Live Action
From dive-bar patrons to Regency paramours, cross-generational friendship to same-sex longing, and chilly science fiction to Middle Eastern politics, this year’s live action category of Oscar nominated shorts is refreshingly varied.
And almost universally good-looking. A case in point is “The Singers,” a surprisingly uplifting visit to a blue-collar bar whose cantankerous customers are unexpectedly soothed by an impromptu singing contest. Strikingly shot by Sam A. Davis (who also directed and edited), and based on a 19th-century short story, “The Singers” is dense with smoke and the jaggedly overlapping conversations of men whose losses — of comrades, health, personhood — outnumber their gains. It also features terrific voices (sourced from viral internet videos) and arguably the best use to date of Leonard Cohen’s “Closing Time.”
No songs exist to ease the tensions in “Butcher’s Stain,” Meyer Levinson-Blount’s sensitive and painfully current drama about a Palestinian butcher (Omar Sameer) whose job at an Israeli supermarket is threatened when he is falsely accused of desecrating posters of political hostages. Ethnic distrust, though, is entirely absent from “A Friend of Dorothy,” Lee Knight’s utterly charming tale of the unlikely friendship between an octogenarian patron of the arts (a splendid Miriam Margolyes) and a gentle teenager (Alistair Nwachukwu). Knight’s faith in the unifying power of plays and poetry is as sweet and cheering as the film’s performances.
At a mere 12 minutes, “Jane Austen’s Period Drama” is the shortest and cheekiest of the entries. Written and directed by Steve Pinder and Julia Aks, this witty spoof of “Pride and Prejudice” follows Estrogenia (Aks), whose period arrives in the middle of a marriage proposal. Taking its title literally (but not seriously), this tightly written comedy wonders if there are some things that men would simply prefer not to know.
For the collection’s longest and by far strangest film, “Two People Exchanging Saliva,” we head to France, where they take their lip-locking very seriously. Set in a futuristic dystopia where kissing is punishable by death and purchases are paid for by enduring slaps to the face, this oddly mesmerizing movie holds its breath while a beautiful young saleswoman (Luàna Bajrami) and an unhappily married female customer (Zar Amir) draw closer. Wonderfully acted and stunningly shot in ice-cold black and white, “Two People” shapes chillingly clever details and patient direction (by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh) into a potent reminder that few things are more dangerous to authoritarianism than tenderness.
— JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Documentary
It’s not hard to see why “Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud” landed a nomination: Its late subject is also credited as one of its directors, cinematographers, editors and producers, alongside his brother Craig Renaud. Brent Renaud was shot and killed near Kyiv by Russian forces on March 13, 2022; he was the first journalist on assignment from an American news organization to be killed while reporting on the war in Ukraine. (Renaud had worked for many outlets, including The New York Times.)
“Armed Only With a Camera” tells the story of Renaud’s life largely through footage he shot while working in dangerous places all over the world. The material is emotionally affecting, but structurally, “Armed Only With a Camera” is a bit unfocused, mostly because it feels, like many short documentaries, as if it’s intended to be expanded into a feature-length film — and perhaps it will be. The same can be said of two of the other nominated shorts, both stirring in their own way.
“All the Empty Rooms,” directed by Joshua Seftel, is a quietly wrenching look at a project that the journalist Steve Hartman and the photographer Lou Bopp have been working on for seven years, creating portraits of the untouched bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. Between talking to still-grieving parents of the children, Hartman speaks of trying to keep from going numb to the sheer number of tragedies.
Filmed in Tel Aviv, Hilla Medalia’s “Children No More: Were and Are Gone” follows a weekly vigil in memory of children killed in Gaza. Participants silently hold pictures bearing the names, ages and the words “Was and is no more.” The film captures a tense and complex political situation on the ground, but the film’s strongest element is Medalia’s use of sound design, which frequently dampens environmental noise and mimics the silence of the protest, drawing the viewer into contemplation of the children’s faces and names.
