The short film categories are some of the freshest, most original films in the Oscar race because we haven’t heard about them for months on end as people debate and argue what is the best of the year. For a lot of prognosticators, the titles aren’t even made known until the Academy releases their annual shortlists before the new year. Over the next few days, The Contending will be looking at Animated Short, Live Action Short, and Documentary Short and highlighting how each of these films can land with voters.
Ahhhh, Live Action Short–that category that I love the most outside of both actress categories and costume design. As I wrote about these films, I saw more how each one might hit with voters. Would they like a little bit of historical flair with top-notch visual effects? Will they want to honor a Cannes winner? Will they want to recognize a film that just so happens to star a frontrunner of the Supporting Actress race? Last year, 187 films qualified in this category before the shortlists were announced. This year almost met that number with 180.
Let’s take a look at the contenders!
Anuja
Adam J. Graves sparks magic with his examination of the importance of education. What could’ve been a tale of poverty and sadness is a triumphant story of sisterhood and realizing your personal potential.
Nine year old Anuja works in garment factory with her older sister, Palak, while their boss, Mr. Verma thinks that he is offering them a life. Well, at least that’s what he tells a man who wishes for Anuja to take an aptitude test for a chance at a scholarship for school. Palak hatches a quick plan to raise the money by selling bags made from scrap fabric set aside for the garbage bin. Anuja’s sister tries to jog her memory about their mother, but Anuja can no longer remember her.
It’s rather thrilling to see such a young, intelligent girl put adult men in their place in some key moments of the film. Graves has such an affectionate respect for these sisters as their pluck and imagination unlock the door to their own future. This isn’t not a story of gloom, doom, or pain but one of light, optimism, and intellectual bravery.
Clodagh
The sound of Portia A. Buckley’s has stuck with me after viewing this film this summer at HollyShorts. There is intentional, careful quietness but also raucous exuberance that lifts your spirit from your chest.
Mrs. Kelly is set in her routine as a priest’s housekeeper, and it almost feels like she knows how to keep herself invisible. She is the one to look towards, though, when she guides young women in an Irish step dancing class. A father brings his daughter, Clodagh, to audition, and the other girls look at her askance at first, but when the fiddle starts playing, her feet rip through the floor. Buckley’s camera swirls around her as the music and dancing become one–that sense of discovering buzzing through everyone’s body.
Mrs. Kelly then discovers that Clodagh might now be eligible to join their ranks, but she might be able to fudge some information in order to welcome such a talent. Does she take a chance? Could Clodagh unlock something inspiring for the rest of the small troupe? Mrs. Kelly is someone who, whenever she’s outside the dance class, might be taken for granted, and she has probably followed the rules all of her life. Is it ever too late to discover that breaking the rules could lead to the collective betterment of a group of people?
The Compatriot
A snowy New Year’s Eve promises the hope of change and opportunity. That is until a pair of Nazis knock on your door seeking refuge in the storm.
Viktor Horák and Pavel Sýkora’s film is a tense standoff between parties who think they know each other’s intentions. Petr, a widower, reluctantly opens his door to Konrad and Hugo, SS officers, when a broken tree blocks the road for their journey. Hugo takes Petr’s axe to chop move the tree and Konrad makes himself at home in Petr’s home before a charged and chilly debate begins to unravel the mood. Can someone actually gain ownership of land because they take it by force?
Can enemies occupy the same space as the end of war quite literally hangs in the air? One side believes they are owed respect while the other has a sneaky agenda, and this battle of wits is well-paced and compelling to watch.
Crust
Most parents spend their time making sure their children avoid getting hurt and not throwing their kids…towards danger. Jens Kevin Georg has sharp edges, and it’s unlike any other film on this list.
Young Fabi is gentle, quiet, and sweet, and that doesn’t seem to vibe with the goals of his family. His younger sister, Bea, resembles an eager, ferocious bear cub, her face all smiles and snarls, and she is excited when it’s time to visit their grandfather, Winni. When they arrive at Winni’s home, Bea admires a large mural in the bar depicting members of their family injuring themselves. This family is not clumsy, mind you, as they view hurting yourself as an initiation or marker of coming-of-age. It’s no surprise that Otis raised his two kids on the mantra, “In this family, we get scars.”
How one reaches this milestone varies from breaking your leg to chopping your hand with a knife, but Winni has a doozy in store for Fabi–the most rickety rollercoaster you ever did see. Seriously, you couldn’t dream up a better clunk of metal on RollerCoaster Tycoon if you tried. Fabi is terrified, but Bea is thrilled.
