Hidden Gold 2021 Part 1: Shorts

    It’s that time of year again. As of this writing, the Oscars are this Sunday, celebrating the best films of one of the most tumultuous years for cinema in recent memory (give or take some films from 2019 or 2021). I’m sure everybody reading this is just as excited as I am. Yes, this Sunday, we’ll all have our Oscar predictions written down, cheering for the winners we wanted, shouting at the ones we didn’t want, and most of all, yelling at our TVs because we don’t give a damn about the banter (especially when the presenters are dressed as the Cats cats). Okay, maybe not all, but I will. Since movie theaters opened up in NYC right after I got my first vaccine, I was even able to finish my Oscar list in the relative comfort of a theater seat. Hooray!

    Anyway, every Oscars ceremony has nominees who are overshadowed by the big-name stars and major films that were released, and even in these trying times there were nominated films that have been swept under the rug. I’m talking about films like the short, international, and documentary film nominations. They may be ignored by the TV audience, but in the end, some of them will also take home the little golden statue of glory. So, for those who want to be completely prepared for the Oscars, I thought I would discuss some films that you should watch (and watch out for) for this Sunday, along with some other picks that probably won’t win, but that I think are still worth a look.

    First up are the short films. With the pandemic, I was afraid I wouldn’t get to watch these, as I typically can see most of them only on the big screen during their NYC theatrical release. However, not only were the theaters open in time to play the shorts, but many have been released on demand for home viewing.

    I’ll start with the animated shorts. These are often my favorite shorts to watch for many reasons. They’re often the most lighthearted. They also often depict mature subject matter in a way that live action cannot convey. This year in particular brought the power of animation to light, as a way to produce films and TV when live action shoots weren’t safely viable. 

    My prediction for the winning animated short goes to Netflix's If Anything Happens I Love You. This is a devastating look at loss told in ways that only animation can, the short follows two parents who have lost their daughter, as they literally deal with the shadows of the past. If you don’t know how this short ends, I won’t reveal it, but the sparse visual aesthetics and simple yet powerful motifs of shadows charm even as they devastate. I expect this short to get a statue, and if it does it’ll be well-deserved. My pick for best animated short that probably won’t win is Erick Oh’s Opera. A massive pyramid shows the many factions of a society, from gods to royalty to the lower classes, culminating in a war. It was originally an 8K art installation and it shows, because this one looked amazing on the big screen. There is so much going on at once that it may require multiple viewings to catch everything, all rendered with a cute art style that belies the serious events happening onscreen. This one may be obscured by heavy-hitting competition from the likes of Netflix and Pixar, but I’d definitely give it a look.

    For the live-action shorts, I suspect that Palestinian contender The Present will take home the prize. The short concerns a man who attempts to go shopping buy an anniversary present for his wife, but the Israeli checkpoints make what should have been an afternoon trip a much longer and more suspenseful affair. This one is on Netflix, so feel free to check it out for yourself if you subscribe. That said, I would also look at Feeling Through, my favorite pick of the live-action short nominations and one that I feel could also take home the prize. The story of a young African-American man who has a life-altering experience with a deaf-blind man at a bus stop, this short is sweet and funny, with actor Robert Tarango, an actual deaf-blind man himself, stealing the show. While I don't think it'll win, I also wanted to bring up a nominated short that recently got distributed by Netflix, Two Distant Strangers, a social issue drama with a genre film twist. A dark take on the time-loop trope, the short follows a cartoonist who finds himself reliving a fatal encounter with a cop over and over again. It's rare I see films like this in the Oscar shorts program, and if you want some smart sci-fi, check it out now that it's widely available.

    As for the documentary shorts, my predictions for the possible winners include Netflix's A Love Song for Latasha, which examines the shooting death of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins with an experimental touch, or Colette, in which a former French Resistance fighter visits the former site of a Nazi concentration camp to confront the ghosts of her past. Were the latter film to win, it actually be a fascinating first for the Oscars. Colette was originally produced by Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts for the virtual-reality video game Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, making it the first piece of video game content to become nominated for an Oscar. Will it also be the first to win? That remains to be seen. My favorite of the nominees was Do Not Split, which presents an in-depth, front line look at the protests in Hong Kong during 2019 and early 2020. I will say that this one was my favorite particularly due to its subject matter, as I've always been drawn to stories of rebellion, but this one also held my attention the most overall. Finally, MTV returns to the Oscars with Hunger Ward, a wrenching look at the human cost of the civil war in Yemen through the malnutrition ward of a hospital; the short is currently available on Paramount+. In an unexpected turn for the brand, MTV seems to have been aiming for Oscar gold as of late with its documentary unit, which also includes last year's nominee St. Louis Superman and Oscar-shortlisted pandemic documentary 76 Days. The documentary unit is currently being run by Sheila Nevins, who used to be the president of HBO's documentary division, which also made regular appearances at the Oscars.

    Well, that's it for my thoughts on the short films. In my next blog, I'll look at the features nominated for Oscars, especially that you may have missed but are definitely worth your time.