Sean Ono Lennon announces global premiere of short film ‘War Is Over!’
The Academy Award-winning animated short film, War is Over!, co-written and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, will premiere exclusively on YouTube this December for charity.
Sean Ono Lennon said of the release, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over) began as a multimedia project that has spanned from music to billboards to film and now print. Let’s continue spreading John & Yoko’s timeless maxim, ‘War is over if you want it.'”
On December 1st, the short film, which is inspired by the music of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, will be available online for the first time. A new trailer will also be available to view in the lead-up to the release.
Sean Ono continued, reminiscing on the project, “In 2023, I worked with Dave Mullins and Brad Booker on an animated short film called War Is Over! – about a wartime carrier pigeon delivering messages across the battlefield between two chess-playing soldiers – which I’m delighted to say, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short.”
Peter Jackson, who helmed the video for The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’, acted as an executive producer on the project alongside Lennon.
The film is set in an alternate WWI reality where a senseless war rages on. It focuses on two soldiers on opposite sides of the conflict who play a game of chess.
Amidst the chaos, a heroic carrier pigeon delivers the soldiers’ chess moves over the battlefield as the fighting escalates.
Ultimately, the winner of the game doesn’t matter. What does matter is the final message: There are no real winners in war.
The release will raise donations for Warchild, a specialist charity for children affected by conflict.
Additionally, the film has recently been adapted into a picture book. The designs, done by Max Narciso, remind us that care is universal and binds us all.
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