The 15 Oscar-nominated short films reviewed: What should win?

Short films require the same tools and sensibilities as feature films, and when they are wonderful, they can be equally exemplary of the promise of cinema. Fortunately, the Academy Awards still honor them in three categories, and this year's documentary, animated, and live-action hopefuls demonstrate the artistry and breadth of this concentrated form. (All 15 films will have a limited release starting tomorrow.)

Of course, not all categories are created equal in any given season, and this year the live action group is the messiest in quality. The best entry, and the most likely winner, is Wes Anderson's colorful pop-up snack. “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” a magical Roald Dahl adaptation of nested narratives, great actors changing costumes and spectacular dioramas. With its twin threads of dedication and philanthropy, it should be every billionaire's bedtime wristwatch. But it's also Anderson at his most spiritually and inventively complete.

The other four shorts stick to harsh reality, but navigate its dark spaces with varying success. Lasse Lyskjær Noer's “Knight of Fortune” turns an older man's elusive goodbye into a moving, expertly performed comedy between awkward widowers. The slippery London scene “The after,” from director Misan Harriman, takes an unwieldy path to its heartbreaking ending, but is especially lucky to have the magnificent David Oyelowo as its grieving protagonist.

Canadian filmmaker Vincent René-Lortie “Invincible” He's also working through some intense feelings, in this case about the last 48 hours of a troubled young man (Léokim Beaumier-Lépine) the director knew. He is haunting, self-consciously artistic, and ultimately distancing: some mysteries of loss are harder to convey. However, the very real absence of the right to abortion is felt throughout the black part of Nazrin Choudhury's life. “Red white and blue.” His single mother waitress's (Brittany Snow) struggle to cross the state line for a procedure is a waiting punch.

An image from the animated short “The war is over! Inspired by the music of John and Yoko.”

(Courtesy of 2024 ShortsTV)

The animation category isn't much more edifying. (Generally speaking, animated shorts are more adventurous than their feature-length brethren.) “War is over! Inspired by the music of John and Yoko”, by Pixar alum Dave Mullins, attempts to combine a somber theme (soldiers in a World War I-type trench battle) with a positive message (can't we all just play chess?). As Lennon-Ono's peace anthem “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” plays, surely so does Stanley Kubrick at his grave. More cheerful about mortality is the charming and melancholy “Ninety-five senses” the first animated short from “Napoleon Dynamite” duo Jared and Jerusha Hess, in which a doomed man (Tim Blake Nelson, in a honeyed country style) reflects on the senses he will soon lose.

The remaining nominees (strokes of style and mood) are more astute evocations, delving into spaces where memories are vivid but elusive. In the short between fabric and animation “Our uniform” by Yegane Moghaddam (the first Iranian filmmaker nominated in this category), memories of a girl's school life are imaginatively embroidered in the folds and textures of her obligatory clothing, creating seven vibrant minutes of feeling. Childhood is also at the center of Stéphanie Clement's subtle and disturbing film. “Pachyderm” with its narrator cautiously recalling a summer by the lake with her grandparents. Each pictorial frame simultaneously evokes superficial beauty and submerged pain.

An image from the animated short “Letter to a Pig”.

(Courtesy of 2024 ShortsTV)

What should win, if not too impenetrable to voters, is Israeli artist Tal Kantor's timely and masterful hand-drawn hybrid video. “Letter to a pig.” It depicts a bored schoolboy's absorption in a Holocaust survivor's story about a pig who saved him from the Nazis, and how it transforms from someone's literal story to a dreamlike personalization of collective trauma. In patches of pink and black and trembling images that fall apart and reassemble across generations, Kantor taps into a young man's anguish and awakening.

In the short documentary category, Taiwanese-American director Sean Wang's moving and funny snapshot of his Asian immigrant grandmothers, “Năi Nai and Wài Pó” falls on the funnier side of that age/experience divide. It's a sunset story, naturally, but also a story of rise and shine, not to mention the dancing, the cooking, the acting, and the vigorous banter (from his grandson just out of the picture). He'll want to check on his older loved ones when he's done, and why hasn't he called more?

An image from the short documentary “Năi Nai & Wài Pó”.

(Courtesy of 2024 ShortsTV)

Another personal film with a Taiwanese connection is Taipei-born S. Leo Chiang's elegant essay on identity. “Island in the middle” illuminating tensions between Taiwan and China as more complex than geopolitical news coverage would suggest, and more imprecise than passports and borders could define.

Some thematic films benefit from clarity: “The Barber of Little Rock” by Christine Turner and John Hoffman, is a thought-provoking, tight-knit study of Arkansas barber and banker Arlo Washington, whose efforts to reduce America's unfair racial wealth gap in his economically segregated city come about with a life-changing business loan. at once. . Desire “The ABCs of book banning” with Dr. Dean Sheila Nevins' first directing credit, they were more focused on their outrage. But her emphasis on the intelligent and thoughtful reactions of several elementary school students to censored books remains a valuable focus.

An image from the short documentary “The Last Repair Shop.”

(Courtesy of 2024 ShortsTV)

The highlight of the bunch (and probably an Oscar winner, if tear volume is a metric) is the gorgeous cinematography. “The ultimate repair shop” by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, featuring the workshop heroes of a Los Angeles institution that offers free instrument tunings to music students. (Full disclosure: it's a production of our own LA Times Studios.)

The short is as magnificently shot as any prestige feature film. But it is in the incredible life stories of these technicians – moving stories of tragedies overcome, difficulties repressed, and identity affirmed – combined with children's testimonies about the therapeutic impact of music, that a moving truth emerges. When a city prioritizes arts education, it cultivates its citizenry into a thriving, well-tuned symphony. Civic pride couldn't be much more melodic.