BB reader Shannon Clark sez,
Canada's national film board has made Ryan and a preview of Hardwood — two films from Canada nominated for Oscars this year — available online. Ryan is specifically notable for BoingBoing readers, it is an animated short but feels more like a biography. It depicts Ryan Larkin, a Canadian animator who was nominated for an Oscar himself in 1969 but is now a panhandler in Montreal. See also Salon.com which includes Ryan in a day of oscar shorts they are making available today.
Update: BB reader steef says,
As a follow up to Xeni's post about Oscar-nominated shorts Ryan and Hardwood, the Animation World Network has a showcase of all 5 nominated shorts, with links to the complete films or clips, without having to sit through Salon's one-day advertising extravaganza.