We’re all excited about Parasite winning Best Picture, obviously, but the Academy Awards isn’t just about feature films. They may not acknowledge TV like the Globes do, but they do have quite the selection of short films. Live action, animated, documentaries, there’s a lot to dive into. Sadly, as is so often the case with short films on a festival run, not all of them are available to view online. But these ones are! Enjoy!
Hair Love
Winner of Best Animation Short, Hair Love, an animated short film from Matthew A. Cherry, tells the heartfelt story of an African American father learning to do his daughter’s hair for the first time.
The Neighbour’s Window
Winner of Best Live Action Short, The Neighbour’s Window from Marshall Curry tells the story of Alli, a mother of young children who has grown frustrated with her daily routine and husband. But her life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street and she discovers that she can see into their apartment.
In The Absence
South Korean director Seung-jun Yi‘s In The Absence looks back at when the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.
Nefta Football Club
In the south of Tunisia, two football fan brothers bump into a donkey lost in the middle of the desert on the border of Algeria. Strangely, the animal wears headphones over its ears. A short film by Yves Piat.
Brotherhood
Mohamed is deeply shaken and suspicious when his estranged eldest son Malek returns home from Syria to rural Tunisia with a mysterious young wife in tow. The emotional complexities of a family reunion and past wounds lead to tragic consequences. Nominated in the live action section, this is the fourth short from Tunisian-Canadian director Meryam Joobeur.
Kitbull
This is the first time Rosana Sullivan has directed, having spent her career working as a storyboard artist on films like Monsters University, Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4. Pixar’s Kitbull reveals an unlikely connection that sparks between two creatures: a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pit bull. Together, they experience friendship for the first time.
Sister
A man remembers his childhood memories of growing up with an annoying little sister in 1990s China. How would his life have been if things had gone differently? Directed by Chinese director, Siqi Song, Sister is a stop-motion animated short that marks her first nomination by the Academy.