This year’s Oscar Nominated Short films are a mix bag. The great ones Magic Candies, Death by Numbers and the last Ranger are fantastic, With Incident and Instruments of a Beating Heart not far behind. The majority of the films aren’t very good from my perspective. The ones I mentioned are my predictions to win in the three categories though with Documentary Short as the best category of the lot.

Documentary Shorts:

Instruments of a Beating Heart

Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki

This was a sweet story of Ayame and Haruka, two Japanese girls, in 1st grade, learning how to play instruments for an orchestral performance. Like little kids do, though, these girls get emotional, and the teacher has to step in. He handles the situation pretty well, though. Because it’s a Japanese film, there are subtitles. The story may have taken place around the Covid pandemic. I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

I Am Ready, Warden

Directed by Smriti Mundhra

This man, John Henry Ramirez, stabbed another man i. Corpus Christie, Texas, and fled the country to Mexico. He was caught and sentenced to Death Row as an Inmate, 2004. The son, Dominik Gonzalez, the son of a deceased man, very young at the time, is still dealing with the repercussions of Ramirez’s actions. A Chaplin, woman,  godmother, reads poetry to him and tries to help him get out of his Death Row sentence. This is a sad story. Do you believe in the second chance that is the issue here?  I fell in the middle with this one. It’s hard not to want justice for a dead father, though. 

Incident

Film by Bill Morrison 

This story takes place in Chicago, July 14th, 2018 5:30 pm, using Dash Cam footage, pole camera footage, showing a man getting shot by police.The film uses  flashbacks to 15 minutes before the shooting to give the story some context. This document also uses subtitles on screen because it’s hard to hear everything being said all the time. The pedestrians on the street show the real situation, though. Their emotions boil over. The filmmaker uses  split screen cameras to show the full gravity of the situation. I was shocked when I watched this. It was such blatant racial profiling. It’s such a travesty that happened here in this documentary

The Only Girl In the Orchestra

Director Molly O’brien (Niece of Subject)

Orin O’Brien is a double bass cello player in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra since 1966. She’s now 76 years old and retired from playing, but she still teaches students.The film shows a performance Malher #2 Symphony,  archival footage of her performance. This doc also uses photos and talking heads to help get its point across.  She had no ambition to be a big star; she liked to be in the background. Her parents were famous actors, George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill. It was hard for her to live up to them. She tried to do her best. This was a good doc. I think being short was a good idea. I wouldn’t have been that interested in this had it been much longer.

Death By Numbers

Director Kim Snyder

Sam Fuentes is a victim of the Parkland Shooting, which took place in Broward County, near Pompano Beach, Florida, in 2018. Nicholas Cruze shot many students and a teacher at his high school. Some thought the dead survived. 17 were killed, and there were 3 suicides after the fact. The trial and subsequent testimony with lawyers to determine if this man was of able sound and mind. It was chilling listening to the people involved in this documentary. Carmen Sam’s mom was one of the talking heads. This hit home for me because I worked at a high school for twenty years. This could have happened at the school I worked at as well. Sam is a brave young woman to stand up to her shooter this way. What’s she’s dealing with in her life since then has been hard, but she moves forward. This was a great short film.

Animated Shorts:

Magic Candies

Director Diasuke Nishio

A little boy, Dong Dong, goes into a shop, and the shopkeeper gives him five candies. Each of the candies allows him to talk to different things like a couch or dog. He learns to come out of his shell and discover a little about himself and life. This short had gorgeous animation. It’s Chinese and hopefully this animator will get a shot a t something bigger in the future because this is the best of the bunch. 

In the Shadow of the Cypress

Directed by Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani

Old man and his daughter live near a beach, adjacent to a desert and a whale washes up on shore. They try to help it, get back in the ocean.The old man has PTSD from the gulf war which gives the story some context. With no words it’s hard to tell  what is really going on. The beautiful music  and block style animation give the film a different look that sets it apart.

Yuck

Written/Directed by Loic Espuche

Kids at a campground with their parents learn about kissing=love. This is a basic 2D animation story from France, but with Valentine’s Day this weekend this may be relevant for some watching. I wasn’t that impressed though. It’s more geared for kids than adults though.

Wander to Wonder

Director Nina Gantz

A group of munchkin people who starred in a tv show are left alone after their host has passed away. This stop motion animated, British film from Studio Canal creeped me out. The voice-cast featuring Toby Jones, Nell Savage and Amanda Lawrence are wasted in this story. It’s very odd.

Beautiful Men

Directed by Nicholas Keppens

Three brothers will go to Istanbul in 2021 to get hair replacement surgery. They learn about each other while they are staying at a hotel. I think the stop motion animation was pretty good, but I didn’t care about the brothers at all and the story was pretty boring from the start.

Live-Action Shorts:

Anuja

Director Adam Graves

India, two little girls, worked at a clothing factory & Anuja (Sajda Pathan) went to school. She’s the recipient of a grant, which gets her into a new special school because she’s so gifted. This shows if you have talent it can help get you the possibility of a better life, but that’s just the beginning. This was a sweet story.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Written/Directed by Nebojsa Slijepcevic

1993 Bosnia Herzegovina, militants stop a train, inspection, Dragon (Goran Bogdan), a man stands up for the rest of the passengers on the train. This showed the beginning of a good story, but was over before it got started for me. I wanted to see much more of this story.

I’m Not a Robot

Directed by Victoria Warmerdam

A great start to this documentary with an Orchestral version of “I Wish I Was Special” – Creep Song, but it doesn’t go in the direction I thought it would go in. Lara (Ellen Parron), we all get mad at the CAPTCHA prompt thing, she gets obsessed by it though. This had promise to it but fell short for me. The synth music helped the story progress, but I can’t get into more detail because it would be a spoiler. I would have liked to see more of this story though because it has potential. 

The Last Ranger

Directed by Cindy Lee

South Africa, a grandmother, father & daughter, Litha (Liyabona Magazi) all live together in Bishu. The father has to go find work and the girl goes to hang out with a friend of hers, but her life is changed forever from what she witnesses. Khusi, & Rob are rangers trying to protect the Rhinos in South Africa from poachers. gThe film has good editing which splits the two stories. A spoiler warning is in order to do animal violence though for those who are triggered by that sort of thing. Other than that this was a very good short. My favorite of the lot.

A Lien

Written/Directed by Sam & Cutler Kreutz

This would be a parent’s nightmare. A little girl is caught in the middle of an important meeting,  and immigration services involving his father and his marital status with his wife and her mother. This happens more than I’d like to admit in this country and it’s sad to say. Sometimes our authorities are overzealous in their pursuits of illegal aliens. This was a good documentary though.

Dan Skip Allen