What could be a cautionary tale about parenting is actually a whimsical and touching tale of how we always want to please our parents and the singular nature of family tradition. This film has a rocker’s edge that most shorts are too tentative to touch.
Dovecote
Marco Perego’s film is a visual feast but also an emotional exploration of personal forgiveness. It is unlike any other film on this shortlist.
We are planted on the seat of a gondola in Italy as the sun rises on a new day. We can smell the canals–we are weary–as everything becomes bathed in light. Before we can explore more of the city, the camera turns into a small crevice in a wall (small enough for maybe a mouse) as we enter the confines of a women’s prison. One women, played with mountainous vulnerability by Zoe Saldaña, is about to be released, and she takes every second of every minute to say goodbye to those who clearly mean a lot to her. Will she see these women again? What will her life on the outside look like? How does one begin to piece together a new life in an unforgiving world?
Perego strips the film of most of its dialogue, but it’s weeping heart is on full display. It’s raw but gentle, fearful but also brimming with hope.
Read our full review of the film here. You can also read our interview with Perego and Saldaña here.
Edge of Space
The Space Race is one of the most thrilling moments in American history, and that enthusiasm and patriotism is handsomely translated in Jean de Meuron’s drama about one man’s dedication to his country.
“It’s not about the flying, it’s the landing,” someone says to the younger version of Chad Michael Collins’ Glen Ford. The idealistic, smaller Glen waves a toy plane in the air and looks upward to the sky with hope and ambition before we flash forward to 1961. Adult Glen wears his uniform with pride as he is one of the men being considered for a suborbital mission on an advanced rocket-powered aircraft. After one mission ends tragically, Glen must answer the call to help his country and fulfill a lifelong dream.
Even if you aren’t a history buff or are a space expert, de Meuron’s film snatches your attention for its attention to detail and incredible visual effects. There are a lot of moments where there is no dialogue, but you understand what is at stake. You feel the concern that Glen’s wife, Chloe, feels as her husband prepares for this mission. How much are you willing to risk?
The Ice Cream Man
Will we ever know every story related to World War II? For many audiences, the story of Ernst Cahn will be a surprise like it was for me, but Robert Moniot’s depiction of the first Nazi resistance fighter to be killed in the Netherlands is a story almost too crazy to imagine.
Moniot’s film opens in May of 1940 as Cahn and his family dream of a new life together. They are standing on the sands of the beach, and, suddenly, a fleet of fighter plans invade the skies–so many it almost feels like a surreal nightmare. As the city is overtaken by Nazis, Cahn keeps a level head. The fear feels like it’s pressing in on these residents as Cahn’s ice cream parlor remains empty since people are too scared to enter.
Moniot’s film is so ambitious in scope and ambition, and Noah Emmerich, as Cahn, gets a lot of moments to shine as a humble man determined to protect his family and what is right.
You can read our recent interview with Moniot here.
I’m Not a Robot
Those pesky confirmation tasks will never not be annoying, but what if they alert us about something deep within ourselves? Victoria Warmerdam balances the absurd and the darkly comic well in a film that will never let you look at a Captcha test the same way ever again.
Lara can’t get any work done because she can’t log onto the appropriate program. ‘Prove to yourself that you’re not a robot’ the screen tells her, and we’ve all gotten a bit angry at one of these tests before. You click intently, your eyes bouncing from image to image to make sure that you got every tiny bit of fire hydrant clicked to prove that you are, in fact, human. When Lara calls down to tech support, though, she is posed with an alarming and seemingly silly question: “Have you ever considered that you might be a robot? You wouldn’t be the first to find out this way.” The line is spoken in such a straightforward way that Lara starts to freak out before it sends a jolt of unease through her before exploding into a full-on comedic, horrific panic.
Warmerdam’s film takes an everyday bit of office drudgery and transforms it into an existential nightmare. All the while making you question…could that happen to me?
You can read our full interview of Warmerdam’s film here.
The Last Ranger
The sight of a grown rhinoceros is incredible in Cindy Lee’s film. Even on screen, seeing such a magnificent animal just being itself takes your breath away, and it transports you a childlike place. Lee’s film highlights that place where you must leave childhood behind and accept the reality that the world can be cruel and violent and that the most precious creatures must be protected.
