Oscar Nominated Shorts (2020)

Short films often impress me with just how much they can accomplish in so little time. They commonly present a richness that is missing from our current streaming video entertainment which has no limits by making us experience a story in one moment instead of drawing it out for so long. I was able to enjoy most of the Oscar nominated short films this year and here are my thoughts.

Live Action
Brotherhood
This Tunisian/Canadian film about a son reunited with his family is beautiful and tragic as it explores the way political divisions are dividing families in our current age. It captures what is often so powerful about short films, it tells its story succinctly yet powerfully, capturing a moment in time. The final shot features some of the best acting I've seen all year. 

Nefta Football Club
Another Tunisian (and French) film, this story has a humorous side as it follows two soccer loving boys who find a donkey (who has been trained to cross the border when listening to Adele's music) loaded with drugs and attempt to take him home. The humour belies the intersection of danger and innocence explored here, giving the film a seriousness despite the oddball nature of the plot.

The Neighbor's Window
This American film follows a couple who become obsessed with a young sexy couple they can see in a near by apartment window which brings them to face their own relationship and the trajectory of their lives. I found the film quite astute in the way it gets at our insecurities and how easy it can be to lose who we are in our race to keep up with life.

Saria
This story following two orphans touches on many themes including family, immigration, sexism, and abuse, all in its short run time. Its ending is gut wrenching, especially in light of it being based on a true story.

Une Soeur (A Sister)
This French film adds a different sort of element to the mix as we follow a woman on a date who calls
her "sister" but it turns out she calls emergency. She can't outright communicate so the operator has to talk in code. It gets more and more frightening as it moves along and grips us for the entire film.Reminiscent of one of last year's nominations, Mother, in numerous ways, Sister is tense and relevant.

Animated
Dcera (Daughter)
The animation style in Dcera is gorgeous, textured, and jumps off the screen as it tells the story of a woman reconnecting to her dying father. The film, in capturing it's complex story, also innovates its animation style, by involving a very lived in stop motion technique that makes the film feel like nothing else you've ever seen. Dcera is probably the most technically impressive achievement of the nominated films.

Hair Love
My personal favourite, this lovely, stylized tale of a daughter and father learning to take care of her hair is just gorgeous and inspiring. I love that it doesn't give into cliches and instead gives us something that is both powerful and inspiring. It is just beautiful to watch.

Kit Bull
I love hand drawn animation and there so little of it out there that I am glad the obligatory slot for Disney went to this charming little story about a stray kitten befriending a pit bull. It is probably the weakest story in the group, predictable and sentimental, but its lovely all the same.

Memorable 
The animation in this French film is made to have a paper mache feel. It tells the story of a man losing his faculties and despite the richness of colour and visuals throughout chronicles a loss, told with a great deal of sadness and love.

Sister
This is the second short film with this name nominated this year, but it couldn't be more different from the first. The stop motion in this American Chinese short animated film is woolly, and grey-scale giving a nostalgic feel to this remembrance film. It's story is charming and then turns into something else.

Documentary
In the Absence
Like many of the documentary shorts chosen this year, In the Absence is startlingly upsetting. Chronicling the sinking of a ferry where hundreds of people lost their lives, it forces us to look at this tragedy and feel the staggering loss in a way that reading the news headlines does not. Perhaps the perfect encapsulation of what a documentary can do.

Life Over Takes Me
This Swedish film starts with a strikingly beautiful shot and it pulls you into its heart breaking story. It is an exploration of despair like nothing I've ever seen.  

Walk Run Cha-Cha
It's impossible not to love this little film that follows a couple training for a ballroom dance competition who reunite after 40 years after being separated during the Vietnam War. Director Laura Nix films this couple with a quiet reverence which is just so delightful, and she captures the magic of their dancing and it is glorious.