The Oscars are bullshit, right? Well, not entirely. After you get past the massive marketing campaigns, backroom handshake deals and the skewed demographics of the voting body of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, you’ll find there are some bright spots — and even some welcome surprises — within the final list of […]
Oscar shorts
Posted inArts & Entertainment
The Oscar-nominated Animated Shorts challenge viewers to face the many forms of grief
Perhaps more than any of the other 23 categories, the Oscar-nominated Animated Shorts come with the promise of fresh, risk-taking perspectives. The medium of animation is truly limitless, and for being so constrained within the mainstream, there is something liberating to view the artistic shorts explore, push and reinvent themselves for the betterment of their own narratives.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Oscar-nominated Live Action Shorts call us to tap into our ability to care
The Oscar-nominated Live Action Shorts program as a whole, though the most uneven of the three Shorts categories, is a winner. A meditation on danger, safety and choices, it presents itself to the viewer only occasionally with judgement. The strongest argument for the short film format is right here in front of us within this programming.
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Oscar Documentary Shorts urge audiences to embrace hope
This year’s slate for Best Documentary Shorts provides insight into the world’s desperate need for justice and the hope it drags behind it. Is that too bleak? Too cynical? Would you prefer hope to be leading rather than limp and full of grass stains? So do the five films nominated this year. They urge us to embrace hope of any kind, even if it’s reactionary.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
2019 Oscar Shorts — Live Action: Ranked and reviewed
Oscar season is upon us, and in previous years, I haven’t been really tuned in to movies that are nominated. But this year I’ve made a conscious effort to see as much as possible, including the live action short films. To my surprise, a majority of the shorts were highly suspenseful; some have become favorites of the films I’ve seen in quite some time.
