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"War Is Over!" is an animated 11-minute film, inspired by John Lennon and Yoko Ono's peace anthem "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", which was released in 1971 as a single. The film was written by Dave Mullins, with the story by Mullins and Sean Ono Lennon, and the score composed by Thomas Newman. The animation and visual effects were created by Peter Jackson's New Zealand-based VFX company Wētā FX.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10. It depicts an alternate WWI reality, in which a pigeon delivers messages across the battlefield, from one side to the other. Messages are exchanged by two soldiers on opposite sides, who play a game of chess against each other (without knowing who their opponent is).
You can watch video excerpts from the film and learn all about the process of its production on the official War is Over promotion page here. We learnt something interesting about the chess aspect of the film.
Where did the game they show come from? Dave Mullins was looking for an illustration of the theme of check followed by immediate checkmate. He consulted none other than our friend, chess historian Edward Winter, who suggested a 1950 game between Bogoljubow and Trott, which Mullins used, with colours reversed. Here, for your pleasure, is the game:
The game ends with a black check (in the diagrammed position) with a checkmate reply by white. Here's a pleasant little task for you: dig up the most interesting games with a similar ending – check, checkmate.
If you want to learn everything about the Bogoljubow game, and in fact learn more about his opponent A.H. Trott, you can read about it in this recent Chess History article, from which we take the following scan (click to expand) with kind permission:
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