Dr Professor’s Thesis of Evil, produced by a small studio in northern Finland, has been selected as the only Nordic entry for the Los Angeles short-film series LA Shorts Fest. The festival’s winning pictures are eligible to compete for Oscar awards.

So far, 41 films shown at the festival have gone on to earn Oscar nominations, with a dozen of them winning Academy Awards.

“Well, we don’t have visions of Oscars dancing before our eyes; our goals aren’t that high,” 29-year-old director Jukka Vidgren told Yle. “But let’s see what happens... The other entrants are really top-notch things, so we’re kind of out of our class,” he adds wryly.

Who needs movie theatres?

The movie spins the tale of Dr Professor, the planet’s most notorious super-villain – but one who's gotten bored with evil deeds because of all the media exposure and obsessive fandom involved in the business these days.

Mutant Koala Pictures, based in Oulu, produced the movie over the past three years by gathering funding from fans online – and are now distributing it primarily online as well, primarily through iTunes.

This makes it the first project supported by the Finnish Film Foundation to be primarily aimed at web and mobile distribution.

The team of youthful Oulu pros created the film with a unique technique they call Motion Novel, which weaves together still photography, 3D computer graphics and animation to make a new type of moving comic strip or graphic novel.

The antihero is visually portrayed by Finnish actor Pentti Korhonen with his deep, menacing voice provided by Canadian actor Brad Cartner.

Dr Professor’s Thesis of Evil will be screened on the opening day of the LA Shorts Fest, September 6.