Oscars 2026: Predicting the Shorts Shortlist, Part 2 — The Docs

Ready to settle in with some good non-fiction filmmaking?!

Just like the Live Action Short Film category, I have my reasons as to what I think voters lean toward in order to vote for something to be shortlisted. Every year, so many people remark that this category is “heavy” or it’s “homework”–even though you don’t see the same sentiments routinely said about Documentary Feature. I like to believe that viewers will vote for a subject matter that inspires them or that they are passionate about.

Obviously, this category introduces us to a lot of new faces but also analyzes topics ranging from school gun violence to mortality to marriage to recovery. I am always excited for the wide swath of subjects covered every year. We have some precursors right before the shortlist is announced with Critics Choice probably the most widely known–the organization just announced their winners last month.

______________________________________________________________

Where to start when hunting for contenders? I like to start in the same place every year, and that is with whatever Netflix is campaigning. Of the three shots categories, the streamer does best here. They have had at least one film shortlisted every year in the last five years.

• 2024 – The Only Girl in the Orchestra (won the Oscar) & Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World (not nominated); Julia’s Stepping Stones and The Turnaround didn’t make the shortlist
• 2023 – Camp Courage (shortlisted but not nominated)
• 2022 – The Martha Mitchell Effect (nominated); The Elephant Whisperers (won the Oscar)
• 2021 – Audible, Lead Me Home, & Three Songs for Benazir (all nominated but none won); Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis (not shortlisted)
• 2020 – A Love Song for Latasha (nominated); The Speed Cubers and What Would Sophia Loren Do? (shortlisted but not nominated)

Netflix has two contenders in play this season, and they could not be more different from one another. Joshua Seftel’s All the Empty Rooms follows a journalist and photographer as they meet with families to chronicle the bedrooms of children lost to gun violence. Seftel’s film has been quite present throughout the fall, premiering at Telluride this year and picking up a nomination at Critics Choice. Masaka Kids: A Rhythm Within centers on an orphanage in Uganda whose viral dance videos serve as a source of light as the shadows of war and the HIV/AIDS crisis loom. If voters want to make a statement about how art heals and can be used to keep spirits up, I could see both films landing on the list.

If we are going to look at Netflix for their batch of contenders, we should do the same for The New Yorker and Switchboard Magazine. Their slates are full of films that look wholly unique to one another.

• Criminal – Robe Imbriano mashes up animation and song to condemn the American cash bail system; watch the short and our interview with Imbriano and animator Thomas Curtis here.
  [Note: Imbriano’s film be competing in Animated Short; silly mistake on Joey’s part!]
• Freeman Vines – A man battling multiple myeloma builds guitar after guitar chasing the sound he first heard years ago. Tim Kirkman and André Robert Lee’s film can be streamed here via Switchboard’s YouTube.
• The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong – Acclaimed writer and absurdist Gary Shteyngart recounts his personal trauma from a botched circumcision; would make an interesting double feature with Live Action Short contender, Snipped. You can watch our interview with director Dana Ben-Ari here.
• Hello Stranger – Filmmaker Amélie Hardy blends real-life with documentary style to show is trans visibility in a whole new way; Hardy’s film is streaming via Them‘s YouTube page, and you can watch our interview with Hardy here.
• Last Days on Lake Trinity – A trio of friends living in a trailer park battle its closure from its Christian TV station owners. The film is available to stream via The New Yorker.
• The Life We Have – Rob Shaver has been battling different forms of cancer for most of his life, but he remains determined to run at least on mile every day. Watch our interview with director Sam Price-Waldman here.
• Qotzuñi: People of the Lake – A Bolivian Indigineous community grapples with the loss of one of the largest bodies of water in the area. You can watch our interview with co-director Michael Salama here.
• Rat Rod – An immigrant mechanic his own experiences versus the traditional American dream as he rebuilds cars in his garage. Read our review here.
• Saving Superman – An autistic man receives love and adoration from his community when he is confronted with his own housing crisis; Sam Mirpoorian and Adam Oppenheim’s film won Documentary Short at Critics Choice, and you can watch our interview with them here.
• Shanti Rides Shotgun – A tough driving instructor teaches new drivers in the traffic jungle of New York City; Charles Frank’s film was nominated at Critics Choice. Watch our interview with Frank here.

______________________________________________________________

So what do I think makes the cut? Last year, all of the nominees from Critics Choice were shortlisted, and I didn’t include them in my final fifteen. Maybe that’s a mistake? Or, perhaps, my caution thrown to the win will pay off. Who knows!

In alphabetical order we have…

All the Empty Rooms
All the Walls Came Down
The Breakthrough Group (a documentary I loved from this year’s Indy Shorts)
Children No More: Were and Are Gone
Classroom 4
Country Doctor (never count out HBO)
The Devil Is Busy
The Guy Who Got Cut Wrong
Heartbeat (director Jay Rosenblatt was nominated back-to-back for his last 2 shorts)
Last Days on Lake Trinity
The Last Observers
Qotzuñi: People of the Lake
Sallie’s Ashes
Saving Superman
Shanti Rides Shotgun

Next Tier
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud 
Carol & Joy
Chasing Time
Conflicted
Fiddler on the Moon: Judaism in Space
Freeman Vines
Hello Stranger
Masaka Kids: A Rhythm Within
Rat Rod
Voices from the Abyss
We Were the Scenery