We see these animals through the eyes of a young South African girl named Litha who takes her father’s carvings of the rhinos into town to sell them to make money. Since COVID has not yet settled, there haven’t been tourists coming into town, but a generous ranger, Khusi, allows Litha to get a closer look at the rhinos when she is on site to protect them from poachers. and those who wish to hunt them for their horns. “Some people think a rhino horn will make them strong,” Khusi tells Litha. “It only helps the rhino.”
Lee’s film goes to shocking places as Litha witnesses a battle of a protective heart and how greed can fuel those who wish to harm. As Litha, Liyabona Mroqoza is astonishing, and Avumile Qongqo is such a giving presence. Khusi looks at Litha knowing that she is the future. Will that innocent heart be able to survive the treacherous world?
A Lien
There are various kinds of tension strung all throughout David and Sam Cutler-Kruetz’s film. It changes and mutates over the course of one tense green card interview meeting.
Sophia and Oscar (along with their young daughter, Nina) are hustling to get to Oscar’s interview. They are running a bit behind, and Oscar has to change his clothes in the car. When they arrive at the office, they fumble with paperwork, and you get overwhelmed with the atmosphere immediately. The tension from the car, which was a bit more playful, becomes more serious when they enter an actual government building. Passports are shuffled and Oscar heads in the back, leaving a worried wife in the waiting room.
That’s when the Cutler-Kruetzes amp up the nervousness even more. With this married couple separated, their tether is severed. Texts go unanswered and Sophia’s fear becomes a dark reality when ICE officers begin snatching up people from the hallways of their appointments. Because everything is so hurried, how do you make dangerous decisions in the moment? Do they run, or do they simply tell the true. It feels like there are no correct answers, and innocent people will pay the consequences. This is a real-life thriller, and this film never wastes a moment.
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
When Nebojša Slijepčević’s film ends, it’s easy to see how it won the short Palme d’Or at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. This is a film of marvelous control, pacing, and mood, and when you realize that it’s based on a true account, it will astonish you even further.
The clicking, bouncy sound of a train opens the film by waking up one of its passenger, a sleepy father named Dragan. The train slowly comes to a halt, and other passengers are confused as to why they have stopped. Everyone is weary. When they look out the windows, they see armed men ready to board the train. After these men board the train, they go compartment by compartment and demand to inspect their documents, but one young man in Dragan’s car, Milan, admits that he has no papers. “Don’t be afraid,” Dragan tells Milan. When the men reach their car, someone comes to Milan’s defense, and it surprises the other passengers as much as it surprises us.
Slijepčević’s film explores complacency and responsibility. If you see someone doing a bad thing, do you stand up for the person being persecuted and risk your personal safety? Do you keep your mouth shut and try to block out the darkness that permeates your own mind? Based on true events, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent crosses borders, nationalities and time. It poses a question that we are afraid to answer but cannot ignore.
The Masterpiece
When you have so much money and so much status, are you too far gone when it comes to helping out your fellow man? Does everything become a game to hold onto as much money and power as you possibly can? Àlex Lora’s film is tense, intelligent, and well-written.
When Diana and Leo are in line to drop off items at a recycling center, they casually meet Salif and his son Yousef who offer to follow the married couple home to have more items hauled away. Most of the action takes place in the driveway of their large home as more and more items are brought out from the garage to be taken. You got a washing machine? Take it. That box of books has been sitting there forever–have at it. When Salif asks about a bicycle, though, he is told that it carries too much sentimental value. So things don’t just have a price tag after all? If you let someone know what holds value to you, they can feel manipulated when someone else tries to take it away.
Is everything for sale? Lora’s film expertly dissects class and wealth but keeps us at a distance as the themes of privilege sneak in. The ‘one-two,’ simple score hints at a tennis match between these two pairs of people throughout as pleasantries drip with unspoken tension.
Read our full review of Lora’s film here.
An Orange From Jaffa
The simple act of returning home becomes a potentially dangerous journey in Mohammed Almughanni’s passionately made film about what connects us in the face of adversity.
A young Palestinian man, Mohammed, is trying to reach the Hizma checkpoint, but no taxi drivers are willing to take him through the Israeli-guarded post because he only has a residence card from Poland. Drivers dismiss him, explain that they don’t want any trouble, and some quite literally leave him in the dust as Mohammed’s mother continues to call him to see if he is close to meeting her. When Farouk kindly offers to help him with a ride in his taxi, he tells Mohammed that he has a standing appointment in Jerusalem and that he can’t be late to pick up his client after he drops this young man off. On the way, Farouk learns that Mohammed’s mother has a West Bank ID, and he tells Mohammed that everything will be fine as long as they are honest and do everything that they are told.
