Watch the YouTube Video That Ebert Deemed Oscar-Worthy

It's a deceptively simple concept: man takes camera and tripod out into the NYC blizzard and shoots what he sees. But there's enough beauty and craftsmanship in this three-and-a-half minutes that Roger Ebert thinks it should win an Oscar.

As Ebert points out, there's more to Jamie Stuart's "Idiot with a Tripod" than a single viewing might suggest:

This film deserves to win the Academy Award for best live-action short subject.
(1) Because of its wonderful quality. (2) Because of its role as homage. It is directly inspired by Dziga Vertov's 1929 silent classic "Man With a Movie Camera." (3) Because it represents an almost unbelievable technical proficiency. It was filmed during the New York blizzard of Dec. 26, and Jamie Stuart e-mailed it to me with this time stamp: December 27, 2010 4:18:18 PM CST.

It's incredible to think that not only did Stuart turn this project around so quickly, he did it all shooting with a Canon 7D (and a variety of Nikon manual lenses) and editing in Final Cut Pro. All in just a little over a day.

So what say you, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences? "Idiot With a Tripod" may not have shown up in art houses. But I'm betting it can stand tall against most of the live-actionshort films that did. By: Gizmodo