What Might Land On This Year’s Short Film Shortlists?

The short film categories at the Oscars tend to baffle audiences because some only pay attention to them once the nominations are announced. In order to qualify for any of the shorts categories (Live Action Short Film, Animated Short Film, or Documentary Short Subject), your film either needed to play in a movie theater or–the more likelier scenario–your film needed to win an award from an Oscar-qualifying film festival. You guessed it! There are hundreds of films that qualify for these awards every season, so it’s a bit difficult to wade through them. Let’s take our best shot at predicting the 15 shortlisted films in each of the 3 categories. Deep breaths…

Animated Short Film
Animated Short is normally dominated by Disney–it’s not a secret. The Mouse House, however, only has one contender in the form of Once Upon a Studio, a love letter to its own history of animation dominance and wonder. As a young woman and an older man leave the Roy E. Animation Building, they warmly comment on how Disney created the animation studio 100 years ago to the day. Once the building is deserted, famous Disney figures (everyone from Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Peter Pan to Moana and Flounder) pounce around the halls to get ready to take a family picture. Even for the most severe Disney cynic, you can’t help but smile as the short mixes different varieties of animation to bring all these beloved characters together. I imagine it will make the cut.

If we want to go off festival wins in terms of consideration, we can look no further than Flóra Anna Buda’s 27, a humorous film about a 27 year old, Alice, who still lives with her parents but considers making a bigger change in her life. It won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival but also picked up mentions at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, and Sarajevo Film Festival.

If we are going to look at Disney, we also have to look at Magic Light Pictures. Unlike Disney Studios or Pixar, films from Magic Light have been nominated. This year, the studio has The Smeds and The Smoos a cautionary tale of loving you neighbor despite familial frustrations and it has a slight Romeo & Juliet feel to it. Also, it’s narrated by the comforting tone of Sally Hawkins’ voice. Maybe that will be enough to lull the film into a spot?

Carlos Velandia’s All My Scars Vanish In the Wind is one of the most visually distinct films of the year. The film follows a woman’s painful memories coming back to her in Columbia. Velandia’s film and Ethan Barrett’s Rosemary A.D. (After Dad)—about a father confronting the potential terrors of having a child–has taken honors from the Austin Film Festival and the Cairo International Film Festival.

My personal favorite animated shorts are The Day I Became a Bird (about a boy desperate to get his crush to notice him), Starling (a mischievous star who comes down to meet her parents), Pivot (a mom reconsiders the pressures she is placing on her daughter), and Humo (a ravishingly made short about the horrors of the Holocaust told from the eyes of a child).

What might make the cut? The Academy responds to a variety of animation, and they like to be taken to a wonderous place. Here are the 15 I am going with (in alphabetical order).

All My Scars Vanish In the Wind
The Day I Became a Bird
Epicenter
Home of the Heart
Humo
Miserable Miracle
Morning Joy
Ninety-Five Senses
Once Upon a Studio
Pivot
Rosemary A.D. (After Dad)
The Smeds and The Smoods
Starling
Teacups
27
Watch out for: Tomato Kitchen, Remember That I Used to Ride a White Horse, Arrest in Flight, Crab, It’s a Gray, Gray World, Letter to a Pig, American Sikh, Pete

Documentary Short Subject
Doc short is a bit tricky to nail down, I think. They really respond to a lot of films repped by Field of Vision and The New Yorker, and they respond to subject matter as much as they respond to filmmaking style. While there are usually a lot of American stories vying for nominations, they tend to look for international stories.

The big juggernaut in this category for a number of years now is Netflix. Of the three short film categories, Documentary Short Subject is where the streamer has been able to break through the most. The current winner, The Elephant Whisperers, was backed by Netflix, and they also had The Martha Mitchell Effect in contention. The previous year, they managed to get 3 films nominated (Audible, Lead Me Home, and Three Songs for Benazir, while A Love Song for Latasha represented them the year prior.

This year, Netflix has two films: The Dads and Camp Courage. The Dads is an 11-minute film about a group of fathers who meet to discuss and compare their experiences as parents of transgender children. They are joined by Dennis Shepard, the father of Matthew Shepard, who was murdered 25 years ago for being gay in Wyoming. Matthew’s murder was one of the first acts of violence against queer people that opened other Americans’ eyes. Camp Courage focuses on a young, displaced Ukrainian girl who spends time in the Alps with her grandmother testing her own limits at camp.

You cannot talk about Doc Short Subject without bringing up one name: Ben Proudfoot. The winner of this category for The Queen of Basketball in 2021, Proudfoot has one of the most celebrated and beloved docs of the year in The Last Repair Shop. The film features both children discovering their passion for playing instruments and also shows the tireless work of individuals who repair and restore instruments for students through a Los Angeles program. At the moment, I think it’s the film to beat.

