2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action

I completed my viewing of all the Oscar Nominated Short Films with the Live Action Shorts. They varied from the amusing to the absurd.

The strangest short by far is the French entry, Two People Exchanging Saliva by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh. It is a disturbing story taking place in a dystopian future. Most of the film takes place in a high-end department store where the employees must have their breath checked upon entry to make sure they are not brushing their teeth. The customers pay for their purchases by being slapped in the face by the salespeople based on the price of their goods. In this world kissing is prohibited and anyone caught is put to death and the body placed in a cardboard box that is discarded in a pit. In the story a young salesgirl connects with an older woman customer with the two playing a game pretending that they know each other. This type of behavior is forbidden. It is filmed in all black and white using creative filming techniques to create dread and confusion. It’s a story about denied intimacy and casual violence.

From Israel comes a story about prejudice called Butcher’s Stain by Meyer Levinson-Blount. It features a young Palestinian man working in an Israeli market as a butcher. It takes place during the Gaza war, so tensions are high between Palestinian and Jewish people who share the same space. The story centers on false accusations made against the Palestinian butcher by one of the Jewish co-workers and his efforts to defend himself. The story seemed a little flimsy to me with some unnecessary scenes. It was not my favorite.