Oscar-nominated Shorts (2011)

We saw the animated and live action ones a week or so before the Oscar telecast. Here's a link to the whole series. All five of the live action ones are great, and no surprise that 30 minute long The Shore (Northern Ireland) was the winner, as it has Irish movie star Ciarán Hinds (last mentioned here in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) in it. From Republic of Ireland there is Pentecost, a funny 11 minutes about a rebellious altar boy. Raju, from Germany and India, is 24 minutes, about a German couple adopting an Indian boy--no laughs, but good. Tuba Atlantic (Norway) is a wonderful black comedy, 25 minutes, about an old man at death's door and his big, giant tuba. Tied for our favorite with Tuba Atlantic is Time Freak (USA), another black comedy, featuring a frizzy-haired guy I've seen on many commercials as the neurotic inventor of a time machine.

For the animation, no surprise that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (USA) won, as it is fanciful and creative (the whole 17 minutes is available for now on youtube). We liked best, however, A Morning Stroll (United Kingdom), which is a little bit sick and twisted. It packs a lot into its 4 minutes. All that's online is a 39 second trailer, although the music is for sale on iTunes. In fact all the trailers are on the first link in this paragraph.

You can still catch these shows (note, there are two summarized here, plus a third with the nominated documentary shorts is available), with extras, at movie theatres listed on this page.