Short of the Week
As the Academy Awards approach their centenary, it’s worth noting that short films have played a role in the ceremony almost since its inception. While for the press the spotlight often gravitates toward the feature categories, for those immersed in the world of short films the announcement of the shortlists remains a highlight during awards seasons.
Find out more about all 45 shortlisted short films in our extensive collection on Shortverse.
Today (Thu 21st Dec 2023) sees the launch of that 45-film list – with 15 short films contending for the top prize in each of the Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Live Action Short categories. Over on Shortverse, we’ve put together a filterable collection of the films and although not every film is currently available to view online, with nominations voting coming soon (January 11-16), we expect most of the films to pop up online over the coming weeks. Check back and we’ll keep this list updated.
Best Animated Short
- Boom directed by Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier, Charles Di Cicco, Yannick Jacquin & Laurie Pereira de Figueiredo | Watch Now
- Eeva directed by Lucija Mrzljak & Morten Tsinakov | Watch Trailer
- Humo (Smoke) directed by Rita Basulto | Shortverse Page
- I’m Hip directed by John Musker | Shortverse Page
- A Kind of Testament directed by Stephen Vuillemin | Watch Trailer
- Koerkorter (Dog Apartment) directed by Priit Tender | Shortverse Page
- Letter to a Pig directed by Tal Kantor | Watch Now
- Ninety-Five Senses directed by Jared Hess | Watch Trailer
- Once upon a Studio directed by Dan Abraham & Trent Correy | Watch Now
- Our Uniform directed by Yegane Moghaddam | Watch Trailer
- Pachyderme directed by Stéphanie Clément | Watch Now
- Pete directed by Bret “Brook” Parker | Watch Trailer
- 27 directed by Flóra Anna Buda | Watch Trailer
- War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko directed by Dave Mullins | Watch Trailer
- Wild Summon directed by Karni Arieli & Saul Freed | Watch Trailer
Previous winner: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
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Best Documentary Short
- The ABCs of Book Banning directed by Trish Adlesic, Nazenet Habtezghi & Sheila Nevins | Watch Trailer
- The Barber of Little Rock directed by John Hoffman & Christine Turner | Shortverse Page
- Ours (Bear) directed by Morgane Gaëlle Frund | Watch Trailer
- Between Earth & Sky directed by Andrew Nadkarni | Watch Now
- Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games directed by Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson | Watch Trailer
- Camp Courage directed by Max Lowe | Watch Trailer
- Deciding Vote directed by Robert Lyons & Jeremy Workman | Watch Now
- How We Get Free directed by Samantha Knowles & Geeta Gandbhir | Watch Trailer
- If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis directed by Ramin Bahrani | Shortverse Page
- Island in Between directed by S. Leo Chiang | Watch Now
- The Last Repair Shop directed by Kris Bowers & Ben Proudfoot | Watch Now
- Last Song from Kabul directed by Kevin Macdonald & Ruhi Hamid | Watch Trailer
- Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó directed by Sean Wang | Watch Trailer
- Oasis directed by Justine Martin | Watch Now
- Wings of Dust directed by Giorgio Ghiotto | Watch Trailer
Previous winner: The Elephant Whisperers by Kartiki Gonsalves
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Best Live-Action Short
- The After directed by Misan Harriman | Watch Trailer
- The Anne Frank Gift Shop directed by Mickey Rapkin | Watch Trailer
- An Avocado Pit directed by Ary Zara | Watch Trailer
- Bienvenidos a Los Angeles directed by Lisa Cole | Watch Trailer
- Dead Cat directed by Annie-Clause Caron & Danick Audet | Watch Trailer
- Good Boy directed by Tom Stuart | Watch Trailer
- Invincible directed by Vincent René-Lortie | Watch Now
- Invisible Border directed by Mark Gerstorfer | Watch Trailer
- Knight of Fortune directed by Lasse Lyskjær Noer | Watch Now
- The One Note Man directed by George Siougas | Watch Trailer
- Red, White and Blue directed by Nazrin Choudhury | Watch Now
- The Shepherd directed by Iain Softley | Watch Trailer
- Strange Way of Life directed by Pedro Almodóvar | Watch Trailer
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar directed by Wes Anderson | Watch Trailer
- Yellow directed by Elham Ehsas | Watch Now
Previous winner: An Irish Goodbye by Tom Berkeley and Ross White
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Reaction
In the immediate aftermath, here are some quick impressions from S/W co-founder Jason Sondhi:
Two 800-pound Gorillas in Live-Action: celebrated feature film auteurs Wes Anderson and Pedro Almodóvar both progress and will dominate coverage of the category. This hasn’t been fait accompli in the past—the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos and indeed Almodóvar himself have made shorts in recent years that have failed to win. However, neither had Netflix in their corner, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar must be considered a prohibitive favorite.
Big-Name Directors: The other categories are stacked with big-name directors too: Ramin Bahrani, Kevin MacDonald, and multi-time nominee, Ben Proudfoot, in Documentary (to say nothing of the directing debut of legendary executive, Sheila Nevins). Even animation has a film by Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jared Hess.
Festival Favorites Do Well: Oscar has, in years past, been something of a quixotic crapshoot, and while the Live-Action category still raises eyebrows for some of its inclusions, changes in the voting membership in recent years mean that more festival heavyweights are making it through. A Kind of Testament and 27 have dominated international festivals this year, with splashy premieres at non-animation events like the Berlinale and Cannes respectively, and Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó cleaned up in the USA, winning Grand Jury or Best Documentary at SXSW, AFI Fest, and Seattle International.
Is Streamer Dominance Fading? Streamers are well-represented—by my informal count Netflix has 3, Paramount+ has 2, Disney+ has a couple. But, it doesn’t feel like the swell of prior years. I’m probably just misremembering though, as there will certainly be a rush of acquisitions leading up to, and after, the nominee announcement at the end of January.
Shouts to S/W Alums: Pleased as punch for Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, Sean Wang, Elham Ehsas, Ramin Bahrani, Stéphanie Clément, and sure, even Wes Anderson.