Short of the Week
It’s crunch time for those short films battling for an Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards. With voting having closed on January 17th, today’s announcement sees the 45 shortlisted films whittled down to just 15, five in each of the three categories – Best Animated Short Film, Best Documentary Short Film & Best Live Action Short Film.
Oscar Short Films 2023: The Nominees Collection
We already picked our favorites, in our Voter’s Guide piece earlier this month, and as usual The Academy didn’t take our advice, with only five (three in Animation, one in Documentary and one in Live-Action) of our recommendations taking the next step to the nominations stage. The rest will just have to be happy with making it onto our list – surely better than an Oscar?
With a wait of well over a month for the awards ceremony – which takes place on Sunday March 12th – there’s plenty of time to dive into the nominations lists and pick your own favorites or make predictions for the short’s you think will win.
Here are this year’s nominees:
Best Animated Short Film
Short of the Week was proud to premiere My Year of Dicks early in 2023
- The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Peter Baynton & Charlie Mackesy | (BBC iPlayer & Apple TV+)
- The Flying Sailor by Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis | (The New Yorker | S/W Article)
- Ice Merchants by João Gonzalez | (The New Yorker / geoblocked in some regions)
- My Year of Dicks by Sara Gunnarsdóttir | (Vimeo | SW Article)
- An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It by Lachlan Pendragon | (Trailer only)
Reaction: With The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse feeling like a certainty to reach the nomination stage and Canadian duo Wendy Tilby & Amanda Forbis (When the Day Breaks, Wild Life) nominated for every film they’ve created together, it felt like there were really 13 films fighting for the final three spaces in the Best Animated Short Film category. Ice Merchants, My Years of Dicks, Sierra and Steakhouse were our favorites, along with The Flying Sailor and we’re happy to see two of those four make the cut. It’s obviously disappointing that the more experimental pieces from S/W alums Špela Čadež (Nighthawk) and Sander Joon (Velodrool, Sounds Good) weren’t included in the nominations, as that would have indicated further changes in a category which has started to shy away from its past of favoring big studio shorts. Lachlan Pendragon’s film An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It felt like the real surprise pick of the bunch, but we’ll be pulling for My Years of Dicks as we were proud to premiere Pamela Ribon and Sara Gunnarsdóttir’s film earlier in 2023.
Previous winner: The Windshield Wiper by Alberto Mielgo
Alberto Mielgo’s The Windshield Wiper – click on image to watch film on YouTube
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Best Documentary Short Film
Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev’s Haulout was one of our favorite documentaries in 2022
- The Elephant Whisperers by Kartiki Gonsalves | (Netflix)
- Haulout by Evgenia Arbugaeva & Maxim Arbugaev | (The New Yorker | S/W Review)
- How Do You Measure a Year? by Jay Rosenblatt | (Trailer only)
- The Martha Mitchell Effect by Debra McClutchy & Anne Alvergue | (Netflix)
- Stranger at the Gate by Joshua Seftel | (The New Yorker)
Reaction: With only 1 of our 5 suggestions in this category ascending to a nomination, I can’t help but feel disappointed, despite it being a strong group on the whole. Netflix continues to exert its influence with two of the five nominations (even though The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone, which didn’t make the shortlist, was their most excellent awards season contender). The S/W team’s heart will be with Haulout, the difficult, austere film that comments on climate change via an observational look at Walrus migration in the distant Arctic, but a smart bettor should look to Stranger at the Gate which delivers audiences the sort of redemptive uplift that is popular when it comes to awards.
Previous winner: The Queen of Basketball by Ben Proudfoot
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Best Live Action Short Film
Nattirkken (Night Ride) is the only title in the Best Live Action Short Film category that you can currently watch online (and only in North America)
- An Irish Goodbye by Ross White & Tom Berkeley | (Trailer only)
- Ivalu by Anders Walter | (Trailer only)
- Le Pupille (The Pupils) by Alice Rohrwacher | (Disney+)
- Nattirkken (Night Ride) by Eirik Tveiten | (The New Yorker – North America Only)
- La Valise Rouge (The Red Suitcase) by Cyrus Neshvad | (Trailer only)
Reaction: Kudos to prior winner and S/W alum Anders Walter (9 Meter) for garnering another nomination, this time with Ivalu. The category as a whole is a mixed bag and once again voters failed to pay attention to our recommendations with just 1 of our favorites being nominated. That one, Le Pupille, should be considered the favorite in the category now. Rohrwacher is the most notable of the remaining directors and while not a household name, her 2018 feature Happy as Lazzaro was very well received, winning Best Screenplay at Cannes that year before being acquired by Netflix. This short, backed by Disney, is both the film we think should, and will, win.
Previous winner: The Long Goodbye by Aneil Karia