Last Updated on February 27, 2024, 2:05 PM | Published: February 27, 2024
There is a unique and singular art to the short film that often feels considerably different from longer-form cinema, usually with a deeper, faster focus on heart-wrenching emotional beats or rug-pulling turns.
Almost like a good joke, the best shorts are likely to introduce a premise, sometimes confusing or uncertain, and then hit you with an unexpected punchline straight out of left field, opening your eyes to the actual circumstance or scenario that you’re seeing in a sudden flash of understanding.
Often, discovering the true premise of a short film is actually the entire surprise and experience.
That’s especially the case with this year’s crop of Academy Award-nominated shorts, with each unfolding its premise gradually and deliberately and each pushing the emotional or technical limits of what’s expected from a short-form offering.
Many also push the limits of what can be called “short.”
For the nineteenth year running, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art is presenting a full slate of all the Oscar-nominated shorts now until the big ceremony on March 10th, featuring Live-Action Shorts, Animated Shorts, and Documentary Shorts each collected together in their own theatrical presentations at the museum’s Sam Noble Theater.
So let’s take a look at the nominated shorts as OKCMOA is featuring them, and I promise I’ll do my best to preserve the mystery and not give too much away.
Because that would spoil all the fun.
Music and film
by Brett Fieldcamp
Sponsored by True Sky Credit Union
Animated Short Films
‘Our Uniform’
Right out of the gate, the first animated short in the program is easily the most creatively and enjoyably animated, marrying stop-motion with wonderfully colorful handmade drawings on real fabric and clothing to accompany an Iranian woman’s memories of her strict schooling and the cultural complexity of hijab.
Also, it’s the first-ever Iranian animated short to be nominated.
‘Letter to a Pig’
In a strikingly sketchy, chaotic, rotoscoped style, an elderly Holocaust survivor recounts his own harrowing tale to a group of schoolchildren, one of whom drifts away into her own psychological struggle to reconcile the generational and cultural trauma of history with the unfortunate, violent cycles that repeat into the present.
‘Pachyderme’
Perhaps the most poetic and delicate of the animated short nominees, this French offering sees a woman quietly recounting the fears and anxieties of visiting her grandparents as a young child, and the monstrous “wild beast” at the center of her trauma.
The gorgeous, fluid animation belies a slowly, gradually unfurling realization of tragedy.
‘Ninety-Five Senses’
With only Tim Blake Nelson’s inimitable drawl to guide you, this remarkable short piece from the couple behind “Napolean Dynamite” carries you through an aging man’s relationship with his own five senses, with a different animation team bringing a new character and style to each sense.
Again, the true nature of the story being told rolls out slowly and unexpectedly, catching you off guard in the moment that you realize why his own senses might be the only things this man has left.
‘War is Over!: Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko’
A new visual companion to the anti-war holiday classic “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, this wordless short sees a game of chess played across enemy lines by soldiers on either side of an endless war, with only a carrier pigeon to link them.
It’s a blunt and effectively emotional look at the true cost and pointlessness of war, providing a nicely realized new showcase for the classic song atop a story conceived by John and Yoko’s son Sean.
Plus, it featured input from Beatles fanatic Peter Jackson and his own Weta FX and was rendered in the Unreal gaming engine, all of which is just pretty cool.
Live-Action Short Films
‘The After’
Starring the infinitely watchable David Oyelowo, “The After” follows a man’s day-to-day life in the wake of unimaginable tragedy, and how loud, crowded, and busy the whole world feels as it continues on around him as if nothing happened.
It’s a simple, stark, efficient little project, anchored by Oyelowo’s heartbreaking performance.
‘Red, White and Blue’
A tragically realistic and increasingly timely glimpse at a struggling single mother in Arkansas forced to travel eight hours out of state to seek an abortion.
Anyone that sees this one will talk about the moment that the story turns and reveals itself in what may genuinely be one of the hardest cinematic gut-punches in recent history.
‘Knight of Fortune’
In the world of short film, often even the comedies are tragedies, and that’s certainly the case in this dark-but-tender comedy from Denmark centering on two men both too nervous, too distraught, or just too confused to view their wives’ bodies at a funeral home.
This short exploration of the strangeness and confusion of grief is as accurate and heartfelt as any full-length film has ever been.
‘Invincible’
A troubled French teenager escapes from the juvenile detention center to which he’s been sentenced.
A premise that simple could go a number of different ways in fiction, but this short is based on the true-life story of 14 year-old Marc-Antoine Bernier, and so never feels beholden to the trappings of fictionalized drama. Instead, “Invincible” paints a refreshingly honest and nuanced portrait of the complexities of mental health in crisis and the aching, worldly beauty that exists behind every struggle to be free.
‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’
From acclaimed, colorful, unfailingly symmetrical auteur Wes Anderson comes this rapturously creative adaptation of legendary author Roald Dahl’s 1977 short story.
It has everything you might expect from Anderson: lightning-paced dialogue (or primarily monologue, in fact,) intricately detailed sets and production, and a delightfully off-kilter sense of humor.
But more importantly, this 40-minute triumph is overflowing with heart and with a clear and palpable reverence for Dahl’s storytelling.
Documentary Shorts
‘Island in Between’
Few geopolitical realities are as complex and challengingly navigated as the status of the island of Taiwan. Documentarian S. Leo Chiang not only explores the tensions and tug-of-war over the island by China, the US, and others, but also turns his lens to the beauty of the land and the lives of the population caught in between.
‘Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó’
Winner of Best Short Documentary at 2023’s deadCenter Film Festival on its path to Oscar nomination glory, this ode to the shining, super heroic power of grandmothers has been striking chords all across the world.
Director Sean Wang introduces audiences to his grandmas and offers the chance to see the universe through the wise, weary, and hysterical perspectives only they can impart.
‘The ABC’s of Book Banning’
Another terribly timely and relevant topic, particularly for Oklahoman audiences of the moment, “The ABC’s of Book Banning” takes a hard look at efforts to remove and ban books from libraries and schools across the nation and the potentially devastating consequences that future generations may likely face.
‘The Last Repair Shop’
A chronicling of the 64 year-old instrument repair shop that services the entire Los Angeles Unified School District, working tirelessly to keep some 80,000 student instruments in playing condition and in the hands of the children that need them. (See the feature photo.)
It’s not only a story of the remarkably helpful and encouraging shop staff, but also of the healing and transcendental power of music, especially for children with little else.
‘The Barber of Little Rock’
Arlo Washington operates and teaches at his own barber college in Little Rock, Arkansas, but that’s not the only business that this barber has founded.
As a Black business owner, he knows as well as anyone about the racial wealth gap and the often impossible task of securing a loan or even just banking as a Black person, particularly in the South.
So he opened his own bank, People Trust, to provide loans, financial security, and a real opportunity for the community in a place where so many are content to ignore and deny.
“2024 Oscar-nominated Short Films” – with individual programs for Live-Action Shorts, Animated Shorts, and Documentary Shorts – are now playing at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art through Saturday, March 9th.
For showtimes, tickets, and more information, visit okcmoa.com.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
