You want to read up on Documentary Short? Here you go! You want to read up on Animated Short? Here you go!
Ahh, Live Action Short Film–my favorite of the three short branches. I cover this category the most, so it feels more like home to me. I mentioned on this week’s podcast that I accelerated my shorts coverage in 2025, and I honestly feel like this is one of the strongest years for Live Action Short that I have seen in years. When I predicted the shortlist, I could name about 25 other films that could’ve made the cut, and over 200 films qualified this season.
Let’s take a look at the shortlisted films…
Take Me To Another Realm
One of my favorite mentions on this list is Ali Cook’s The Pearl Comb since we don’t normally see something so genre or horror ever shortlisted in Live Action. Set in Cornwall in 1893, a fisherman’s wife is being questioned by a doctor and family member (also played by Cook) about whether she cured a child of tuburculosis. Not only does he have inherent bias because he’s never seen it before, but women are not given the same freedom or credit as men. She weaves a tale involving her husband and a seductive mermaid to explain the source of her abilities. Cook’s film, from top to bottom, is heavily detailed and designed. It would be awesome to see this film get nominated.
If you don’t like the cold ocean waters, perhaps you would be brave enough to venture down a Senegalese mine on a hunt for treasure? Simon Panay’s The Boy with White Skin centers on an albino boy lowered into the darkness to sing in order to bring out the precious gold hidden in the underground walls. Something feels so ethereal as the dust crosses in front of their headlamps. It’s a swirl of music, hope, and magic.
While Sam Davis’ film, The Singers, takes place in a darkly lit bar, it does feel like we have been transported to an entirely new world. Maybe each of our towns have a bar like this where it feels like the world falls away once we escape the cold, windy winter. It’s no surprise that Davis’ film is beautifully shot as we find ourselves in the middle of a impromptu singing competition between weary, grizzled men. Just imagine walking in on this contest when all you wanted was to drink the night away? Would you compete for the ultimate prize?
Our world seems unfortunately familiar in Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata’s Two People Exchanging Saliva where a shopgirl falls for a married woman as society crumbles around them. Wildly imaginative and gorgeously shot, Two People is absurd, romantic, and funny while alerting to all of us that we need to take pesonal responsibility while seeking beauty in the world.
Listen to Me…
Communication is one of the main themes of Marnie Blok’s sophisticated drama Beyond Silence. Two sisters–one deaf, one that can speak–enter a professor’s office to lodge a complaint on behalf of the sister that cannot speak. They think that since this professor is also a woman that she will understand how to help with a man who has assaulted her twice, but Blok’s film also explores the generational gap between women in a post-Me Too era. It’s urgent and compelling.
There sometimes seems like a disconnect between some men when it comes to understanding the basic anatomy of what happens to a woman’s body every month. Remember, folks–it’s 2026. Some men still don’t grasp the concept of what a period is for and how it affects a woman’s life. Jane Austen’s Period Drama hopes to bridge that gap with cheeky humor, Regency costuming, and clear, concise communication. When Mr. Dickley’s marriage proposal to Miss Estrogenia Talbot is cut short by the sight of a little blood, it’s up to her (isn’t it always…) to teach him that she is, in fact, not dying. Ahh, straight men…so pretty.
It’s horrible to think that teachers and educators have to have a plan in place for if and when a person enters the school with the intention of hurting and killing others. A confrontation between angry student and frustrated educator sits in the center of Sam Henderson’s Ado that was inspired by his own mother’s plans if a person with a gun barges in. Jenifer Lewis plays the teacher who has to speak to her former student, and she needs to be on the big screen delivering more of Shakespeare’s text–she can rattle the roof off the joint.
Did you ever get frustrated when your partner or spouse just…wasn’t ready on time? In Fabian Munsterhjelm’s Pantyhose, a young couple iks about to leave for an important gala when the wife realizes that she has a run in her stockings. Upstairs she goes, but once she changes one part of her outfit, does she have to change another? Maybe she should rethink her entire ensemble? Or maybe her hair? Munsterhjelm captures those everyday frustrations so easily, and the final shot had me laughing out loud.
All Too Real
Of the true stories mentioned on this shortlist, there are two that come from real-life and personal experiences.
What seems like a quiet moment of protest becomes a prison sentence in Alexander Molochnikov’s tense and beautifully directed Extremist. A young Russian artist places stickers that describe violence from Putin’s invasion in Ukraine on every day items, but she is reported to the authorities. Thanks to security footage, they apprehend her and hurl her into prison. Molochnikov based his film on the story of Sasha Skochilenko who was taken into custody, but this live action short begins as a true tale but ends with an absolute bang. Maybe we can change our realities after all?
