Don’t sell the Academy Award nominated short films short.
For the 98th Academy Awards we have a smorgasbord of excellent nominees for shorts in Live Action, Animated and Documentary. Below is a short synopsis and micro review of each one.
Animated
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Many a tear has been shed for love. But what if those teardrops trickling down your cheeks were precious resources? The eponymous girl literally cries pearls, which is a lucrative and morally befuddled prospect for her lover, a poor boy. More crying equals more money. But what kind of psycho wants to be incentivized to make their girlfriend cry? It’s a haunting morality play and perhaps the most interesting looking of all the nominees.
Butterfly
The butterfly serves not only as a metaphor of escape, but its also the stroke our swimmer protagonists excels in. The story centers on real life French-Algerian Sephardic Jewish swimmer Alfred Nakache as he competes under the shadow of Nazi Germany. He is subjected to a torrent of anti-semitism while swimming in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and is eventually sent to the concentration camp along with his family. It’s beautifully animated with pastel colors blotting into bodies of water as the oppressive solid white, black and red colors of the Nazi insignia surround. It’s easily one of the best shorts and the favorite to win.
Forevergreen
What if a bear and a tree were besties? Well, look no further than this short for this answer. The two form an adorable friendship, but then environmental calamity strikes. It’s tender, has an environmental message and is surprisingly much more tragic than the first few minutes will lead you to believe. It’s not the most groundbreaking of the bunch, feeling like a low rate Pixar flick, and is a bit schmaltzy.
Retirement Plan
When X happens I’ll finally be able to do Y. It’s a mode of thinking many of us are stuck in. That’s true for the middle-aged protagonist of this short, who dreams of all the things he’ll be able to do when he is retired. Domnhall Gleeson narrates with his playful Irish brogue, casting the daydreams as funny tinged with a bit of sadness. It’s simple and understated and is definitely worth a watch.
The Three Sisters
Waves ebb and flow and strangers come and go to a desolate island. But the one thing that remains, or rather three, is a trio of sisters and their rivalry. One is short. One is medium height. And the other is tall. A barrel-chested man’s man of a sailor arrives and throws their contentious sisterhood into a frenzy. It’s slow, acerbically funny and by far the most bizarro of the nominees.
Documentary
The Devil is Busy
One day. One women’s healthcare clinic. One woman. We follow the head of security of the clinic during a single shift, revealing the security precautions taken in these extremely fraught times. She must deal with protesters on the premises and distraught patients. It really puts you in the shoes of a day in the life.
Armed Only with a Camera : The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
The war in Ukraine has claimed the lives of many, including those who document the violence. Brent Renaud was a journalist killed while reporting on the war. His brother and journalistic partner Craig combs through footage from various conflicts, humanitarian crises and other precarious world events. It’s an excellent look into the dangers of frontline reporting, especially now when the lives of journalists are so imperiled.
Perfectly a Strangeness
Three donkeys wander into a desert. No, it’s not a setup to a joke, but rather a philosophical exploration. The animals make their way to an abandoned observatory, glimpsing into the vast expanse of the universe and the seemingly endless desert beneath them. Of all the shorts in all the categories this is the most experimental. It’s a wild ride if that’s your sort of thing.
All The Empty Rooms
Newscaster Steve Hartman is known for his feelgood human interest stories on CBS Evening News. It’s jarring to see him in a completely different context. Here, he visits and documents rooms of victims of school shootings. The rooms are kept the way they were on the final morning the children left for school. Through these rooms, Hartman tells the stories of the victims. It’s a gut wrenching watch, but Hartman’s presence feels unnecessary and draws attention from the subjects.
Children No More: Were and are Gone
The children in the title refers to Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Israeli protestors hold pictures of their faces high in the middle of Tel Aviv. The mixed reactions, of support and vitriol, show just how contentious the issue has been in Israel since the beginning of the war.
Live Action
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Kissing is out. Slapping is in. To describe this short further would ruin the experience of discovering the draconian and hilariously backward rules of the dystopian world of the short. Let’s just put it this way: the word “kiss” is an unimaginably horrible slur and the action it refers to is even worse. And your money is no good at stores. But the cashier can smack you on the face a few times as currency. It’s favored to win and definitely the most inventive and arguably the best.
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
This is, in fact, a period drama. Yes, it tells a story set in the Jane Austen era. It is, also, a period drama. Menstruation is the key plot point. Period dramas often eschew biological realities of women, like periods, for a chaste, fairytale-ified, sans anatomy version. This is a funny satire that shows the drama of normal biological functions that often gets left out of period dramas.
A Friend of Dorothy
When a kid loses a ball in the yard of an elderly neighbor that usually spells bad news according to movie logic. However, sometimes these mishaps can spark friendships. When the teenage JJ goes to retrieve his ball he strikes up a conversation with his octogenarian neighbor Dorothy, revealing he wants to be an actor. Turns out, Dorothy is quite the patron of the theater. This is a sweet little short but won’t blow you away.
The Singers
Based on the 19th century Russian short story by Ivan Turgenev, this short proves some stories are timeless. Blue collar bravado coming out in song could happen 150 years ago in Kolotovka, Russia or it could happen in middle America. Bar patrons take their turns belting out tunes in a singing competition. It’s a nice chamber piece that will make you laugh and lift your spirits.
Butcher’s Stain
In an Israeli supermarket posters of hostages from the October 7th attack repeatedly fall to the floor. Coworkers turn their suspicions towards an Arab-Israeli butcher whom they work with. The film is tense and presents a microcosm of broader tensions wracking Israeli society. The message is a little heavy-handed, but overall it’s a taut well-paced short that will keep you on your toes wanting to know the truth.