Our Complete Guide to the 2016 Oscar-Nominated Shorts
A still from the animated short ‘World of Tomorrow’
Heading into the final lap of this year’s Oscar race before the ceremony on Feb. 28, the eyes of most awards-watchers are focused on the three-way battle for Best Picture between The Big Short, The Revenant and Spotlight. But equally interesting races are unfolding in categories that are all too often treated as bathroom breaks during the telecast — the animated, live action and documentary short films. Best Animated Short Film, for example, pits the mighty Pixar’s Sanjay’s Super Team against cult animator Don Herzfeldt’s much-lauded World of Tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Documentary category finds three HBO docs (Body Team 12, Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah and A Girl in the River) all vying for the statue. And the leading contenders in Best Live Action Short are a pair of films that address two very different wars, Kosovo (Shok) and Afghanistan (Day One).
But don’t take our word for it: You can follow the race yourself by watching all 15 nominated short films courtesy of ShortsHD and Magnolia Pictures. On Jan. 28, all three programs will open theatrically on over 400 screens, with VOD availability on iTunes, Google Play and Vimeo On Demand to follow on Feb. 23. (Find a list of participating theaters here. Individual shorts are also playing on various streaming services and cable channels noted below.) Read over our complete round-up of all the nominees to see which shorts are in the race — and which are also-rans.
ANIMATED SHORTS
Bear Story
Directed By: Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala
What It’s About: Every day, a bear-ish busker takes his place on a street corner and invites children to watch his elaborately designed moving diorama, which depicts the tragic story of a Papa Bear who is kidnapped from his family and forced to join the circus.
Our Take: The clockwork aesthetic of the animation is adorably whimsical…right up until the Nazi Stormtrooper-esque goons break into the bear family’s apartment and take their batons to a series of peaceful critters before kidnapping the father. His perseverance and fierce will to return to his wife and child is meant to be moving, but you have to wonder why any bear child (or their parents) would agree to watch this busker’s genuinely upsetting diorama and not run away screaming.
Prologue
Directed By: Richard Williams and Imogen Sutton
What It’s About: It’s 300-meets-Gladiator as a quartet of Spartan and Athenian warriors square off in bloody combat, while an innocent child watches in mounting horror.
Our Take: Co-director Williams is a living animation legend, having served as the animation director on Robert Zemeckis’s hybrid classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and spent decades pursuing his passion project, The Thief and the Cobbler, which has a fascinating history with an unhappy ending. The filmmaker has described Prologue as the prelude to an ambitious feature film and — based on the richly detailed hand-drawn animation and the way the action appears to unfold in a single continuous shot — we’d love to see the whole thing.
Watch a clip from ‘Sanjay’s Super Team:’
Sanjay’s Super Team
Directed By: Sanjay Patel and Nicole Grindle
What It’s About: Cultures collide in a memorable way inside the creative mind of a young Indian-American boy, who dreams up an elaborate scenario where three Hindu gods become an Avengers-style superhero team for a good vs. evil battle that’s straight out of an American comic book.
Our Take: Pixar broke new ground with this hugely enjoyable short, which played in front of the studio’s less-than-enjoyable feature The Good Dinosaur. Patel based the film on his own life as the child of an immigrant Indian family, and the fusion of Indian imagery with Hollywood action choreography results in one of last year’s most unique and exciting superhero spectacles.
We Can’t Live Without the Cosmos
Directed By: Konstantin Bronzit
What It’s About: Having grown up dreaming about exploring the final frontier, a pair of friends and aspiring cosmonauts endure the rigors of space boot camp. But on launch day, a Top Gun-style tragedy changes the calculus of their relationship.
Our Take: An unobtrusive period piece, Cosmos offers an endearingly retro depiction of space travel that recalls the classic two-part Tintin adventure, Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon. It’s less visually and narratively inventive than many of its fellow nominees, but entirely pleasant on its own terms.
Watch a clip from ‘World of Tomorrow:’
World of Tomorrow
Directed By: Don Hertzfeldt
What It’s About: Travel into Earth’s distant future, when the planet is facing extinction and clones make up the majority of the population. Did we mention that it’s kind of a comedy? (Currently streaming on Netflix)
Our Take: One of the breakout sensations at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Hertzfeldt’s short has received rave reviews that most feature filmmakers would envy. As the cult animator told us in March, World of Tomorrow was inspired in equal measure by 1930s-era visions of the future and colorful children’s literature. But the resulting film possesses its own memorable look and achingly gorgeous soul.
WHICH SHORT WILL WIN: Besides being the most widely-seen of the nominees, Sanjay’s Super Team also carries the powerful Pixar brand name and represents the kind of diversity that the besieged Academy would certainly love to spotlight.
WHICH SHORT SHOULD WIN: Despite clocking in at a mere 16 minutes, World of Tomorrow is rich and engaging enough to go toe-to-toe with any of the Best Picture nominees. Even if it loses the statue, here’s hoping it earns Hertzfeldt the chance to make a second feature after 2012’s lovingly melancholic, It’s Such a Beautiful Day.
LIVE ACTION SHORTS
Ave Maria
Directed By: Basil Khalil and Eric Dupont
What It’s About: It’s a literal crash course in religious tolerance when an Israeli family’s car goes kaput outside a West Bank nunnery, and both faiths have to find a way to work together.
Our Take: Although supposedly set in the present day, Ave Maria strains for the sense of humor — and pointed messaging — of a vintage Normal Lear comedy from the ‘70s. Kudos to the cast for making this hoary, sitcom-ready premise watchable, if not exactly memorable.