An accusation fuels the drama in Meyer Levinson-Blount’s engrossing drama, Butcher’s Stain. Samir, an Arab butcher of an Israeli supermarket in Tel Aviv, is wrongly suspected of tearing down posters of hostages in the break room. Levinson-Blount mounts incredible tension as Samir tries to clear his name, but the space utilized in this short also closes in on us as we spend more time with this man. The filmmaker based this film on his own experience of working at a supermarket after the attack on October 7th.
Family Matters
Both found and blood families are on display on the shortlist in several films. Trevor Morris’ Butterfly On a Wheel is about self-presevervation, overcoming obsessive compulsive disorder, and music, but the brotherly connection is one of its strongest elements. Morris wanted to celebrate the city of Toronto, and he does the city proud. It’s a strong example of how those bonds can really be a life preserver when we are tested in unexpected ways. Michael Provost and Curran Walters have some nice moments together.
Lee Knight’s A Friend of Dorothy is both about found family and how the ties to blood relatives can become strained. When JJ kicks his soccer ball over a high garden wall, he makes friends with Dorothy, and elderly woman who needs assistance in some of her daily routines since she lives alone. Her family doesn’t pay her much attention while JJ’s father expects him to become a football player. This young man, however, is eyeing Dorothy’s deep collection of plays as he tries to figure out his own coming-of-age and coming out.
Jan Saczek’s Dad’s Not Home has connected with audiences over its depiction of two brothers trying to cope with their father’s dementia. The world feels like it’s pressing in while they want to keep it out of their house and out of their business. If their father’s condition is discovered, they don’t know if they will be able to stay together. It’s such an effective, affecting narrative, and many people have told me how much they have responded to Saczek’s delicacy and approach to the subject.
There are many films in this section about listening to others, but what about the confidence in listening to yourself? In André Saito’s touching, assured Amarela, a Japanese-Brazilian girl, Erika, finds herself bucking against her family’s traditions as she tries to handle racism hurled her direction. Saito has described the first time that he went to Japan for the first time and how he could connect with his heritage in a way that he never had the chance to before. We can all relate to a story about belonging and trying to find our own place in the world.
While not directly about family per se, Franz Böhm’s BAFTA-wionning Rock, Paper, Scissors shows how war is ravaging families and their homes. Ivan, a young Ukrainian man working in a makeshift hospital with his father, has to determine, in real time, what to do as Russian soldiers close in on their location. In one of the most ambitious films on this list, it reminds us what can be lost as war rages. It’s equally heartbreaking and pulse-quickening.
What Makes the Cut?
It feels as if Two People Exchanging Saliva has rocketed into this seaosn after it played at Telluride–they have been everywhere. The film itself seems to have presence in the scene and the circuit this season, so I think it’s a safe bet. People adore how weird and romantic it feels. Beyond Silence is a film that knocks people out whenever they get their eyeballs on it thanks to the performances from the three women at the center of it, but it’s a film that gets people talking. The third frontrunner here has to be Sam Davis’ The Singers. It’s quirky and beautifully made. All three of these films are about connection, but they tackle it in wildly different ways.
So what else is fighting for those two extra spots? I know some voters will be impressed with the editing, directing, and style of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and that film already having a BAFTA probably elevates the amount of eyes on it. Do they go for something lighter? I can see voters being delighted by Jane Austen‘s pointed humor and some might find Pantyhose…quite relatable when it comes to agitating your partner. They love stories about children (Amarela, Dad’s Not Home), international fare (The Boy with White Skin, Extremist), timely and relevant personal stories (Butterfly on a Wheel, Butcher’s Stain, Ado) and ambitious storytelling (The Pearl Comb). I pause on predicting Dad’s Not Home and Butcher’s Stain since they are both Student Academy wins, and I haven’t seen that translate into a nomination yet. Both of those titles have a lot of passion and support, and I hope I am wrong. This is the strongest list I have seen since I started covering shorts, so it could be any combination of these 15 films. Truly.
My money, though, is going to be with Knight’s A Friend of Dorothy. It is lighthearted but contains a firm messaging about art and how it can be translated and interpreted by the reader. It’s the type of film that can appeal to almost anyone. Plus, Knight has been e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e promoting this film.
My Predictions (in alphabetical order)
Beyond Silence
A Friend of Dorothy
Rock, Paper, Scissors
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Watch Out For:
Ado
Extremist
The Pearl Comb
Should’ve Been Here:
One Day This Kid
The Second Time Around