Almughanni taps into that feeling we all have when we tell ourselves that everything will be all right, but we know that this nervousness will never go away. There is a darkness underlying the entire film as Gaza continues to be mercilessly ravaged with violence, and this film ends on a more uplifting note than I expected. I couldn’t help but think of the differences between the ages and circumstances of these different men. One is trying to figure things out while the other is worried about the security of his family. Are we so different? Can we bask in what we share in order to help each other reach our next destination?
Paris 70
We have seen so many films about loved ones dealing with Alzheimer’s, but what about the people that take care of them? Dani Feixas’ film shows remarkable compassion as one son tries to shake up his routine in the care of his ailing mother.
“How are you doing,” Marta, a traveling physician, asks Jan as they take a break outside. Jan’s mother, Angela, is ailing at home while her son works his way through a morning routine of making her breakfast and crushing her pills before, like clockwork, she asks him where his father has run off to. He always tells her the truth, but repeatedly telling your mother that her husband is gone cannot possibly help her nature, so, one day, Jan decides to tell a white lie. Instead of telling Angela that her husband has died, he reveals that he is simply in Paris on a trip. Her face lights up as she remembers how she and her husband visited France on their honeymoon. The next day, Jan picks a different destination, and, the next day, another. It’s harmless and merciful, and you can imagine that Jan hasn’t seen his mother this happy in years.
Feixas based this film on his own personal experiences of loss, but that personal touch sinks deep into the subtext of his film. It shows how parents can be forgiving and how children learn how to be compassionate.
Room Taken
Two people need help in TJ O’Grady-Peyton’s film, and kindness wins the day. Would a desperate circumstance open your mind and heart or shut you off in fear of being rejected?
Isaac has yet to land on his feet after moving to Ireland, and he finds himself sleeping on street. Some nights he is able to find space at a shelter, but the nights are becoming colder. O’Grady-Peyton does a good job of establishing the situation without showing us everything. On a particularly cold evening, Isaac is seeking refuge in a café when a blind woman, Victoria, bumps into him before apologizing, and the server alerts him that she left her bag behind. Isaac meets her at her front door, but then busies herself with a ringing phone. He has to make a choice. Does he sneak in and seek some warmth, or should he leave? He sneaks upstairs and hides himself in Victoria’s attic for a few days but he feels compelled to pay her back by fixing items around her home while trying to remain undetected.
O’Grady-Peyton takes the elements of a thrillers and filters it through the emotions of a drama. Gabriel Adewusi and Bríd Brennan are wonderful in their respective solo scenes, but they share one of the most memorable moments of any film on this shortlist before the credits start to roll.
You can read our full review of Room Taken here.
What Makes the Cut?
I always think that story is most important when watching these films. A big star doesn’t always mean a nomination or a win, but it can’t hurt. If I had to pick a frontrunner right off the bat, I would give the edge to The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent. It’s a film that lingers with you after you finish it, and it tells a true story of a moment in history that has not been given its due. It helps that Nebojša Slijepčević’s film took the Short Film Palme d’Or last year. That doesn’t always guarantee a slot (27 was shortlisted on the animated list last year but didn’t get nominated), but it’s a strong film.
If you are a comedy on a list of dramas, you stand out. Both Crust and I’m Not a Robot have distinct comedic edges tinged with darkness, so they might be a relief to some voters looking for some amusement. I am always a bit wary of international comedies making it in (see You’re Dead Helen from 2021 or Dead Cat from last year), but I’ve heard people say they like Robot, especially. Sticking out for being different could also bode well for Marco Perego’s Dovecote. While not a comedy, it’s a lyrical, poetic film who approaches its story in a completely different way. It would be pretty rad if Perego and Zoe Saldaña became members of an exclusive list of married artists to win Oscars on the same night. Never count out Kim Magnussen who is a producer on Edge of Space.
Oftentimes, voters will want to honor a film in this category that tugged at their emotions. What films on this shortlist do you think hits the mark?
Predictions
Anuja
Clodagh
Dovecote
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
Room Taken
Watch Out For
Edge of Space
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Masterpiece
An Orange from Jaffa
Paris 70
