As the Academy Awards approach their centenary, it's worth noting that short films have played a role in the ceremony almost since its inception. While for the press the spotlight often gravitates toward the feature categories, for those immersed in the world of short films the announcement of the shortlists remains a highlight during awards seasons.

[caption id="attachment_38649" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Oscars-Shortlist-Collection

Find out more about all 45 shortlisted short films in our extensive collection on Shortverse.[/caption]

Today (Thu 21st Dec 2023) sees the launch of that 45-film list - with 15 short films contending for the top prize in each of the Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Live Action Short categories. Over on Shortverse, we've put together a filterable collection of the films and although not every film is currently available to view online, with nominations voting coming soon (January 11-16), we expect most of the films to pop up online over the coming weeks. Check back and we'll keep this list updated.

Best Animated Short

Wild Summon Karni and Saul

Boom directed by Gabriel Augerai, Romain Augier, Charles Di Cicco, Yannick Jacquin & Laurie Pereira de Figueiredo | Watch Now
Eeva directed by Lucija Mrzljak & Morten Tsinakov | Watch Trailer
Humo (Smoke) directed by Rita Basulto | Shortverse Page
I’m Hip directed by John Musker | Shortverse Page
A Kind of Testament directed by Stephen Vuillemin | Watch Trailer
Koerkorter (Dog Apartment) directed by Priit Tender | Shortverse Page
Letter to a Pig directed by Tal Kantor | Watch Now
Ninety-Five Senses directed by Jared Hess | Watch Trailer
Once upon a Studio directed by Dan Abraham & Trent Correy | Watch Now
Our Uniform directed by Yegane Moghaddam | Watch Trailer
Pachyderme directed by Stéphanie Clément | Watch Now
Pete directed by Bret “Brook” Parker | Watch Trailer
27 directed by Flóra Anna Buda | Watch Trailer
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko directed by Dave Mullins | Watch Trailer
Wild Summon directed by Karni Arieli & Saul Freed | Watch Trailer

Previous winner: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud

***

Best Documentary Short

Nai Nai and Wai Po Sean Wang

The ABCs of Book Banning directed by Trish Adlesic, Nazenet Habtezghi & Sheila Nevins | Watch Trailer
The Barber of Little Rock directed by John Hoffman & Christine Turner | Shortverse Page
Ours (Bear) directed by Morgane Gaëlle Frund | Watch Trailer
Between Earth & Sky directed by Andrew Nadkarni | Watch Now
Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games directed by Joe Brewster & Michèle Stephenson | Watch Trailer
Camp Courage directed by Max Lowe | Watch Trailer
Deciding Vote directed by Robert Lyons & Jeremy Workman | Watch Now
How We Get Free directed by Samantha Knowles & Geeta Gandbhir | Watch Trailer
If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis directed by Ramin Bahrani | Shortverse Page
Island in Between directed by S. Leo Chiang | Watch Now
The Last Repair Shop directed by Kris Bowers & Ben Proudfoot | Watch Now
Last Song from Kabul directed by Kevin Macdonald & Ruhi Hamid | Watch Trailer
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó directed by Sean Wang | Watch Trailer
Oasis directed by Justine Martin | Watch Now
Wings of Dust directed by Giorgio Ghiotto | Watch Trailer

Previous winner: The Elephant Whisperers by Kartiki Gonsalves

***

Best Live-Action Short

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar Wes Anderson

Previous winner: An Irish Goodbye by Tom Berkeley and Ross White

***

Reaction

In the immediate aftermath, here are some quick impressions from S/W co-founder Jason Sondhi:

Two 800-pound Gorillas in Live-Action: celebrated feature film auteurs Wes Anderson and Pedro Almodóvar both progress and will dominate coverage of the category. This hasn’t been fait accompli in the past—the likes of Yorgos Lanthimos and indeed Almodóvar himself have made shorts in recent years that have failed to win. However, neither had Netflix in their corner, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar must be considered a prohibitive favorite.
Big-Name Directors: The other categories are stacked with big-name directors too: Ramin Bahrani, Kevin MacDonald, and multi-time nominee, Ben Proudfoot, in Documentary (to say nothing of the directing debut of legendary executive, Sheila Nevins). Even animation has a film by Napoleon Dynamite himself, Jared Hess.
Festival Favorites Do Well: Oscar has, in years past, been something of a quixotic crapshoot, and while the Live-Action category still raises eyebrows for some of its inclusions, changes in the voting membership in recent years mean that more festival heavyweights are making it through. A Kind of Testament and 27 have dominated international festivals this year, with splashy premieres at non-animation events like the Berlinale and Cannes respectively, and Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó cleaned up in the USA, winning Grand Jury or Best Documentary at SXSW, AFI Fest, and Seattle International.
Is Streamer Dominance Fading? Streamers are well-represented—by my informal count Netflix has 3, Paramount+ has 2, Disney+ has a couple. But, it doesn’t feel like the swell of prior years. I’m probably just misremembering though, as there will certainly be a rush of acquisitions leading up to, and after, the nominee announcement at the end of January.
Shouts to S/W Alums: Pleased as punch for Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, Sean Wang, Elham Ehsas, Ramin Bahrani, Stéphanie Clément, and sure, even Wes Anderson.

***

View Previous Oscar-nominated films, winners and further coverage from the awards on our dedicated channel.