A Mostly Domestic Batch of Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts
The organization SHORTS (home of ShortsTV) has brought this year’s batch of 2025’s Oscar nominated Live Action, Documentary, and Animated Short Films to movie theaters. Check your local listings to see if and when the Showcases will be playing. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit: https://shorts.tv/theoscarshorts/.
Four of the five nominees for Best Documentary Short Film are reviewed here by Paul Hibbard, and one by Jim Tudor. Get an edge in your Oscar pool, and more importantly, be informed about some solid, if short, cinema that is being celebrated:
Death by Numbers
DIRECTOR: KIM A. SNYDER / USA / 33 MINUTES
“Death by Numbers” is a film where the victim isn’t just telling her story—she’s speaking for every victim of a tragedy that is uniquely, disturbingly American. School shootings are as American as apple pie, and this film understands that. But this isn’t some manipulative plea for forgiveness. There’s no attempt at manufactured grace or forced reconciliation. Instead, Sam Fuentes faces the shooter who murdered her classmates with the kind of raw, unfiltered anger that feels not only justified but necessary. The way she looks at him, the way she speaks—it’s not just personal, it’s a reflection of how we, as a society, process these tragedies. Or rather, how we should be processing them.
There’s a refusal to turn the other cheek here, and rightfully so. Because, first, that’s the honest response any human should have to something so senseless. And second, this wasn’t just any act of violence—it was a distinctly American one, rooted in a culture that allows it to keep happening. Kim A. Snyder captures that frustration, that fury, and ultimately, that truth: this anger isn’t just Sam Fuentes’s burden to carry. It belongs to all of us.
– Paul Hibbard
I Am Ready, Warden
Director: Smriti Mundhra / USA / 37 minutes
I Am Ready, Warden is a straightforward documentary that never makes its stance on the death penalty clear—whether it’s for or against. That ambiguity can be frustrating, as the film sometimes falls into a false balance, simply presenting both sides without interrogating them, which can feel manipulative. It lacks a strong editorial perspective, opting instead to observe rather than argue.
But where it works is in the ramifications of the choices we claim to believe in. The film doesn’t just explore capital punishment as an abstract debate; it forces the audience to reckon with what justice, vengeance, and closure actually look like in practice. It subtly shifts the focus away from the person on death row and toward those who support the punishment, those who seek revenge, and those who ultimately have to carry out the execution.
By engaging with the essence of humanity, I Am Ready, Warden challenges not just the morality of the death penalty, but the emotional weight it places on everyone involved. It’s less about the suspect and more about the people who think they want justice served—only to realize justice and satisfaction rarely go hand in hand.
– Paul Hibbard
Incident
DIRECTOR: BILL MORRISON / USA / 30 MINUTES
“Incident” is a visceral, immersive, and brutal experience. It reconstructs the 2018 police shooting of Harith “Snoop” Augustus through a collage of public surveillance footage, local cameras, and officers’ body cams, assembling the raw chaos into a split-screen presentation that constantly shifts frames, forcing the viewer to absorb everything at once. The effect is overwhelming. There’s no guiding narration, no editorializing—just an unrelenting flood of real-time perspectives. The framing choices keep it all cinematic, but not in a way that softens the impact; instead, it feels clinical, methodical, and deeply unsettling. Trying to track everything as it unfolds, shifting attention between different angles, only amplifies the anxiety. It almost plays like a Michael Haneke film in its construction—cold, observational, and deliberately frustrating. There’s no comfort, no resolution, just an invitation to stare directly into the reality of the moment. The power of Incident lies in that refusal to look away.
– Paul Hibbard
Instruments of a Beating Heart
DIRECTOR: EMA RYAN YAMAZAKI / JAPAN / 23 MINUTES
Instruments of a Beating Heart is a documentary that, at times, feels as if it lacks formal momentum. It offers an interesting glimpse into the lives of Japanese schoolchildren as they prepare for a musical production, but it occasionally struggles to justify its own existence beyond simple observation. There is a certain aimlessness to its structure—an almost meandering quality that can make it feel insubstantial.
And yet, despite this, the film finds its emotional anchor in Ayame, the young girl at its center. Wearing her emotions on her sleeve, she becomes the heart of the documentary, offering an honesty and vulnerability that elevate the experience. Her struggles, her determination, and even her moments of self-doubt make her an endearing and compelling presence, ensuring that the film never drifts too far into insignificance.
While Instruments of a Beating Heart may not always feel essential, Ayame’s sincerity and charm keep it afloat, making it ultimately worthy of attention.
– Paul Hibbard
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
DIRECTOR: MOLLY O’BRIEN / USA / 35 MINUTES
From 1966 to 2021, double bassist Orin O’Brien was a notable member of the prestigious New York Philharmonic. O’Brien, as this short’s title suggests, was instantly notable for being the lone female musician in the orchestra. Astutely, she herself understands that that alone is not enough to warrant special attention paid to her. She says as much on camera as her niece and this film’s director Molly O’Brien chats her up during one of the rare truly candid moments here.
An orchestra is a collective that rises or falls based upon its ability to gel as a whole rather than focus on individuals. The senior O’Brien expresses her lifelong joy of being a part of the whole and nothing more. It’s something she’s taken solace in since her teen years when the real-life drama of her fading movie star parents (George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill) sucked all the air out of the household. Consequently, The Only Girl in the Orchestra lands as a very middling documentary. This despite Orin O’Brien’s own outgoing magnetism and humor. (Perhaps Errol Morris’ name in the credits as an executive producer helped nudge it to awards season acclaim?)
– Jim Tudor