Oscar shorts 2021

Jack and I like to watch these programs of Oscar nominated short films every year and this year's crop was as good as always. We rented them in April before the Oscars (with a portion of the proceeds going to our favorite neighborhood movie theatre) but I forgot to finish writing about them. There are three programs: animated, live action, and documentary, all between one and a half to two plus hours. If the entries aren't long enough, the series pads the program with "honorable mention" shorts.

Jack and I usually like the animated ones best and this year was no exception.

Burrow, 6 minutes, from the USA, is about a cute bunny trying to make a home for herself.

Genius Loci, 16 minutes, France, is overly trippy and I have no idea what it's about.

If Anything Happens I Love You, 13 minutes, USA, goes from sad to tragic, with parents in mourning flashing back to their child's life. It is pretty hard to watch and won the Oscar.

Opera, 9 minutes, S Korea/USA, is so dense with content and busy that you may want to watch it again. Definitely need a big screen to see all the stuff going on.

Yes-People, 9 minutes, Iceland, is funny. Over and over, people say "yow," which means "yes" in the Icelandic language, as they go about their daily lives.

The honorable mentions were even better than the nominees.

Kapaemahu, 9 minutes, USA (Hawaii) is lovely and spiritual, narrated in the Hawaiian language, about some healing stones in the region.

The Snail and the Whale, 27 minutes, UK/Germany, is poetic and the one I liked best, as I recall. A little snail rides on the tail of a whale to see the world.

To: Gerard, 8 minutes, USA, has an old man livening up a little girl's life through magic.

Occasionally there is a comedy in the live action shorts but not this year. All had complete plots and were well scripted and acted.

The Present (Al Hadiya), 25 minutes, Palestine, is the story of a Palestinian man and daughter harassed while buying an anniversary gift (hadiya) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Feeling Through, 19 minutes, USA. A young homeless man meets a deaf and blind man in need of assistance. I thought this should win.

Two Distant Strangers, 29 minutes, USA, is a “Groundhog Day”-like fantasy about a white police officer’s violence against a Black man. It's terrific and did win the category.

White Eye, 21 minutes, Israel. A Tel Aviv resident accuses an Eritrean immigrant of stealing his bicycle.

The Letter Room, 33 minutes, USA, has Oscar Isaac playing a kindly corrections officer assigned to sort through and censor mail addressed to death row prisoners. Directed/written by Isaac's wife Elvira Lind, it's the one I thought would win but I was wrong!

We did not watch the documentaries. I'm sure they're wonderful. 

From this link you can pick your favorite independent theatre to benefit from your rental.