The shortest and most otherworldly of the nominees is Alison McAlpine’s “Perfectly a Strangeness,” which features three subjects, all donkeys. They’re in a desert — we don’t know where — and trudging toward an unmanned astronomical observatory. Eventually day turns to night and as the donkeys stand in awe of the galaxy, we do, too. You might be tempted to think this is a documentary about animals in a post-human future. It’s strange and beautiful.
The strongest of the nominees is “The Devil Is Busy,” directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir (whose feature-length documentary “The Perfect Neighbor” is also nominated for an Oscar). The film documents a day at a Black-led abortion clinic in Atlanta through the eyes of its head of security, a fiercely compassionate and religious woman named Tracii. In between praying for protection and caring for the women who come to the clinic, often from out of state, she talks about the men who protest at the edge of the property. Hampton and Gandbhir tell the story with a rhythm that feels exactly right for the film’s 31-minute length, and thus respect the short form. But it’s Tracii who makes the movie: Her unabashed references to her own faith provide an unexpected counterbalance to the protesters’ rhetoric, and she’s a potent and fearless guide.
— ALISSA WILKINSON
Animated
The two strongest animated-short nominees strive to capture entire lives in miniature. One looks toward the future, while the other memorializes the past.
The forward-looking entry is John Kelly’s “Retirement Plan,” which makes a virtue of brisk simplicity. Its seven minutes unfold as a single, piano-scored montage, in which the protagonist, in voice-over supplied by Domhnall Gleeson, imagines all the things he’ll do when he retires. Conventional resolutions (“I will finish all those books I started”) give way to more absurd endeavors and personal admissions. Gradually, the unfussy imagery shows the man growing older as he runs through his to-do list, and it becomes clear that his retirement plan amounts to a confession of a life not fully lived. If Oscar voters are looking for the fastest pluck at their heartstrings, Kelly’s poignant and unpretentious entry could be their candidate.
But Florence Miailhe’s “Butterfly” is affecting in a different way. An impressionistic biopic of the French swimmer Alfred Nakache (1915-83), the film is told in flashback as Nakache, in the present action, takes a late-in-life butterfly stroke. An Algerian-born Jew, he competed for France in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and then again in 1948 in London, after surviving Auschwitz. His wife and daughter were killed.
The closing text reveals that Miailhe was taught to swim by Nakache’s brother, but even more striking than the personal connection is the film’s look: Easily the most visually accomplished selection in the group, “Butterfly” has a painterly texture and impasto that makes you want to grab at the screen. The boldly visible brushstrokes evoke French painters of the era, including hints of Monet and Matisse.
Less needs be said about the other entries. Mildly amusing but faintly sexist, “The Three Sisters” is a dialogue-free diversion from Konstantin Bronzit (nominated twice before) in which three women alone on an island compete for the affections of an uncouth sailor. Conjuring an impoverished corner of Montreal around the early 20th century, “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” from Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (also previous nominees), makes eye-catching use of eerie, molded figures — a pawnbroker’s face looks partly rotted — but runs into storytelling trouble at the end.
The entry that plays it safest, by far, is Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears’s “Forevergreen,” the story of a bear cub and the coniferous giving tree that raises him, until the bear is led astray by a bag of potato chips. It’s movie of lessons: Plant a tree, prevent forest fires, don’t litter.
Then there is Giovanna Ferrari’s “Éiru,” which made the list of 15 shortlisted titles but didn’t secure a nomination. It’s screening to bring the program up to feature length, which seems a little unfair to the remaining shortlistees. Éiru is a young girl and aspiring warrior who restores water to her parched clan and makes peace with its neighbors.
— BEN KENIGSBERG
The 2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. In theaters.
The 2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary Not rated. Running time: 2 hours 33 minutes. In theaters.
The 2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animated Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 19 minutes. In theaters.
Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005.
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