2024 Oscar Nominated Shorts

It's been another year of tracking down all the Oscar nominated Shorts! Thanks to my pals over at r/oscarsdeathrace as always for helping me fill in the gaps with finding these films online. I've broken them down into each category and ranked them from best to worst. Have you seen any of these? Tell me what you think!

Best Animated Short Film

Our Uniform - The clear favorite for me. I loved how unique the animation was in this! And at 7 minutes, it's the shortest watch of the bunch. Very easy to enjoy. A

Ninety-Five Senses -There's a lot of feelings packed into 13 minutes. The animation is very unique and fun to watch. Not a fan of Tim Blake Nelson's hillbilly voice performance though. B

War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko - This is the most emotional I've been over an animal death for a while, but I suspect the music used is giving this a lot of goodwill. Animation is cool, though. C+

Pachyderm - The animation was not very pleasing to look at, and I think that was a big part of why I didn't connect with this one.  I connected so little that the fact that this was about childhood sexual assault didn't even register right away. C

Letter to a Pig - This film is what dreams are like when you're on an antidepressant. At least in my experience. It was weird, a jumbled mess of animation, sketches, and live action. There were so many allegories, I couldn't tell you what it all meant. I imagine this one will be very subjective. I could see why someone would love it if they picked up on every little thing. C-

Best Documentary Short Film

The Barber of Little Rock - Arlo Washington, tired of "banking while black" decides to give back to his community by opening a loan processing company to help those who cannot get loans from big banks. This was very inspirational and really makes you want to go out and see how you can help. A

The ABCs of Book Banning - This documentary choses to focus on the children in America being affected by Republican lawmakers banning books. They were given age appropriate banned, or restricted books to comment on, and shared their thoughts. You can see a pattern with what books get banned over others. Book banning is something that has always frustrated me. Many of the books on these banned lists were ones that shaped me greatly as a kid. This might not be as technically savvy as some of the other nominees, but the message gets across. B+

Island In Between - Director S. Leo Chiang examines his homeland of Taiwan, more specifically Kinmen, a group of islands governed by Tawain, but only a few miles off the coast of China. To me, this felt like the start of a conversation instead of a full one. I think Chiang could've made a feature length film featuring more Taiwanese voices if he wanted to. Hopefully after seeing this, someone gives him the funding to do so. B

Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó - Very unserious compared to the other nominees, but so very sweet. How can you not be charmed by this sweet little grannies? B

The Last Repair Shop - I've seen films by both filmmakers involved with this and you can see how much they've grown from a technical standpoint. This film is shot very well, and it's a great thing all the folks involved are doing. I just didn't find this one as compelling as some of the others in this category. B-

Live Action Short Film

Red, White And Blue - There's a scene in this that made me feel like I got the wind knocked out of me. People who vote to ban reproductive rights are the enemy. I wish they'd see this and understand the weight of their actions. A

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - I watched all of Wes Anderson's Roald Dahl shorts and this one is definitely the best. I enjoyed it, it's beautiful like all of Wes' pictures and the actors were very good. I wonder if the star power of these will make it hard for the others to get votes? A

Knight Of Fortune - God, what a palette cleanser after The After. (don't worry, we'll get there) This is how you make someone FEEL. Leave it the Danes to make me snort laugh in a film about two guys struggling to come to terms with loss while in a mortuary. A

Invincible - This one is very well made, but its narrative struggles because of its lack of backstory. Why is Marc there? What lead to this? What happens after? It just needed a full length story. Still, puts The After to shame. B-

The After - And finally, the worst film nominated for an Oscar this year. David Oyelowo is a great actor and I have no clue why he agreed to star in this over the top trauma porn. It's poorly shot and shallow. F