MJ's Oscar Picks 2025: Part Deux. "Short movies got no reason..."

With apologies to Randy Newman and all those wonderful filmmakers who work in the non-feature format, we have another eclectic collection of topics, examples of innovation in technology and animation, and stories that touch the human spirit. Here is my increasingly lengthy commentary on all things "short."

DOCUMENTARY / ANIMATED / LIVE ACTION SHORTS

Not having kept up w/the Documentary, Animated or Live-Action (short) categories for the umpteenth time, I’m mostly taking a pass, but I’m always certain one of the nominees will win. It seems pretty clear from various prognosticators that there are frontrunners in each of the categories, and more nominees are available via streaming than in the past.

We shall see...or not. One of these years, I’ll make it to the marathon pre-Oscar showings of all these nominees. BTW, no one has yet (still not?) responded to my annual question: How many of you go to see the “short subjects” when they play as a single bill in theatres?

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Death by Numbers

I Am Ready, Warden

Incident

Instruments of a Beating Heart

The Only Girl in the Orchestra

The Oscar in this category regularly goes to the documentary with the most serious subject, and this year two of the nominees deal, in one way or another, with morality:  I Am Ready, Warden and Death by Numbers. I Am Ready, Warden examines death row inmate John Henry Ramirez, a Texas man convicted of stabbing a convenience store worker. Ramirez has never denied his crime, and the movie instead focuses on the tremendous amount of work he has done to rehabilitate himself. The film raises questions about. among other things, capital punishment, the prison reform system, and features one of the sons of Ramirez's victim.

Death by Numbers turns its attention to one of the survivors of the 2018 Parkland shootings, and like Warden, explores the impact of horrific crimes on the victims, the survivors, and the community. Taking a very different, but equally visceral perspective, Incident looks at a couple of "unjust deaths" in graphic detail, showing how officers reacted to a fellow police officer's killing of Harith "Snoop" Augustus in Chicago in 2018.

Contrasting these three dark and somber tales, Instruments of the Beating Heart and The Only Girl in the Orchestra deal more broadly and emotionally with the power of music and could extend the impact of last year's winner, The Last Repair Shop, which followed a group of devoted craftsmen who repair musical instruments so public school students in Los Angeles could play.

I'm a sucker for seeing how music is the great healer, fostering collaboration and community as it brings people together, but it's unclear how far Hollywood will go to extend its belief the importance of art as catalyst to social change and transformer of souls.

MJ’s Pick: I Am Ready, Warden

Upset: The Only Girl in the Orchestra  

(I'd give this film the Oscar based on title alone.)                             

ANIMATED SHORT

Beautiful Men

In the Shadow of the Cypress

Magic Candies

Wander to Wonder (BAFTA)

Yuck!

Not a weak link in the lot of animated shorts again this year, and one thoroughly charming nominee - Japan's Yuck! which focuses on children's reactions when they see adults kissing.

Two of the frontrunners use the stop-motion animation that Guillermo Del Toro used in his magnificent Pinocchio a few years ago. Wander to Wonder, which won the BAFTA, is the story of a 1980s children's show creator who dies on set, leaving the three tiny stars of the show alone in the studio to fend for themselves. As they struggle to find enough food to eat, they manage to make strange new episodes for their fans.

If three bald brothers traveling to Istanbul to get a hair transplant is your thing, check out Beautiful Men, a "Fellini-esque reality/fantasy" that is really a treatise on aging. Can The Substance II be far behind? In the Shadow of Cypress seems to be gaining attention as its subject deals with a retired captain suffering from PTSD who is living with his daughter is coaxed out of isolation by the unanticipated arrival of a whale.

Good stuff here, and more and more sophistication with animation in general. One trend that continues to evolve in this category is more adult-themed animated shorts.

Repeat after me again (all together now): Animation. Not just for kids anymore.

MJ’s Pick: Wander to Wonder OR Yuck! 

Contender that may win: Beautiful Men                                        

LIVE ACTION SHORT

A Lien

Anuja

I’m Not a Robot

The Last Ranger

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Unlike the past few years last year which touted nominations (and wins) for artists typically recognized in other categories, like feature director Wes Anderson and actor Riz Ahmed, this year's nominees are not as well-known, so the category seems to have returned to its more understated form. The only "celebrity" driven project is Anuja, which boasts Mindy Kaling and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as executive producers. Kaling has had some previous experience attaching her name to artistic endeavors she deems worthwhile. She was one of the financial backers on The Strange Loop, which won Best New Musical on Broadway in 2022.

Anuja tells the story of a nine-year-old Hindi girl who works in a garment factory and whose life is forever changed when she is given the opportunity to attend school. It has been honored at several regional film festivals including the Montclair Film Festival where it won the Audience Award in this category. It is available on Netflix.

Easily, the most accessible nominee (via The New Yorker's YouTube channel), is Dutch entry, I Am Not a Robot, has been viewed as both entertaining and timely, as it deals with the complex relationship between movies and technology. It hasn't gotten much push (re: no real marketing campaign) to promote a win.

The most political film in this category is probably A Lien, produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam McKay ( The Big Short, Don't Look Up ). It's the story of a husband and wife trying to prove his immigration status and comes closest to the current real-life traumas faced by thousands of undocumented immigrants in this country. Leave it to McKay to address boldly and without compromise, every uncomfortable topic that insinuates itself in the world in which we live, from Wall Street corruption to climate change.

The Last Ranger is the most traditional in terms of dramatic style and could win (so don't count it out), but it doesn't have the edge or timeliness of the other four nominees. As in previous years, the subject matter in this category remains darker and more serious than the two other "short" categories.

With not a lot of attention has been given to any of the nominees, I'm going to go with the movie that seems to be picking up steam among AMPAS voters, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, a Croatian drama about the 1993 the Štrpci Massacre, when 18 Muslims and 1 Croat were pulled from a train by the White Eagles, a Serbian paramilitary group and massacred. The film centers on Tomo Buzov (Dragan Mićanović), the sole non-Bosniak passenger on the train who tried to stand up against the attackers. The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival and took home the Palme D'Or in the Live-Action short category. It subsequently won the Best European Short Film at the European Film Awards last December, and it is historic in that it is the first Croatian film to receive an Academy Award nomination since the Croatian independence of 1991. Viva my mother's homeland!

So I’m going to go with the frontrunner…

MJ’s Pick: The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

Upset: A Lien

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And remember to check back with my original post for the Epilogue and End Credits!!