Back in the day, Oscar-nominated short films were a mystery to anyone who wasn’t able to catch them at a film festival. One great thing about streaming services is that short films are now getting so much more visibility and can reach far wider audiences. This year, almost all of the nominated films are available to watch on YouTube and/or various streaming services. So if you are one of those who keeps an Oscar ballot scorecard, you too can have an opinion on these terrific films… rather than just wondering what lies behind the title!
Titles marked with a ➤ mean you can watch the full film online now, either for free or on a streaming service.
Best Animated Short Film
The Girl Who Cried Pearls➤ Butterfly: A man swims in the sea. As he moves through the water, memories come back to him from the bright beaches of the Indian Ocean to the grey of the concentration camps. In this moving animated short, Florence Miailhe tells the extraordinary story of Alfred Nakache, the “swimmer from Auschwitz”. (Watch film on YouTube)
➤ Forevergreen: An orphaned bear cub finds a home with a fatherly evergreen tree, until his hunger for trash leads him to danger. (Watch film on YouTube)
➤ The Girl Who Cried Pearls: A haunting stop-motion animation fable about a girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds. (Watch film on YouTube)
➤ Retirement Plan: In John Kelly’s animated short film, nothing’s off limits when it comes to thinking about the future—particularly when there’s so much left to do. (Featuring Domhnall Gleason) (Watch film on YouTube)
The Three Sisters: Three sisters live a lonely life on an isolated island, each in their own small house. One day, circumstances develop in such a way that they are forced to rent out one of the houses. (Watch trailer on YouTube)
Best Live Action Short Film
Two People Exchanging Saliva➤ Butcher’s Stain: Samir, a Palestinian butcher working at an Israeli supermarket, is accused of tearing down the Israeli hostage posters in the break room. Samir sets out to prove his innocence in order to keep his job he desperately needs. (Watch film on Kanopy)
A Friend of Dorothy: Miriam Margolyes plays a lonely widow whose body is failing, but her mind remains as bright as ever. When 17-year-old JJ accidentally kicks his football into her garden, he upends Dorothy’s daily routine of pills, prunes and crosswords, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. (Watch trailer on YouTube)
➤ Jane Austen’s Period Drama: England, 1813. In the middle of a long-awaited marriage proposal, Miss Estrogenia Talbot gets her period. Her suitor, the dashing Mr. Dickley, mistakes the blood for an injury, and it soon becomes clear that his very expensive education has most certainly missed a spot. (Watch film on YouTube)
➤ The Singers: An impromptu singing contest at a dive bar turns a lonely night into a soul-baring moment of shared harmony. (Watch film on Netflix)
➤ Two People Exchanging Saliva: Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata’s film is set in a dystopian version of Paris where kissing is forbidden and purchases are made through small acts of violence. (Watch film on YouTube)
Best Documentary Short
The Devil is Busy➤ All the Empty Rooms: A journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings. (Watch film on Netflix)
➤ Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud: An intimate portrait of documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, the first American journalist killed while covering the war in Ukraine. (Watch film on HBO Max)
Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”: In Tel Aviv, silent vigils mourn Gaza’s children—absent, yet achingly present in large-scale photographs. Defying public scorn to confront a war’s toll, the activists’ quiet protests echo louder than words. (Watch trailer on YouTube)
➤ The Devil Is Busy: This award-winning short film chronicles a day on the frontlines in the battle for reproductive rights at a women’s healthcare clinic. (Watch film on HBO Max)
➤ Perfectly a Strangeness: In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be. (Watch film on Kanopy or the Criterion Channel)
