2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action

“Invincible” by Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron

From Canada, comes the live action short Invincible which was inspired by a true story. It is about a young teenage boy who at the beginning of the film finds himself being chased by police, calls his mother on the phone and then in an act of desperation kills himself to prevent being captured. The shocking opening is followed with a flash back to a happier time being spent with his parents and sister swimming at a lake. Then we learn that he must be returned to the juvenile facility that he has been sentenced to. For the rest of the short we share in his experiences of anguish over his situation. He is clearly in a great deal of pain despite the encouraging words from one of the counsellors. It is a gripping tale of the hopelessness and self-loathing that this young man went through before escaping through the only means that he could see.

“Red, White and Blue” by Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane

Finally, there is Red, White and Blue, starring Brittany Snow (of Pitch Perfect, American Dreams and Almost Family) in this searing indictment of the abortion laws that are taking over much of the country. Snow plays Rachel, a single mother of two young children who is trying to make ends meet by working as a waitress in a diner. Early we see that she is struggling to raise money for a much needed abortion. Because of the laws she must travel several hundred miles from her home to get to an abortion clinic and find a way for her kids to be cared for. Then she is able to make the long journey thanks to the generosity of a stranger she meets at the diner. It is only later that we learn how much worse the situation is for her. The short lays out just how inhumane some of these abortion laws are and the effect they have on the less fortunate.

2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated

“Pachyderme”, by Stéphanie Clement

This animated short film tackles the delicate subject of family incest and repressed memory. It is very colorful and uses a more traditional method of animation. The main character is a little girl in the south of France who visits her grandparents in the countryside. Her adult self says she doesn’t like when her mother leaves and speaks of battling monsters in the narrative. She often spends time with her grandfather, but also, she is alone on a swing set or in a lake. The “pachyderme” reference of the title is of a large elephant tusk that is in the house as a trophy which seems to reference the monster that we never see. Any inappropriate actions are only barely hinted at on screen. The only sense of something being wrong is the disconnected way that the girl is drawn. The film effectively creates mixed feelings from the audience.

“WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko” by Dave Mullins and Brad Booker This animated short is also done in a traditionally drawn manner and depicts an alternate version of World Way I with long periods of inaction in the trenches. The nationalities of the warring sides seem to be generic not representing any specific combatants, but they are obviously different from each other. The action centers on a carrier pigeon that flies from one side of the trenches to the other while carrying chess moves written on a scrap of paper. A soldier from each of the two countries are having a chess match that moves one turn at a time whenever the pigeon makes its journey. The action starts out very slowly and gradually builds generating more interest from the other soldiers until the match is interrupted when the order comes for the assault to begin. The climax comes when the two opposing soldiers meet face to face on the battlefield with one recognizing the notes with the chess moves written on them. It is only at the end of scene when John Lennon’s familiar song “Happy Christmas (War is Over)” plays that we see the inspiration for the short that gives hope for a time when war can become a thing of the past. We may have forgotten that Lennon’s song was originally a protest against the war in Vietnam.

2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films Animated             4½ stars

Yuck!     France

This stylistically simple animated short tells what happens when we let peer pressure force us to conform to other’s expectations. It can deny us the happiness that we desire. We observe a group of children exploring the family campground where they are staying. The children like to spy on adults of all ages and when they spot a couple engaged in kissing, they yell in disgust, point at them saying Yuck! Only in this world when people are thinking of kissing their lips glow with sparkling pink, so we get a clue of what’s coming. One of the children, Leo, finds himself thinking about another child, Lucie, and is embarrassed when his own lips start to sparkle. Lucie must be thinking the same thing, because she experiences the sparkling lips as well. Leo hides in shame when the other kids spot them and make fun of Leo, realizing that this is unacceptable behavior to his peers. However, when he is inside the tent at night, he can spot the glow coming from his own parents, then when he peers outside, he can see that all of the tents in the campground have the same pink glow; thus, revealing that what he is feeling is neither unusual nor shameful. So, he might just find the courage to act on his feelings, realizing that the taunts of others are just an act of hypocrisy.

Wander to Wonder         Netherlands/Belgium/France/UK

A much different style and darker tone are featured in the shop motion animated short Wander to Wonder. In this extremely detailed piece, we meet Uncle Gilly, a children’s TV show host who has created an animated show in eighties style using a video camera and VHS tapes. His show features three animated characters who look like fuzzy bear puppets whose antics are suitable for children. Gilly has conversations with them while filming them for broadcast. Later, we see the shoes of Uncle Gilly still on his feet suggesting that he has passed away. The three characters live on and are left to fend for themselves in the decaying studio that now has flies accumulating around Gilly’s body. We see that the fuzzy characters are actually tiny humans in costumes, and they now have to find ways of surviving as they look for scraps of food in the confines of the studio. Left unsupervised, they descend into depravity and lose any sense of decency. They experiment with schemes to escape their situation that could lead to their demise. The film is a bold statement that reminds one of Lord of the Flies. The animation is impeccable and remarkably realistic.

