slinks away and climbs the hill towards his home. He takes a key from a special hiding spot, and approaches the verandah in front of his house. He notices a parcel and hurries to open it. He pulls out an old leather wallet containing a faded black and white photograph of a man crouching with a child dressed as Manuk is now, but much younger. Manuk gently caresses the photograph with his thumb. He then pulls out a set of dog tags, and an old boot. He marches up and down in front of his house, wearing the boots as if he is a soldier on guard. Later, inside the house, he plays with the toy soldiers and tanks he has made from bits and pieces of metal he has found and falls asleep on the floor. His mother appears at the door, saying “Manuk, Mum is home”. Background The film is set in Korea, during the Korean War. About 17,000 Australians served in the war between 1950 and 1953, with casualties numbering 339 dead and 1200 wounded. Reception Birthday Boy has won over 40 awards at film festivals around the world including Best Animated Short at the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival in 2004 which qualified the film for the 2005 Academy Awards even before Park and fellow students had graduated from the AFTRS. It was subsequently nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Other awards include the Prix Jean-Luc Xiberras at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in 2005 (which had a special focus on Korea) and Best Short Animation at the 2005 BAFTA awards. It has screened at over 100 film festivals around the world, and is the most awarded film in the almost forty-year history of the AFTRS. Legacy The film was considered a diasporic achievement for the Korean diaspora and its power to empower Korean Australians by the Sydney Morning Herald(한국신문) and was considered to have presented a way to keep the Korean cultural identity in its remembrance of the Korean War. Scholar Lee Sung-ae considers the film significant for "redefining parameters of geography, national identity and belonging". References Australian Broadcasting Corporation page on the film External links www.siggraph.org 2000s animated short films 2004 films Films set in 1951 Student films Australian animated short films 2004 animated films 2000s Australian animated films