2020 Oscar Nominated Short Films - Live Action
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Always a great presentation and fantastic trip to the movies, you have to look fast because the short films are only in theaters for a few weeks, prior to the Oscars.
Oscar pools and Oscar party contests can be won and lost with the Short Film categories. Experiencing these nominees achieves both a better chance at victory and the opportunity to see some terrific and original films.
NO
Casual movie watchers tend to watch high profile, big name star movies and convincing people to watch short films is a challenge. No matter how good these films are, a large number of people are not going to care much.
You are not a fan of a wide range of genres and themes. You never know what you are going to get with these short film presentations and that mix of styles can throw people off.
OUR REVIEW
Every year, the ballot busters for Oscar pools and Oscar parties often prove to be the short film categories. Some advocate for their removal from the televised ceremony. Others seek them out every year in theaters, celebrating the creativity that lies within each slate of nominees. I, for one, love uncovering these each year, as well as other short films which gain traction within the industry and hope to make it to the highest stage possible – the Academy Awards.
Each year, ShortsTV and Shorts International secure the rights to the 15 short film nominees in the Animation, Live Action, and Documentary Short Subject categories and release them as individual screening packages in theaters. The week before the Oscars, they shift them to digital platforms for people to buy and watch at home.
The Short Film packages have proven wildly popular. Each year, the box office numbers have grown and the mini-film festival idea has really caught hold with Oscarwatchers, and those genuinely curious about the potential next wave of storytellers and filmmakers out in the world.
Before these nominees received theatrical distribution in 2005, the short film nominees were nearly impossible to find. Now, with the 15th anniversary of these short films packages playing in hundreds of theaters each year, we cannot envision an Oscar season without them playing at a theater near us.
And so, without any further ado, let's dive into this year’s nominees for Best Live Action Short Film.
Brotherhood | 25 Minutes
Directed by Meryam Joobeur
★★★★
A Tunisian family wrestle with the sudden return of their oldest son, who left home a year prior to join ISIS. With him, a new wife from Syria, clad in a niqāb. Writer/director Meryam Joobeur weaves a number of plot points within her 25 minute drama, including the father’s anger over his son’s leaving of the family and subsequent return, the toll his return plays on his brothers, the mom struggling to repair a broken family, as well as the arrival of a mysterious new wife, who is hesitant to speak and represents everything stoking the father’s anger.
Joobeur’s film has enough material here to flesh out as a feature-length film and at times her story seems rushed. However, she draws strong performances from two real-life brothers she happened upon in a visit to Tunisia in the years leading up to filming Brotherhood. Offering an intimate glimpse into one family’s realities in a post-radicalized Tunisia and how loyalty can become complicated and not as easy to define as some may think.
Nefta Football Club | 17 Minutes
Directed by Yves Piat
★★★★
The lone comedy of the bunch, Yves Piat’s Nefta Football Club offers two parallel stories which come together over a missing donkey. Also set in Tunisia, the donkey is found by two young brothers, wearing headphones and carrying duffle bags containing packages of white powder. Concurrently, two men are looking for a donkey who wandered off, wearing headphones and all the rest.
While one brother knows what they have uncovered, the younger brother does not and Piat deftly navigates a series of misunderstandings between the brothers and the men, who grow increasingly desperate to recover their lost property. Piat’s film is an easy watch, amusing, and offers a great payoff, helping it stand apart from its fellow nominees.
The Neighbor’s Window | 21 Minutes
Directed by Marshall Curry
★★★★1/2
The first narrative film from three-time Oscar nominated documentarian Marshall Curry (Street Fight, If a Tree Falls…, A Night at the Museum), The Neighbor’s Window starts with a provocative premise... a married couple, with three children - and one newborn - begin spying on a new couple in an apartment building across from them. Seemingly carefree, the couple across the way live their lives unapologetically, blissfully unaware that anyone can see their most private and intimate moments.
The married couple become obsessed, but their window into another world brings forth issues they must work through in their marriage, until a sudden and shocking reveal through binoculars changes their entire perspective on life, love, and family.
I have to say, The Neighbor’s Window might fit most perfectly within the confines of the Live Action Short Film format, with Curry balancing a script that could go in any number of directions. His ability to take the complexities of his story, distill them down into 21 minutes, and take viewers on an emotional rollercoaster where the emotions are truly earned, is a testament to his ability to tell compelling stories exceedingly well.
Saria | 22 Minutes
Directed by Bryan Buckley
★★★
A devastating story, which depicts actual events, Saria, from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bryan Buckley (Asad), documents the tragic story of the Virgen de la Asunción Safe Home girls’ orphanage in Guatemala.
Two teenage sisters arrive at the orphanage, and though they bond with fellow residents, they are subjected to mental and physical abuse by teachers, staff, and administrators. As Saria plays out, Buckley uses darkness and light symbolically, giving us glimpses of hope and despair as the two main characters try and get a sense of the world they find themselves in. The film builds to a set of circumstances which led to the girls’ staging an uprising, which only leads to tragic consequences.
Though the film is not a happy story in any way, Buckley pulls the rug out from underneath the audience with an image of a flame and a title card. The suddenness of the moment may cause a gasp, for those unaware of the real story, but it undercuts the dramatic tensions he has built up along the way. Walking away with frustration, rather than experiencing the emotions of the story, is not Buckley’s intention. However, Saria with it’s face-slap of an ending proved to be a disappointing conclusion to an otherwise important story worth telling.
A Sister | 16 Minutes
Directed by Delphine Girard
★★★★1/2
For those who saw the Danish film The Guilty, Delphine Girard’s A Sister may tread somewhat similar ground. And to be fair, it inadvertently makes the case that as fantastic and compelling as The Guilty is, perhaps it need not have been a feature-length film. But, I mean, that’s an argument for another time.
Girard’s film finds a Belgian emergency phone operator getting a phone call from a woman named Alie. Very quickly, the operator realizes that Alie is pretending that they are sisters and begins speaking to her in that way. Whereas The Guilty never leaves the call center, A Sister gives us glimpses of what’s happening in and around the car where the woman is calling from. Girard cuts back and forth effectively, building a great deal of suspense and tension around what may or may not transpire, as the woman’s companion grows increasingly agitated that she remains on the phone.
Overall Thoughts:
In terms of pure suspense, A Sister is a film that more than pays off on it’s small-scale, intimate premise and will be appealing to a lot of Oscar voters. Nefta Football Club feels like the lone crowd-pleasing entry, which this category desperately needs, offering a very funny, if not telegraphed, final scene.
I actually found myself taken with the simple, yet effective storytelling generated by The Neighbor’s Window, while the rug pull from Bryan Buckley’s otherwise important and topical Saria seems too come far too fast and fails to deliver the impact he seeks. Brotherhood could win the Oscar, offering a resonating and thoughtful rumination on acceptance, while bravely identifying that we all carry fears of what we do not know or take the time to understand.
CAST & CREW
Directors: Meryam Joobeur (Brotherhood), Yves Piat (Nefta Football Club), Marshall Curry (The Neighbor’s Window), Bryan Buckley (Saria), Delphine Girard (A Sister)
Release Date: January 31, 2020
ShortsTV/Shorts International