‘The Silent Child’ short film nominated for an Oscar

Six-year-old profoundly deaf actress, Maisie Sly, and former Hollyoaks star, Rachel Shenton, will be jetting off to Hollywood! The film that they star in, The Silent Child,  has been nominated for an Oscar.

The Silent Child, a short film written by Rachel and Chris Overton, tells the story a deaf child called Libby (Maisie Sly) who is born into a hearing family with limited knowledge about deafness. Once a social worker, Joanne (Rachel Shenton), comes along to teach the girl sign language, her family sees a remarkable change in her behavior and happiness.

Read more: Short film ‘The Silent Child’ premieres in August to raise deaf awareness

The start of this film all began with a crowdfunding campaign, a nationwide search for their lead actress, and months of filming and now they are proud Oscar nominees.

This video shows the joy on their faces when they heard the news!

Famous voices in the deaf community, such as Marlee Matlin, were soon to join in with their congratulations.

Recognize the narrator in this video? it’s @RachelShenton from #SwitchedatBirth @SABTVSeries! Her short film @SilentChildFilm was nominated for an @TheAcademy Award! Congratulations, Rachel!!!! 🤟🏽🤟🏽🤟🏽 #signlanguage #BSL #DeafTalent @Lizzy_Weiss https://t.co/xLONCvuBvF

— Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin) January 25, 2018

The film is listed in the final five of the category of ‘Live Action Short Film’ and they will be attending the star-studded ceremony in March.

Other films nominated including deaf actors and ASL

Not only was The Silent Child nominated for an Oscar, two other movies with deaf people involved were nominated too.

THREE OSCAR NOMINATED FILMS THAT HAD DEAF PEOPLE INVOLVED:

1) BABY DRIVER: Deaf Actor
2) THE SHAPE OF WATER: Two Deaf ASL Masters
3) THE SILENT CHILD: Deaf actor (Deaf plot)

Slowly but surely making our way into Hollywood!

— Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) January 24, 2018

Baby Driver, with Deaf actor CJ Jones and The Shape of Water, were also among the list of Oscar nominees, which also feature involvement from Deaf people. 

Seeing films with deaf actors is a fantastic way of raising deaf awareness. Maybe Hollywood has finally seen the light of the #DeafTalent Movement, with less hearing actors being cast into deaf roles.

Congratulations all!

See which films win on Sunday, March 4.

• Author Details

Author Details

Ellie Parfitt

Ellie was born profoundly deaf, uses verbal communication, lipreads and wears Phonak Sky Q hearing aids. She is currently learning British Sign Language. Ellie hasn’t let her disability stand in the way and embraces every new challenge. Her deafness didn’t prevent her from achieving major accomplishments in her life, such as excelling in her education, previously working as a Marketing Executive and now as an Events Coordinator for a deaf organization, as well as blogging for Hearing Like Me. She is passionate about deaf awareness, campaigning for equality and helping others through her personal blog as Deafie Blogger.