The Oscar-nominated Shorts programs continue to attract audiences either looking to complete their Oscar viewing list or just curious cinephiles seeking works from new voices from around the world. This year’s crop is a mostly solid bunch and difficult to predict. There are three English-language crowd-pleasers in the Live Action category (those always win), two kid-friendly shorts in the Animated category (same) and four films in the Documentary category that examine the personal toll of the tragedies that surround us and that are produced by major media outlets (New Yorker, HBO and Netflix). I’m usually good at narrowing down the winner and am often right, but this year the Academy voters made it difficult, which makes the challenge more interesting and more fun. So, I can’t really help you win the night at your Oscar party contest. All I can do is tell you which ones are my personal favorites.
LIVE ACTION
“Butcher’s Stain” – An Israeli grocery store employee (Omar Sameer) gets accused of taking posters of hostages down in the employee breakroom. One person claims to have seen him do it, but the details are vague. Did he do it? Should he be fired for it if he did? I happened to watch this the same evening as the documentary short nominee “Children No More: Were and Are Gone” and the films do echo one another as they get into the complications of protest and perception. The film works best when focusing on the workplace mystery, but the film’s coda feels underdeveloped and would work better within a feature. Directed by Meyer Levinson-Blount. (26 min.)
“A Friend Of Dorothy” – An elderly woman, Dorothy (Miriam Margolyes), leaves an inheritance to a young man, J.J. (Alistair Nwachukwu), who she met after he lost a football in her front yard. The movie flashes back to how they met and eventually formed a deep friendship where she encouraged him to make acting more than a hobby. This one will warm the hearts of many voters who will appreciate its simplicity, as well as a couple recognizable names (Stephen Fry plays the executor of the will). It’s the most sentimental film of the bunch, which helps put it in good standing to win the award. (22 min.)
“Jane Austen’s Period Drama” – The tone is set right away with this one as stock characters from Jane Austen novels are given names like Estrogenia Talbot (co-director Julia Aks) and Mr. Dickley (Ta’imua). There is also a precocious little sister named Vagianna (Nicole Alyse Nelson). Mr. Dickley is about to propose marriage to our heroine when, suddenly, she starts bleeding (get the title now?). Mr. Dickley is clueless as to why. Should she lie to him about what causes this? The film feels inspired by “Barbie” as it cheerfully puts the plight of womanhood front and center while the men around them walk around befuddled by their behavior, all while the film tries anything for a laugh. Stick around for the entirety of the credits and listen to the lyrics of the closing song, as well as the credit for a certain Academy Award-winning screenwriter who has dabbled in this genre before. I don’t mind saying that this one is my favorite of the bunch and I’m glad I watched it last. Directed by Julia Aks and Steve Pinder.
“The Singers” – One night, in a little bar with a lot of history, a group of working-class men who probably hang out there regularly start an impromptu singing contest for the coveted prize of a one-hundred dollar bill. Egos take hold of most of the men in the place as many of them argue about who can sing the best. A short that boasts an uncommonly rich soundtrack, which includes a brief snippet of “Das Rheingold,” as well as a few standards sung with varying degrees of greatness. Who will win? That, of course, is not important. Some may find it hard to warm up to the film at first, as we see and hear many conversations taking place, many in inarticulate, hushed tones, but once the story kicks into gear, audiences will find themselves getting attached to the piece as a whole, if not any singular character. It has the Netflix muscle behind it, making it a likely winner. Directed by Sam Davis. (15 min.)
“Two People Exchanging Saliva” – A hugely ambitious short with chapter breaks, world-building and beautiful black-and-white cinematography. This French offering has been appropriately described as a bent version of Todd Hayne’s “Carol,” by way of Yorgos Lanthimos. In this world, we eventually gather that exchanging saliva with someone carries with it a penalty of death, so when a first-time sales clerk in a shopping mall named Malaise (Luàna Bajrami) feels an attraction to one of the store regulars named Angine (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), the societal stakes become more and more dangerous with each flirtation. Directors Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh keep us a bit baffled through much of the first chapter, choosing to reveal their characters over exposition about the world they’ve created, one that is loosely based on the absurdities of our current state of affairs. It won’t be hard to see the allegory, but the overall journey is worth the 36-minute running time, with exceptional performances throughout.
ANIMATED
“Butterfly” – Inspired by French olympic butterfly swimmer Alfred Nakache, who gained international prominence in 1931 and who was booted out of the Berlin Olympics and eventually sent to a concentration camp. Florence Miailhe’s gorgeously textured film sums up his life in a dreamlike fifteen minutes, giving us an overview that amounts to just as much substance as a feature film would have done, but with the added bonus of some beautifully rendered images to be seen this year in any of these programs. The moving brushstroke style of animation always commands my attention with shorts like these, but sometimes the narrative results can be frustratingly vague. That’s not the case here. Miailhe, who has a personal connection to this story, keeps everything clear and mesmerizing. (15 min.)
“Forevergreen” – This one might remind viewers of last year’s Best Animated Feature winner “Flow” with its wordless storytelling of animals in nature trying to survive the elements, but really this is a film about a friendship between a lost bear cub and a tree that nurtures it throughout its young life until the bear decides he has no use for the tree anymore. The jerky animation style works well when combined with the unique look that does not favor photorealism. The characters still feel alive and the animators imbue them, as well as the story itself, with genuine emotion. It overreaches in spots, mainly due to the score, but the end result is irresistibly warm and pleasing. The most kid-friendly of the bunch, which means it has a good shot at winning. Directed by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears. (13 min.)
