An International Batch of Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts

Once again, ShortsTV has brought this year’s batch of Oscar nominated Live Action, Documentary, and Animated Short Films to a global audience.  Here’s our rundown of the Live Action films, chiming in from all over the globe.

Get an edge in your Oscar pool, and more importantly, be informed about some solid, if short, cinema that is being celebrated:

The After

MISAN HARRIMAN / UK / 18 MINS / 2023

Of all of the live action nominated short films, The After is probably the most intense.  In a very short time frame, we are left feeling so many emotions that run the gambit of happiness, shock, surprise, anger, sadness, grief, loss, and healing. Dayo (David Oyelowo) is a father escorting his daughter back to his wife before he has to head into work.  Along the way, he stops to be instructed by his daughter Laura (Amelie Dokubo) on some dance moves for a school production he is going to miss due to his meeting. After they arrive to meet his wife Amanda (Jessica Plummer), David works out a way to go to his daughter’s performance.  At this point of the film, there is nothing to prepare you for direction The After takes you.  It is quick, sudden, and life-altering. We next see Dayo, some time later, as a ride-share driver who is grieving.  Each passenger he picks up seems to scrape a little bit of his wound until he picks up a certain passenger whose actions help him deal with his past. The intensity and range of emotions made this film the one that stuck with me the most.  While Knights of Fortune deals with grief, it has a humorous edge to it.  The After, however, pulls no punches and David Oyelowo’s performance here is simply amazing.

– Erik Yates

Invicible

VINCENT RENÉ-LORTIE / CANADA / 29 MINS / 2022

Invincible is a tale inspired by a true story.  It follows the last 48 hours of troubled 14-year teen, Marc-Antoine Bernier (Leokim Beaumier-Lepine), who has escaped the youth rehabilitation facility he is checked into for his troubled behavior.  In the short run time, we are able to glimpse the family life he has rebelled against and see the longing he has to maybe find a way back to…especially his sister.  We see the hurt of his parents, and the hope they share for his healing.  There is also the counselor, Luc (Ralph Prosper) at the rehabilitation center who longs for Marc to earn his way back to the life he is being kept from by his own actions.  The film is a powerful look at how our actions can imprison us, and the destructive cycles our longing for freedom can perpetuate when we seek to achieve our freedom in more destructive ways. A tragic story for all of the characters we see in this story.

– Erik Yates

Knight of Fortune

LASSE LYSKJÆR NOER / DENMARK / 25 MINS / 2022

Like many of the live action short films this year, Knight of Fortune delves into heavy waters as it follows a man named Karl (Leif Andree) who is going to see his wife’s body at the morgue.  Karl is told several times by the staff that his wife’s mouth may droop to the side and her skin may appear more yellow than expected, but this is common with dead people.  Karl is clearly avoiding this task of identifying his wife, and embarks on a series of avoidance techniques like trying to fix a broken lamp, and hiding out in the bathroom.  In the bathroom he meets Torben (Jens Jorn Spottag) who, like Karl, is there to identify his wife’s body.  Karl and Torben are kindred souls and what unfolds through their pairing is a humorous, yet poignant look at how we deal with death, and the power of community as we struggle with grief.

– Erik Yates

Red, White, and Blue

NAZRIN CHOUDHURY / USA / 23 MINS / 2023

Red, White, and Blue is a powerful look at the abortion issue that is not an abortion film. Rachel (Brittany Snow) is a single mother raising two kids while working at a diner in Arkansas.  She is scrimping and saving, too poor to afford money for the tooth fairy, or to allow her kids to go to a pancake fundraiser due to the cost. An unexpected pregnancy has Rachel scrimping for money, even robbing her kids’ piggy banks, to help make ends meet.  We also learn that she is saving to cross into Missouri to have an abortion.  After the kindness of a restaurant patron who saw her holding her pregnancy test in fear, she has the money she needs.  The rest of the film is a touching road trip between Rachel and her daughter Maddy (Juliet Donenfeld) who is accompanying her on this trip, with her son Jake (Redding Munsell) is left behind to stay with a friend.  Their road trip provides an outlet for Rachel to let her problems take a back seat as she sings with her daughter, eats snacks, and makes memories at a local merry-go-round they discover on their journey.  It is at the clinic where the film reveals a very uncomfortable twist that creates great sympathy, and possibly a discussion starter, about a sensitive topic, no matter what side of the abortion debate you find yourself on.

Erik Yates

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

WES ANDERSON / UK / 37 MINS / 2023

Thank goodness Wes Anderson is nominated for something this year! Though the museum-worthy Asteroid City didn’t make the final cut, the longest of his Roald Dahl short film adaptations on Netflix did. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (like the accompanying 17-minute shorts Poison, The Rat Catcher, and The Swan) is a bite-sized version of Anderson’s beautifully manicured delights. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Sugar, who devotes his life to the practice of seeing without his eyes thanks to Ben Kingsley’s instructive memoir. His sole purpose? To become a master of cheating at the casinos. Like Asteroid City, it becomes a story within a story within a story told at brisk clip, the production design is marvelously complex, and the cold surface breaks to reveal a warm heart. Anderson fans will appreciate that it’s his first collaboration with Ralph Fiennes since The Grand Budapest HotelandI hope Cumberbatch, Kingsley, and additional supporting players Richard Ayoade and Dev Patel have been initiated into his troupe for future projects. 

Taylor Blake