The Academy has published a list of the best short films of the year

Doc Short contenders give voters plenty to think about

All 15 films shortlisted for the Documentary Short Oscar category are powerful and thought-provoking, making the competition for this year’s Oscars incredibly tough.

The leaders are “The Incident”, “The Only Girl in the Orchestra”, “Honeycombs”, “Death by Numbers” and “Keepers”.

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The first 89 seconds of Bill Morrison’s police brutality doc The Incident are silent. Security camera footage shows a street in Chicago on a July 2018 day. A few minutes later, the person is dead. Through a series of CCTV and police body camera footage shot from different vantage points, Morrison offers a raw look at how Chicago police shot and killed an unarmed black man. The 29-minute film The New Yorker won Best Documentary Short at the 2023 IDA Documentary Awards and earned a spot on the DOC NYC Impact List earlier this year.

Netflix’s The Only Girl in the Orchestra and Jennifer McShane’s The Quilters also made the DOC NYC doc shortlist this year.

In the 34-minute documentary “The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” director Molly O’Brien tells the story of groundbreaking double bassist Orin O’Brien, the first woman hired by the New York Philharmonic. The executive producer of the film was Errol Morris. In the film, the 87-year-old musician recalls her amazing life and career. McShane’s 31-minute film, “The Quilters,” tells the story of men in Missouri’s fifth maximum security prison who create quilts for foster children. The film, which premiered at DC/DOX earlier this year, beautifully explores how an art form can change a person and how they see themselves and others.

No less convincing is the film by Kim A. Snyder’s Death by Numbers, a poignant look at gun violence in America. The 33-minute documentary, which premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival, follows Samantha Fuentes four years after she was shot with an AR-15 during the Parkland High School shooting. As he prepares to confront his gunman, Fuentes ponders the existential questions of hatred and justice. Interweaving Fuentes’ poetry and the trial of her shooter, which will decide whether he lives or dies, the documentary portrays a young woman reclaiming her power.

In Hannah Rafkin’s 39-minute film The Keeper , a single father and beekeeper from the Bronx, battling a cancer diagnosis and balancing the needs of his daughter, cares for 16 beehives in New York City, including several in his apartment. Rafkin, a student at the School of Fine Arts, won the Student Academy Award for The Guardian in October.

Other notable contenders include Rashida Jones and Will McCormack’s POV short Swimming Lesson, and Julio Palacio’s Netflix documentary Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World, executive produced by Oscar-winner Roger Ross Williams.
—Addie Morfoot

Live Oscar hopefuls leave powerful messages for viewers

This year’s line-up of timely Oscar shorts is filled with social stories, heart-pounding thrillers and explorations of identity.

Marco Perego’s The Dovecote stars his leading lady, Zoe Saldaña, marking their second collaboration since Eden Absence. Shot in black and white, the atmospheric prison drama was a standout at Venice and HollyShorts.

Palme d’Or winner Nebojša Sljepčević’s betting favourite, The Man Who Couldn’t Keep Silent, tells the true story of one man who stood up to paramilitaries during an ethnic cleansing operation in Belgrade.

Alex Lora’s Masterpiece won Best Short Film in Berlin and the Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize. It examines the disparity in Spain’s economic culture and the unequal treatment of immigrants by nationality.

HollyShorts winner by Adam J. Graves’ “Anuja,” about child labor in India, received high-profile mini-album endorsements from Oscar-winning Indian producer Gunit Monga Kapoor and Hollywood actress Mindy Kaling.

Victoria Warmerdam’s short film about Brussels, Sitges and the Dutch sci-fi film I Am Not a Robot feels like a peak episode of Black Mirror. The adaptation function is being developed.

Spanish director Dani Freixas’ “Paris 70” is a similar look at Alzheimer’s disease, as seen from the POV of the victim’s son and caregiver. Jean de Meuron’s The Edge of Space boasts Top Gun-worthy VFX that would make most big-budget films blush. A Lien, about a young couple’s struggle with a dangerous immigration process, is the latest from up-and-coming brothers Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz.

TJ O’Grady-Peyton’s Room Taken, about a homeless Nigerian immigrant who lives with an elderly blind woman, received significant celebrity support when Colin Farrell joined as EP. An Orange from Jaffa by Mohammed Almoughani, about a taxi driver and his Palestinian passenger looking for a ride to the Israeli border, won the Clermont-Ferrand International Competition.

The Ice Cream Man by Robert Monio tells the true story of a Jewish ice cream parlor owner after the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. Cindy Lee’s The Last Ranger, the second film in the featured anthology, is the story of a young girl and a park ranger who are ambushed by poachers in a wildlife sanctuary.

HollyShorts Winner by Portia A. Buckley’s best shot in Clodagh tells the story of a priest’s housekeeper who discovers a young girl with an exceptional gift for dancing. Two student Oscar winners were shortlisted for this year’s main competition: “The Compatriot” by Pavel Sykora and Viktor Horak and “Crust” by Jens Kevin Georg.
——Jamie Lang

The animated Oscar shortlist is all about the indies

Fifteen films representing 13 countries have been shortlisted for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

This year’s qualifying field is notable for not featuring studio names, star producers or celebrities voicing the talent. Race 2025 will be a showcase for truly independent animation.

Perhaps the most mainstream of this year’s nominees is indie superstar Don Herzfeldt’s “I.” A two-time Academy Award nominee, the filmmaker has long been one of the Internet’s favorite animators and helped define the early history of Internet animation with the viral short film Rejected. He was last nominated by the Academy in 2016 for the short film Future World.

Canada’s Toril Cove will be seeking her fourth nomination with Maybe Elephants, which screened in competition in Annecy, Berlin and Toronto. Cove previously received Oscar nominations for My Grandmother Ironed the King’s Shirts and Me and My Moulton, and in 2007 won a golden statue for The Danish Poet.

Another strong contender is Bottle George from former Pixar animator and Oscar nominee Dais Tsutsumi. In 2015, his dialogue-free short The Dam Keeper was nominated.

Persebes, the 2024 Annecy Cristal Best Short by Portuguese filmmakers Alexandra Ramírez and Laura Gonçalves, is a follow-up to Gonçalves’ previous shortlist, The Dumpster, on which Ramírez worked as an animator.

A promising trend to be found in recent Academy voting history is the increased recognition of up-and-coming student filmmakers. For the second year in a row, student Oscar prize-winning films have been shortlisted for the main competition: this year they are the films Au Revoir Mon Monde by Astrid Novaya, Florian Maurice, Quentin Devred, Maxim Folzer, Estelle Bonnardel and Baptiste Duchamp at the French Ecole MoPA and “Origami” by Kei Kanamori, a student at Tokyo’s Digital Hollywood University.

Other titles in this year’s race include Alexandra Miotte and Jean-Sébastien Amel in Ottawa and SXSW award winner Crab in the Pool; Wojtek the Bear by Ian Gardner; Nicolas Keppens’ Beauties in Annes, twice awarded; In the Shadow of the Cypress by Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi, the second Iranian film to be shortlisted for animated films in the past two years; and Daisuke Nishio’s CG short Magic Candy.

Rounding out the field is Todd Paulson’s The 21, created by a global team of over 70 artists; Nina Ganz, SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner Wander to Wonder; Anna Samo’s innovative Woodstock winner The Wild-Tempered Clavier; and Loic Espuchet’s Berlinale standout Yes!
—Jamie Lang

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