Day One
Directed By: Henry Hughes
What It’s About: A U.S. Army interpreter has a memorable first day on the Afghanistan front, crashing the compound of a suspected terrorist and then helping the man’s wife deliver a child.
Our Take: Earnest to a fault, the lone American nominee in this year’s field attempts to address a complicated subject — our continued presence in Afghanistan — in the context of a concise, compassionate story. As the inexperienced interpreter, Layla Alizada delivers a sharply etched performance that helps mitigate some of the script’s clunky dramaturgy.
Everything Will Be Okay (Alles Wird Gut)
Directed By: Patrick Vollrath
What It’s About: An emotionally troubled divorced dad uses his court-mandated weekend with his daughter to try and smuggle her out of the country.
Our Take: Here’s your annual reminder that this category could easily be rechristened Best Live Action Short Film About Child Endangerment. One of two “kids in peril” stories nominated this year, Everything Will Be Okay is undeniably tense, forcing audiences to watch this attempted kidnapping play out over the course of 30 minutes. Still, it’s hard to escape the feeling that the film is a grim, opportunistic stunt, one that’s hoping to scare (or guilt) voters into awarding it an Oscar.
Shok
Directed By: Jamie Donoughue
What It’s About: Two boys try to hold onto simple childhood pleasures — like buying a bike — against the backdrop of the late ‘90s Kosovo War, which pitted the country’s Serbian and Albanian populations against each other.
Our Take: If nothing else, this year’s other “kids in peril” short is far less squirm-inducing than Everything Will Be Okay. The British-born Donoghue does have some trouble establishing the thorny details of the Kosovo conflict, but the friendship between the two kids rings true. It’s a shame that the filmmaker can’t resist a final tragic twist that feels like the sour cherry on top of the bummer sundae.
Watch a clip from ‘Stutterer:’
Stutterer
Directed By: Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage
What It’s About: A reclusive typesetter with a severe stutter emerges from his self-imposed exile to meet his cute Facebook ladyfriend IRL.
Our Take: Stutterer would stand out from the rest of the pack simply by virtue of the fact that it’s: A) not about an Important Subject and B) goes for sweet and funny over stern and serious. Even taken on its own terms, it’s a thoughtfully-conceived, deftly-made piece of work with a terrific central performance by Matthew Needham.
WHICH SHORT WILL WIN: It’ll likely be a close race between competing war movies, Day One and Shok. But the latter seems to have the edge, due to the child actors and the Kosovo War setting.
WHICH SHORT SHOULD WIN: Compact and compelling without overstaying its welcome, Stutterer spotlights what’s so appealing about short films in the first place.
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
Body Team 12
Directed By: David Darg and Bryn Mooser
What It’s About: At the height of Liberia’s devastating Ebola outbreak in 2014, a young woman, Garmai Sumo, volunteers for the titular team of aid workers tasked with gathering up the bodies felled by the disease. (Premieres on HBO in March)
Our Take: Darg and Mooser’s portrait of the remarkably brave Sumo is empathetic, but feels curiously incomplete. More affecting is the on-the-ground footage of Body Team 12 in action, consistently rushing into harm’s way for the public good, while others stand frozen in fear or grief.
Chau, beyond the Lines
Directed By: Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck
What It’s About: Disabled at birth after his mother consumed Agent Orange-contaminated water, aspiring Vietnamese artist Le Minh Chau doggedly pursues his dreams in the face of numerous obstacles.
Our Take: Filmed over eight years, beyond the Lines captures Chau at various stages of his quest, from an authority-defying 17-year-old living in a care center for other children afflicted by Agent Orange, to a 25-year-old professional artist able to afford his own apartment. The post-orphanage material is the most compelling section of the film, as Chau struggles to reconcile the day-to-day realities of his handicap with his larger creative ambitions.
Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
Directed By: Adam Benzine
What It’s About: Three decades removed from directing his acclaimed Holocaust documentary Shoah, French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann reflects on the making of that landmark film and the personal toll it took on his life. (Premieres on HBO in May)
Our Take: Lanzmann’s prickly personality and vivid memories of the movie’s 13-year production help lift this otherwise staid making-of account out of “DVD bonus feature” territory. The standout sequence features the filmmaker recalling an aborted interview with a former Nazi soldier that ended with Lanzmann and his assistant having to make a harrowing escape.
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
Directed By: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
What It’s About: After surviving an attempted “honor killing,” a young Pakistani woman named Saba comes forward to tell the story of her close brush with death and how she was goaded into forgiving her would-be murderers: her uncle and her father. (Premieres on HBO in March)
Our Take: Obaid-Chinoy’s latest account of the perils facing women in Pakistan makes for a stirring companion piece to her 2012 Oscar-winning short, Saving Face, which profiled two survivors of acid attacks.
Last Day of Freedom
Directed By: Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
What It’s About: Bill Babbitt recounts the tragic circumstances that led his younger brother, Manny, from the battlefields of Vietnam to California’s death row. (Currently streaming on Netflix)
Our Take: Essentially a first-person monologue, Last Day of Freedom makes effective use of hand-drawn animated imagery to complement Babbit’s emotional telling of Manny’s story. It’s a powerful testimonial that avoids true crime-style exploitation.
WHICH SHORT WILL WIN: In a strong crop of nominees, Last Day of Freedom seems poised to emerge victorious due to its innovative form and moving, timely content.
WHICH SHORT SHOULD WIN: Last Day of Freedom, which — like Netflix’s blockbuster docuseries Making a Murderer — continues the necessary dialogue about the inequality in America’s judicial system.
(All images courtesy of the Academy and ShortsHD)
