While the current news cycle may suggest that Selma and American Sniper were the only films released in 2014, one graphic designer has created a tribute to the wealth of memorable leading men and women that populated the last year in film.
Our friend Sam Smith, a Nashville-based graphic designer who, once upon a time, wrote the Frames column for this site, has released a new set of prints to commemorate 2014’s heroes and heroines. His latest series, suitably dubbed Little Heroes, shrinks down 2014’s biggest cinematic heroes (and a villain or two) into adorable 5x5 signed giclees printed on high-quality feltweave stock. (It needs to be said, though, that even as a smiling miniature, “Amazing Amy” manages to look as bloodcurdlingly terrifying as ever.)
Smith designed nine prints total: The Female from Under The Skin, Ida from Ida, M. Gustave from The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mason from Boyhood, Edward Snowden from Citizenfour, Princess Kaguya from The Tale Of Princess Kaguya, Qohen Leth from The Zero Theorem, Riggan from Birdman, and Amy from Gone Girl. All Dissolve-friendly films—well, except Birdman. He’s made the collection a blind buy, meaning that, for $12, you’ll get one print selected randomly from the nine available. So if you’re hoping for that Ida print, you'll be cast into the hands of fate. And if you want all nine, feel free to email Smith at Sam@samsmyth.net.
Smith, clearly aware of the cinematic zeitgeist, has also created three new prints for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which the Internet obsessively tells me is exactly 322 days, 15 hours, and 11 minutes away from monopolizing theaters for the rest of time. See his site for more details.