Every year, the Academy shines a spotlight on the best in short form filmmaking at their annual Oscar ceremony, but for many viewers these bite sized, easily digestible slices of documentaries, animated offerings, and short form fiction will be their only exposure to such films. They are both a curiosity and a welcome tradition: a showcase of some of the finest filmmaking talent in the world and an equalizer in many an Oscar prediction pool. Most moviegoers who aren’t die hard cinephiles, critics, academics, members of the Academy, or simply fans of shorts won’t see a film that isn’t a full on feature unless it’s Oscar season.
And yet, the demand is there, and the ability to work in a shorter format can often result in tighter stories, more artful explorations, and a type of creative freedom that feature filmmaking doesn’t always allow. When the decision to not broadcast all of the award winners was made by the Academy last year, the backlash was loud and clear, especially when it came to noting that short filmmaking was just as vital to the future and history of cinema as the features. After all, the first movies ever made were shorts, not features. They are the bedrock upon which all other works of cinema have been built.
This year, the fifteen total nominees in the Live Action, Animated, and Documentary shorts categories – which can all be seen on the big screen in select cities starting this week, and in some cases are readily available online – speak to the strong tradition of smaller films capable of making big impacts.
Night Ride (Nattrikken)
Four out of five of the nominees in the Live Action Oscar Shorts program aren’t in the English language (with none of them being from North America), and the one that is features heavy Irish brogues, so it’s almost like an off shoot of the Best International Feature category.
In Danish director Anders Walter’s Ivalu, an young indigenous woman named Pipaluk (Mila Heilmann Kreutzmann) searches in and around her Greenlandic village for clues pertaining to the sudden disappearance of her titular older sister (Nivi Larsen). Based on a graphic novel by Morten Dürr, Ivalu features a blend of traditional storytelling and modern fears. Sad and perceptive, Ivalu imbues its mystery with a welcome bit of subtlety and mythology.
Norwegian filmmaker Eirik Teveiten’s Night Ride (Narrrikken) effortlessly shifts tones from being a lighthearted caper of sorts to something far more serious and resounding. It starts off with a woman named Ebba (Sigrid Husjord) – frustrated at having to wait outside seemingly forever for public transit to arrive on a cold and snowy night – half-accidentally hijacking a tram. Ebba tries to bluff her way through driving a vehicle she has no clue how to operate, but she’s forced to take on a more authoritative role when one of the passengers – a transwoman named Ariel (Ola Hoemsnes Sandum) – is violently harassed by a hateful male passenger (Axel Baro Aasen). A film about bearing witness to injustice and being in the position to genuinely help and make a meaningful difference, Night Ride is thrilling without resorting to exploitation; a perfect example of a story that’s made to be told in a short form format.
Also thrilling, and my own personal favourite of the Live Action Oscar Shorts, is Cyrus Neshvad’s harrowing cat-and-mouse film The Red Suitcase (La valise rouge). It’s a little after midnight in Luxembourg, and a sixteen year old woman from Iran (Nawelle Evad) has just landed at the airport. She’s in no hurry to go through security or leave the terminal because waiting on the other side of the doors is a vastly older man that she will soon be forced to marry. Neshvad taps into a primal sort of fear that keeps building and growing the closer our heroine gets to leaving the airport. It feels palpably scary and time sensitive, packed with near misses and a carefully realized examination of a young woman being forced into doing something she doesn’t want to do. An absolutely devastating nail biter.
For those wanting something a bit less heavy, Tom Berkeley and Ross White’s An Irish Goodbye should provide a soothing and amusing balm. Turlogh (Seamus O’Hara) has made his way from London back to the Irish farm where he grew up to settle the affairs and estate of his recently passed on mum. One of the biggest questions is what to do with Lorcan (James Martin), Turlogh’s developmentally disabled younger brother. The siblings don’t want much to do with each other but find some common ground when they discover that mom left behind a list of a hundred things she wanted to do before she died, bonding as they try to carry out these final wishes with her jar of ashes in tow. An Irish Goodbye is an effective crowd pleaser, with some good laughs and a loveable hook. The performances from O’Hara and Martin also make this one worth seeking out.