2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films Live Action          4 ½ stars

This week I saw more of the Oscar Nominated Shorts; this time it was the live action shorts. As always, they are from all over the world and have a good message for us. Here are two of my favorites, both of which deal with the harrowing effects of racism.

A lien                     USA       4 stars

In A lien by directors Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz, we are told the story of a young couple, Sophia and Oscar who show up for their appointment at a US Immigration center. Sophia is a citizen and Oscar is undocumented, though he has lived in the US for most of his life. They have their five-year-old daughter in tow. Following protocol, the two are separated for their interviews with an immigration agent. Suddenly, there is some commotion, and Sophia sees that US ICE Agents have shown up and are starting to round people up. It seems that a raid is being conducted just at the moment the unfortunate couple have come in for their interview. For some added context we see a shot of a television in the room that is showing President Trump speaking during his first term. Sophia tries to text Oscar, who is in a different room trying to warn him but is unable to get a response. The tension rises as Oscar realizes something is wrong and tries to escape the building with his daughter. Throughout the process we can see the apathy exhibited by the immigration agents just doing their jobs. The fact that ICE is able to use the Immigration offices as a place to conduct their raids shows just how hypocritical the US immigration laws are. This fact is displayed on the screen at the end of the short. We see the uncertainty that people who have built their lives here have and the fear of being deported to a country they have little memory of.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent  Croatia/Bulgaria/France/Slovenia             5 stars

In what must be the most frightening of the five shorts presented, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent starts with a group of passengers who have boarded a train, all speaking a Slavic language. In one train compartment are gathered a family including Dragan, a young man named Milan and two other older men. The train is stopped by a group of uniformed soldiers who are demanding to see everyone’s ID’s, so things get very tense for this group of passengers. Milan tells Dragan that he has no ID, so Dragan tells him not to worry as they will all stick together. We can surmise that Milan is Muslim and everyone else is Christian. Then one of the soldiers starts to question Dragan and we know things are going to get worse when he is asked to say who his patron saint is. When it is Milan’s turn, he must reveal that he has no ID and is told to come with the soldier. By now we can conclude that this is a paramilitary force without any actual connection to the government. During this line of questioning Dragan remains silent not offering any defense to poor Milan. Finally, one of the older men in the compartment speaks up telling the soldier to leave Milan alone. He reveals that his name is Tomo and that he is a retired army officer. He demands to speak to the soldier’s superior officer so that the situation can be resolved. At the end the camera pans around the compartment showing that everyone is still there except for Tomo. The setting of the film is the genocide that happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993. The film shows us that in a situation involving ethnic cleansing it’s not only the victims that suffer but also those that want to help but can’t if it means putting their own lives in danger. Tomo, who lived and is memorialized in the end credits, is the title character and the hero who put his own life on the line by defying the evil that only seeks power for itself. The film makes a very powerful statement about how different people react to facing those abusing their power.

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl            4 stars

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl by the British team of Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham continues the tale of these two close buddies in the second feature film of the series. There are many short films featuring these lovable characters though that are masterful in their use of stop motion animation. This time inventor Wallace has fallen on hard times as he can’t pay his bills, though he keeps on inventing gadgets that help him with his morning routine. He has come up with something new in the form of a robot that looks like a gnome called “Norbot”. Norbot is fully automatic and is programmed to do the chores around the house, something not very welcome to Gromit, Wallace’s canine friend, who sees Norbot’s work in the garden as an intrusion, not something helpful. The constant happy look on Norbot’s robot face is also disquieting. Soon Wallace starts a business renting out Norbot to neighbors doing their yardwork. There is another disturbing character in this story and that is the master criminal Feathers McGraw, the penguin who was sent away to prison long ago thanks to Wallace & Gromit. So, when McGraw finds out what Wallace has done with his gnome robot, he comes up with his own very inventive plan to get revenge on the pair. He is able to access Norbot’s programming via the internet and change its setting from Good to Evil. Norbot then sets about creating duplicates of himself to form an army of robot gnomes that are themselves programmed to create havoc in the neighborhood. The resulting crime wave gets the attention of the bumbling chief inspector Albert Mackintosh and his sidekick PC Mukherjee who trace the troublesome gnomes back to Wallace, just as the evil Feathers McGraw has intended. Of course, this leaves the solving of the crimes up to the faithful, but silent Gromit who must identify McGraw as the real criminal and find a way to stop him. Poor Wallace just can’t imagine that Norbot, his creation, could do anything wrong. There is plenty of action and comedy in this animated tale, that has more than a few references to the James Bond and Mission: Impossible movies that adults will enjoy. McGraw’s manner and master plans will remind you of the supervillains in these movies. Besides being fun and cute, the movie raises questions about the place of automation in our society and whether it is preferred to have that human touch of doing things ourselves. The movie is a short 79 minutes making it very easy to go through it in one sitting. Of course, there are certain things that will appeal more to British audiences, but it’s fun for everyone else too. Wallace & Gromit was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award, which is well deserved.