“The Girl Who Cried Pearls” – Charles Dickens meets Roald Dahl in this fable about a girl who, yes, cries pearls, a greedy pawnbroker who sees their monetary value and a homeless boy who brings him the pearls in exchange for money. The film is told in flashback and is narrated by Colm Feore, playing a young girl’s grandfather who tells her the tale. Like “Butterfly,” the texture of the animation is incredibly striking. The characters look like marienettes without strings and the dilapidated surroundings have a tangible and lived-in quality. Although the characters’ mouths don’t move, the expressions on their faces tell the story beautifully. My favorite film of this block. Directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. (16 min.)
“Retirement Plan” – Domhnall Gleeson narrates this gem that plays out that list we have all made of all the great things we’ll all accomplish when we retire. It all seems so doable, until it’s not. This film reminded me of the short films of Bernardo Britto, with its concise storytelling, quick editing and attention to detail. More than that, though, writers John Kelly and Tara Lawall capture a similar melancholia that is steeped in the inescapable familiarity of everyday life and its limitations. Never mind whether or not any retirement plan is even affordable, those last twenty or so years of anyone’s existence are exciting and frightening at the same time and this film conveys that conflicting feeling beautifully. Directed by John Kelly. (7 min)
“The Three Sisters” – This one has a “Tripletts Of Belleville” vibe (minus the soundtrack) as three sisters, who live in a house on a remote island rent out one of their rooms. A big, burly sailor becomes their tenant and so much more. Your mileage may vary with the animation style–simple 2-D animation with very little detail in the faces or expressions–and how that will help or hinder our engagement with it. It doesn’t do much for me. There’s no dialogue, save for the sailor’s “Ha!” every time something, or someone, gets him excited. It’s full of sight gags and whimsy, but there’s not much of a lift to it. It certainly has its charm in spots, though, and I dug the closing credits. Directed by Konstantin Bronzit (14 min.)
DOCUMENTARY
“All the Empty Rooms” – CBS News’ Steve Hartman has been reporting on school shootings since 1997. For the past seven years he’s been working on a piece about kid’s bedrooms. He has three left to visit and document, along with his photographer, Lou Bopp. Hartman has always been a feel-good reporter, one of those people who files in a story of an inspirational do-gooder at the end of a newscast to help people feel positive about the world again. This project feels more appropriate and urgent to him and the film follows him as he visits the empty and untouched bedrooms of four lives tragically cut short. There’s a delicate balance here between making the movie too much about Hartman and not about the deceased kids and director Joshua Seftel keeps the balance in check. It’s a moving film about memories and how they fade away through time. The physical objects left behind keep us connected to them, be it a basketball, a pile of laundry or a photo collage. (35 min).
“Armed WIth Only A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud” – So many echoes of “All The Empty Rooms” in this, mainly about the idea of photographers and journalists using everything they have to document the most tragic corners of human existence. Brent Renaud’s death at the hands of Russian combatants in Ukraine made national headlines. Renaud was fearless in his pursuit of truth while documenting the very real lives of survivors in Iraq in 2003, Haiti in 2010, the violent streets of Chicago in 2017 and Ukraine in 2022, just to name a few. The film flashes back to the films he made about these people and the devastation that surrounded them, while also following his brother, Craig, who has to transport Brent’s dead body back to America. Craig also directed this film and made a wise choice in not editing Brent’s footage in any chronological order, thereby putting every one of Brent’s destinations on equal footing and emphasizing that Brent went everywhere, no matter how dangerous, because that’s who he was. Some might find the narrative a bit messy as it jumps around, but since Craig was alongside Brent much of the time, perhaps a nonlinear approach mirrors how he sees and experiences his memory of his brother. A loving tribute, nonetheless. Directed by Brent Renaud and Craig Renaud. (39 min.)
“Children No More: Were And Are Gone” – In Tel Aviv, a group of organizers hold silent vigils in the city streets and parks every Saturday for all the children who have died in Gaza. They don’t speak or chant. They simply hold pictures (if any are available) that say the child’s name, age and “was and is no more.” Passersby hurl slurs and counterprotests in their direction, demanding to know why they do not hold pictures of the hostages. This is not that kind of protest, of course. Theirs is a plea to all of humanity. The film conveys their message, while also exploring the dangers of expressing it and whether or not the message gets across. In the end, the film does not have all the answers, but how could it? Instead, it effectively puts the viewer in the uncomfortable position of being at a vigil such as this and putting up with the provocations from the heated onlookers. What would you do in that situation? Directed by Hilla Medalia. (30 min.)
“The Devil Is Busy” – This one takes place at a Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta, GA, where we first meet the head of security, Tracii, as she sets up for a busy day at the clinic. It’s a highly stressful job, of course, because there could always be an anti-abortion protester hiding somewhere who has a deadly plan. She knows the protesters by name and knows some of their histories. We also get to know the operators and doctors who work there and the kind of stress they go through every day. Mostly, we remember Tracii, who goes to work every day knowing there’s a chance she won’t make it home. “The Devil Is Busy” is an effective overview of a day in the life of a women’s health clinic three years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Prayer works in some situations, but for many women it isn’t enough. Directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir. (32 min.)
“Perfectly A Strangeness” – Palermo, Roberto and Palaye are three seemingly random donkeys wandering through the desert who find an abandoned observatory that can see deep into the universe. Alison McAlpine’s visually expansive, meditative and wordless film will remind viewers that documentaries can take multiple shapes and sizes. It’s the kind of film I love to program at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, the kind that immerses the viewer into something otherworldly, best experienced in a darkened theater. Some might question its validity as a documentary, but I prefer to accept it for what it is. While I would not go so far as to say it’s the first of its kind (I’ve seen many shorts like it), in the case of this year’s Oscar nominees, it’s the one film that goes against the grain in every single way. (15 min.)