Video. A short film in competition for the Oscars centered on the 1955 Le Mans tragedy

The 24 Hours of Le Mans have never been so popular in cinematic culture. A few weeks after the worldwide broadcast of film “Le Mans 66” with Christian Bale and Matt Damon, it's the turn of a human-sized project to hit Hollywood, more precisely in the "Best Animated Short Film" category at the 2020 Oscars.

Lasting a quarter of an hour, the short film “Le Mans 1955”, directed by the Belgian Quentin Baillieux and produced by the French companies Chez Eddy and De Films en Aiguille, offers to relive the most important tragedy of the history of motorsport. 

The accident and the images are known to all fans of the Sarthe event. At 18 p.m. on Saturday June 11, 1955, an accident involved Mike Hawthorn (Jaguar), Lance Macklin (Austin-Healey) and Pierre Levegh (Mercedes) in the pit straight. 

Numerous pieces of debris as well as the engine of the Frenchman's Mercedes 300 SLR were catapulted towards the crowd. More than 80 people (including Pierre Levegh) died and more than a hundred spectators were injured. 

We may regret some biases towards reality (the accident does not take place at night contrary to what the short film shows); However, the moral dilemmas of the Mercedes clan with boss Alfred Neubauer and survivor John Fitch deserve to be approached from an innovative angle. 

Attention ! The video will be deleted on December 16, under Oscar rules which prohibit posting online for more than one month.