2018 Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts

There was a wide variety of subjects addressed in this year’s short films, but all were very serious.  Not one of the shorts could be called a comedy which is unusual.  Perhaps that is a sign of the times we live in.  Four out of the five actually involved children being placed in danger strangely enough so several of them should be considered disturbing.  The one I liked the best was called Mother is from Spain.  The short largely consists of one single continuous scene where the only people on screen are a young woman who is a mother and her mother.  The two go about their business in the apartment as normal until the mother receives a phone call from her six year old son who is calling from an unknown beach.  It seems he was with his father, but now the father is missing and the boy is left all alone on a barren beach with no one in sight.  The mother is forced to deal with this terrifying situation, trying to figure out where he is and notifying the police of the terrible predicament.  It is a harrowing, well-acted scene.  My guess is that the eventual winner will be Skin which deals with the matter of hate and violence between the white and black characters.