But the heaviest hitter of this bunch of Oscar Shorts is filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s Le Pupille. In addition to Rohrwacher becoming one of the most intriguing, emerging auteurs of this generation (with critical darlings Happy as Lazzaro and Corpo Celeste already under her belt, alongside a healthy amount of equally well received shorts), Le Pupille is a lavish period piece distributed by Disney (making it the first Disney+ related live action short to be nominated for an Oscar) and produced in part by Alfonso Cuaron. Set during World War II at a religious boarding school on Christmas Eve, Le Pupille is a freewheeling, playful, amusing, and almost Dickensian examination of charity, selfishness, and the ways people can confuse casual cruelty with piety. It takes awhile before Rohrwacher’s vision for Le Pupille to come into focus, but once all of the pieces have fallen masterfully into place, it’s an absolute delight; another stellar work from one of the best filmmakers of her era.
Haulout
The Documentary Oscar Shorts all offer up detailed and psychologically fascinating profiles of individuals trying to figure out the world around them and challenging longstanding beliefs.
The visually jaw dropping Haulout finds Russian filmmakers Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva embedding themselves with marine biologist Maxime Chakilev, as he seeks to document one of the most chaotic and distressing animal migrations ever recorded. For years, Chakilev has spent his fall in a rundown shack in Northern Siberia studying the titular phenomenon, watching as tens of thousands of walruses gather en masse while waiting for ice to form and migration patterns to continue. Thanks to the impact of climate change, the 2020 haulout (which is documented here) was the largest and most dangerous season for the walruses yet, with over 100,000 of the animals crammed into a space too small to contain them all. Both a sad reminder of the human impact on the natural world and a somewhat frightening and darkly humorous story of a man surrounded by countless numbers of massive animals with sharp tusks, Haulout is patently unforgettable.
Also animal related, but much more heartwarming and still boasting an impactful ecological message is Kartiki Gonsalves The Elephant Whisperers. The film travels Southern India – home of the largest area in Asia where wild elephants are allowed to roam free – and spends time with Bomman and Bellie, a couple that operates a sanctuary for animals that are orphaned, abandoned, or otherwise wouldn’t be able to survive on their own. Boasting some stunning natural cinematography, and built around a human love for these animals that feels pure and nurturing (especially their relationship to young pachyderm Raghu, who’ll absolutely steal your heart), The Elephant Whisperers is a work of pure wonder and emotion.
Anne Alvergue’s The Martha Mitchell Effect moves away from the remote wilderness of the two previously mentioned Documentary Oscar Shorts and into the cutthroat jungles of Washington D.C. political influencers. If the name Martha Mitchell sounds familiar, that’s because she was also the subject of the Julia Roberts starring Starz series Gaslit from earlier last year. Mitchell was the outspoken wife of disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon’s attorney general and campaign advisor, John Mitchell. Martha Mitchell, a women always known for speaking her mind, was one of the first people to speak openly about the Watergate affair, but by making an enemy out of one of the most notoriously vindictive politicians to ever live, she was branded as being crazy. The Martha Mitchell Effect is a joy to watch because it gives someone who was branded as a liar the chance to set the record straight in their own words. It’s an engaging, infuriating, and highly entertaining look at a fascinating woman put into an unenviable and dangerous position for simply speaking truth to power.
Also entertaining, but admittedly a bit slighter is Jay Rosenblatt’s deeply personal experiment How Do You Measure a Year?. Rosenblatt (who previously directed When We Were Bullies, which was nominated in this same category last year) picks up his camera and turns it on his daughter, Ella, taking time out on her birthday every year – from the ages of two to eighteen – and asking her the same set of questions. It’s a simple concept, but one that takes patience and the active participation of both the filmmaker and their subject. It’s fun to watch how the answers to some of the bigger, more philosophical questions Jay poses about the future change over the years, but the one thing that never seems to waver is Ella’s love for her family. Not a lot of drama or tension to be found here, and the depth is pretty minimal, but How Do You Measure a Year? is still nice and sweet.
The only one of the Documentary Oscar Shorts that I’m not sold on (and actually the only one out of all fifteen nominees across all three of these categories and programs) is the borderline exploitative Stranger at the Gate, from director Joshua Seftel (War Inc.) and boasting Malala Yousafzai as an Executive Producer. Not to give too much away, but this story of a former Marine in Muncie, Indiana who planned to carry out a mass shooting at a local mosque, gets off to an uncomfortably salacious start before shifting focus in a bait and switch that feels kind of gross if you stop to think about it. The actual story, had it been told in a straightforward and possibly longer manner, has unlimited potential, but in execution, Stranger at the Gate feels like “you won’t believe what happens next” levels of clickbait that’s pandering and performative rather than deep and nuanced. The message is at the heart of Stranger at the Gate about rising above hate with love and acceptance is powerful and important, but the way the film presents itself leaves a lot to be desired.
