A lot of (potential) variety this year in "Best Live-Action Short"

by Nathaniel R

Miriam Margoyles stars in "A FRIEND OF DOROTHY"

Each year after the Oscar shortlists are announced we try and dive in to the shorts categories (as well as the others that use a winnowing process). The shorts are undercovered in media but who can blame anyone given that it's difficult to know when where or if you'll ever have access to the titles. At any rate, there are some titles in each of the "specialty" Oscar categories that are easy to access. The Live Action Short category is often met with (deserved) criticism for being the "feel bad" category of the Oscars. Remember that year where every nominee was about something awful happening to a child?

But this year's finalist list has quite a lot of variety. This diversity of aesthetic purpose, emotional appeal, and genre, could well be an illusion. The Academy might pick pick the five heaviest and saddest shorts from this list of 15 but at the moment it's easy to imagine a nominated quintet that has a little something for everyone...

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“Sinners” and “Wicked” lead the Oscar shortlists

by Cláudio Alves

Despite poor reviews WICKED: FOR GOOD is beloved by the industry. | © Universal Pictures

The Oscar shortlists announcement is an occasion that many a pundit anticipates, sometimes fears. Because it’s a day when narratives change, some consolidate, some emerge, while others crumble into nothingness. Three years ago, the shortlists were the first hint of just how big All Quiet on the Western Front was about to become, for example. For the 98th Academy Awards, there is no surprise champion, as Sinners and Wicked: For Good earn the most categories in a year when Casting and Cinematography are also among the shortlisted races. More surprisingly is Sirât’s surge, a cinematography selection full of antithetical picks and a Best International Film race where ten out of fifteen finalists arrive from outside of Europe, a rarity that should be celebrated.

Without further ado, here are the Oscar shortlists with some commentary…

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NYFF 63: Currents Program #4 - Model Behaviors

by Nick Taylor

FICTION CONTRACT, Carolyn Lazard

As always, the names for these NYFF shorts programs are creatively apt. Here, Model Behaviors encompasses practical applications of technology across very different fields. How do these machines recognize human beings, and how do they in turn shape us? Broad perceptions of reality, filtered through a digital intermediate, are taken to specific extremes as these filmmakers explore the unique applications of technology happening across fields of labor and care…

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Oscar Volleys: As usual, Best Live-Action and Documentary Short Film are hard to predict

The Oscar Volleys continue, even as the Academy Awards ceremony draws ever closer. Tonight, Cláudio Alves and Ben Miller discuss the Best Live-Action and Documentary Short races...

ANUJA | © Netflix

CLÁUDIO: Well, we're starting to run out of Oscar categories to discuss at The Film Experience. But we couldn't go into the season's pinnacle without giving some attention to the two least-loved races - Best Live-Action and Best Documentary Short Film. And look, I get it. AMPAS rarely showcases good short-form cinema, having a bizarre predilection for miserabilism and stupid twists, moral lectures, and very little audiovisual invention. Where is Godard, or John Smith, or Leos Carax, or Steve McQueen, or Laura Citarella, or Takashi Miike? Nevertheless, AMPAS' favorite miniature pictures deserve to be considered, and there's even a highlight or two to celebrate. Do you agree?

BEN: Every year, these categories give me something that really knocks my socks off. Even if you have something like Animated Short, those are usually very digestible or play in front of a wildly popular Pixar film.  That's not the case with these.  You really have to go out of your way to see these shorts, but they are so very worth it...

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Interview: Directors Sam & David Cutler-Kruetz Talk Their Oscar-Nominated Short Film "A Lien"

By Ben Miller

Directors Sam and David Cutler-Kruetz are newly minted Oscar-nominees with their short film A Lien. Recently, I spoke with the pair about their film, the timeliness of the narrative, the collaborative effort between the brothers, and how all this attention just makes them exited to make more films.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Ben Miller:  For starters, congratulations! You can now you can now put the title [Academy Award Nominee] on every business card you have from now on. Obviously, you guys shot this film pre-election and now immigration is such at the very forefront of the news cycle. And specifically all over the place these last couple days. These things happening right now are not a positive, but do you view the timeliness of this story, kind of the reason you guys are kind of in the conversation?...

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