If we are talking about important figures within the Los Angeles community, look no further than the Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone backed film, Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story. Sullivan is a West Hollywood staple in the sober community, but he also owns a prominent candle shop (seriously, get your orders in now). Directors Zeberiah Newman and Michiel Thomas have created a loving, honest film that does not lean into theatrics. I have shown this film to a number of friends, and it’s truly a winner.

Nai Nai & Wài Pó, from director Sean Wang, has picked up festival prizes  at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival, AFI Fest, and South by Southwest while Neighbor Abdi (about a furniture design re-examining his violent past) has also been a festival favorite.

In terms of films speaking to social issues, you can look no further than The ABCs of Book Banning, Deciding Vote, and American Santa. 

My predictions (in alphabetical order):

The ABCs of Book Banning
American Santa
Camp Courage
Deciding Vote
The Family Statement
Holy Cowboys
Jack & Sam
The Last Repair Shop
Liturgy of Anti-Tank Obstacles 
Nai Nai & Wài Pó
Neighbor Abdi
Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story
Puffling
Under G-D
The Unicorn In Snow Pants Suddenly Ran Off
Watch out for: Maria Schneider, 1983, The Dads, Nina & Irena, MnM, Every Day After, Oasis, The Barber of Little Rock

Live Action Short Film
Most of our shorts coverage of short films is centered on Live Action shorts from around the world. I will give you a moment to look over the interviews and reviews…

…welcome back!

There are two films in contention with revered directors that are taking up spots on a lot of people’s shortlist predictions: Pedro Almodóvar’s A Strange Way of Life and Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar. While a lot of audiences truly love Almodóvar’s response to Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, some Almodóvar enthusiasts are a bit cooler on the film and wish it was made into a longer feature. When I saw Almodóvar speak at TIFF after a screening, the woman next to me expressed more interest in the Q&A following the film. I think it nabs a slot on the shortlist, but I might be more skeptical about it landing a nomination.

Netflix was smart in focusing on one of Anderson’s films when they dropped a collection of four films earlier this year. If they would’ve tried to campaign all four, it could’ve been messy. Anderson having Asteroid City in the hunt for some crafts (and maybe a tenth Best Picture slot?) certainly helps it. Netflix does have a massive contender, though, in the form of Misan Harriman’s emotionally-wrought stunner, The After. Starring David Oyelowo as a man who experiences sudden, profound loss, the film recently got a bump in profile when Meghan Markle hosted a talk with Harriman and Oyelowo just a few days ago. Netflix also has Weathering, a fantastic bite of horror a woman who experiences visions after the loss of her baby that stars Alexis Louder, Alfre Woodard, and Jermaine Fowler. Are we underestimating this one?

If we are looking at other streamers, Disney+ dropped the holiday-themed The Shepherd at the start of December. It follows a young pilot who loses the use of his instruments as he crosses the North Sea on Christmas Eve in 1957. It starts as a thriller, but it transforms into something else in the final act. It is produced by Alfonso Cuarón. If the Academy wanted to reward a new, young filmmaker that is also a familiar face, they could save a spot for Alden Ehrenreich’s Shadow Brother Sunday. Not only did Ehrenreich direct the film, but he stars in it alongside Nick Robinson. It’s one of my favorite shorts of the year.

Live Action Short’s contenders always deal with personal and pertinent topics, so they always feel like they are on the pulse of what is going on in the world. Our Males and Females has won and been nominated for over 100 awards while Run Amok approaches residual pain from the point of view of a young teen. Both Interruption and Red, White, and Blue deal with the abortion in completely different ways and shows just the tip of the iceberg of how that argument permeates artists’ minds and hearts. The Wake taps into our fears of gun violence on a domestic level while We Were Meant To talks about race in America in a completely new way (that film won top honors at HollyShorts). Take Me Home and Nisei look at sibling relationships in a personal way.

Of the films in contention, one of the ones that stands out the most is Mike Donahue’s Troy, a heartfelt but hilarious look at how a pair of nosey neighbors get involved with their beefcake sex worker’s breakup. I have been a fan of that short for quite a while, and it could stick out for having over-the-top humor with a surprising amount of heart.

There a lot of fantastic films fighting for a slot, but here are my guesses as of right now (in alphabetical order):

The After
Closing Dynasty
Interruption
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Our Males and Females
Perspectives
Shadow Brother Sunday
The Shepherd
A Strange Way of Life
Troy
Two For the Road
The Wake
We Were Meant To
The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar
Watch out for: Take Me Home, Nisei, Good Boy, An Avocado Pit, The Anne Frank Gift Shop, Weathering, The Fuse, Run Amok, Motherland, Airhostess-737, Red, White, and Blue, The Old Young Crow, Blue Square Heart, Trouble, After Sunset, Dawn Arrives, Voice Activated, Yellow