an Oscar were grounded in reality, John explained how the film being nominated for the best animated short at the awards now feels completely surreal.

“On January 22 we were at home on a Zoom call with the rest of the crew. The crew were a bit spread out. We watched the announcement together. We were not very optimistic about its chances but we just thought even if we don't get that many it would be a nice chance to hang out. There is a video reaction of us reacting to the nomination on the films Instagram account. 

“It is nominated in the animated short category. There are fifty films in total that are nominated this year for the Oscars and ours at seven minutes is the shortest of the lot.

“It is very surreal and a lovely validation and encouragement to keep making stuff telling personal stories. I am just energised to keep making more. I will be attending the Oscars with my wife and a big gang of us about eight of us. We will also have a Donal Gleeson who does the voice over. He will be joining us as well.”

The 98th Academy Awards ceremony, commonly referred to as the Oscars, will take place this March 15, 2026