2015 Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts (theatrical release) (1 Viewer)

The wife and saw the live action shorts that are nominated for Oscars this year. For the third straight year these films were shown together at my local Cinemark, and for a $10 ticket, what an enjoyable batch of short films! We got to see four films, and by foreign filmmakers. The best of the bunch, IMO, was the "Parveneh", about an Afghan teenager trying to survive as an immigrant in Switzerland. The actresses are fetching, the emotions touching, and the story uplifting. Arguably the most ambitious is "Aya", an Israeli film about taking chances and not following the prescribed path in life, not in a "big decisions" sense, but in terms of the little choices we make every day. It poses questions about opportunity costs that aren't easily answered. This film was 40 minutes long, and I wish they had fleshed it out to a full-length movie. The funniest of the bunch was "Boogaloo and Graham", about two boys growing up in Northern Ireland in the late 1970s. The political stuff is kept at bay, and the hilarity of these kids and their parents kept me in stitches.


The two films I found least compelling were the Chinese "Butter Lamp" and the British-made "Phone Call". The latter actually has a couple big names in the cast,including Jim Broadbent in a voice role as a desperate caller to an emergency hotline. This film brought my wife to tears, but it didn't resonate with me, while the Chinese film about remote villagers getting photographed in front of facades of famous places confused me even as I enjoyed the epic scenery.


Anyway, if you get a chance to see this, and the accompanying animated shorts, by all means do so!

My personal favorite was "Aya".

I watched the Oscar short programs yesterday as well. I'm glad these have became so much more accessible in recent years, both through theatrical screening and online (I've been buying them on iTunes).


While I enjoyed all of the shorts, my favorite of the live-action offerings was Aya, both for Sarah Adler's enigmatic performance in the title role, as well as for its subtle eroticism. Hard to predict a winner here; I think Aya, Parvenah and Phone Call all have a shot. The latter is going to be boosted among Academy voters by having Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent and Oscar-nominee Sally Hawkins as the leads - and both are superb as always.