An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It
Over in the world of Animated Oscar Shorts, four of the five nominated films are more likely to appeal to adult audiences than the younger crowd such colourful and kinetic offerings are geared towards. And that’s great because more and more animation is becoming less stigmatized in its ability to convey complex adult emotions, themes, and stories.
Fans of Office Space, The Matrix, and Severance will get a kick out of Australian filmmaker Lachlan Pendragon’s wonderfully titled stop motion animation An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It. It’s the familiar story of a hapless office drone who slowly awakens to the possibility that the world around him isn’t what it seems. Aided along by a nifty (and quite literal) framing device, Pendragon’s film is both a mind bender and a fun little treatise about soul crushing office drudgery.
A hit at Critics Week in Cannes, the evocative and stunningly drawn Ice Merchants, from Portuguese filmmaker João Gonzalez, looks at the relationship between a father and son being tested under extreme, life changing conditions, and a love that never wavers. Boasting bursts of bright red against accomplished, painterly winter locations, Ice Merchants is a subtle, experimental stunner with a lot of emotion and some genuine suspense. It’s the animated short most well suited to the viewer looking for something a bit more cerebral in their art.
Canada represents in the Animated Oscar Shorts category with the highly cinematic NFB produced lark, The Flying Sailor, directed by the team of Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. Based on a true story, The Flying Sailor follows a seaman, whose life is flashing before his eyes as he hurtles through the air following an explosion down at the docks. Forbis and Tilby nicely balance playful silliness (including some genuinely amusing nudity) and deeper reflections on love, loss, anger, and the will to keep living. Absolutely lovely.
The laugh-out-loud hilarious (although assuredly not kid friendly) My Year of Dicks isn’t just a wonderful animated short, but one of the most memorable teen comedies in ages. A collaboration between director Sara Gunnarsdóttir and writer Pamela Ribon, My Year of Dicks is an adaptation of a portion of the latter’s memoirs, Notes to Boys and Other Things I Shouldn’t Share in Public. In it, a teenaged Pam spends the year 1991 desperately trying (and failing) to lose her virginity to a variety of unworthy, aloof doofuses that she had crushes on. My Year of Dicks (which is divided into five chapters) nicely places the viewer into the shoes of a teenage woman’s increasingly existential crisis without ever talking down to the experience.
Also based on a book (and assuredly kid friendly, this time) is Peter Baynton and Charlie Mackesy’s storybook styled fable The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. Based on a book by Mackesy, The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse boasts the most lavish and eye catching visuals of this year’s animated Oscar shorts, and tells the story of a lost little boy who makes friends with three unlikely animal friends along his journey to find a home. It’s a moving, occasionally tear jerking journey with some lovely messages about being brave, not giving up, making families among friends, and always remembering that you are loved. It’s like a nice warm hug or a cup of hot chocolate around the fire on a snowy winter afternoon.
But no matter whether you see one or all of the Oscar Shorts in theatre (or if you just watch a handful of selections in a la carte on your own), know that you’ll be in for a treat, and might even be turned onto a filmmaker whose career you’ll want to keep up with in the future. These are some lovely cinematic tasting menus with dishes turned out by some of the best.
Where to see the shorts in theatres:
In Toronto at TIFF Bell Lightbox starting Friday, February 17, 2023.
In Vancouver at VIFF Centre starting Friday, February 17. (*)
In Montreal at Cinema du Parc starting Friday, February 17.
In Hamilton at Playhouse Cinema – Animated Shorts starting February 17, Live Action Shorts starting February 18.
In Waterloo at Princess Cinemas – Animated Shorts starting February 17, Live Action Shorts starting February 18, Documentary Shorts starting March 1.
In St. Catharines at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre Film House – Live Action Shorts on Thursday, February 13, Documentary Shorts on February 25, and Animated Shorts on February 26.
In Toronto at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema – Documentary Shorts ONLY starting February 24 (*)
In Toronto at Revue Cinema – Animated Shorts starting March 5, Documentary Shorts starting March 6, and Live Action Shorts starting March 7.
- = Please note that due to the length of the Documentary Shorts Program in total, VIFF and Hot Docs have chosen to divide the nominees across two separate screening packages, with special ticketing priced accordingly
Where to see some of the films at home:
Ice Merchants, The Flying Sailor, Night Ride, Haulout, and Stranger at the Gate are available to stream via The New Yorker’s YouTube Channel.
The Elephant Whisperers and The Martha Mitchell Effect are available to stream on Netflix.
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse is available to stream on Apple TV+.
My Year of Dicks is available to stream on Vimeo.
Le Pupille is available to stream on Disney+.
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