Updated 1/10/2019 with new links. Currently a whopping 22 out of 30 of these films are streaming!

Short of the Week was started in America, and even though half of our team is based internationally, we have a chauvinistic attachment to the States, and thus, the Oscars, in a way we don’t necessarily have for, say, France’s César Awards. Besides, the Oscars are just bigger—3 winning short filmmakers will get on stage in February in front of a global audience of hundreds of millions, and even the nominees will have an opportunity to participate in theatrical screenings that rake in millions of dollars at the box office. So, an Oscar nomination is special, and yesterday 30 short films took the next step towards a golden statuette by making the shortlist. You can see a list of the films here, but in this post we’re going to specifically highlight the films that we’re rooting for, the films and filmmakers we’ve featured on the site! 10 in total, check them out, as well as links to 12 other films. Some of these films will be dropping off the internet soon however, so act fast!

Documentary

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Documentary Ed Perkins

Black Sheep

Scared for her son's safety, Cornelius’ mother moves their family out of London and on to a white estate ran by a racist gang.

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Documentary Charlie Tyrell

My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes

Filmmaker Charlie Tyrell seeks to better understand his emotionally distant late-father through the personal belongings he left behind... including a stack of VHS dirty movies.

The short form Documentary category has become the most predictable, dominated as it is by big media company acquisitions. Still, very happy for filmmakers Charlie Tyrell (NyTimes Op/Docs) and Ed Perkins (The Guardian) who’ve both been featured twice on this site. Other films to watch:

Night At the Garden – Streaming on Vimeo.
Lifeboat – Streaming on YouTube via The New Yorker
Zion – Streaming on Netflix (you can read about my esteem for Zion here)
End Game – Streaming on Netflix
’63 Boycott – Streaming via PBS (US-Only) through Jan. 14th
Los Comandos – Streaming via PBS (US-Only)

 

Animation

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Dramedy Domee Shi

Bao

**Currently Offline** - An aging Chinese mom suffering from empty nest syndrome gets another chance at motherhood when one of her dumplings springs to life.

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Adventure Andrew Goldsmith & Bradley Slabe

Lost & Found

A knitted toy dinosaur must completely unravel itself to save the love of its life in one of the most impressive stop motion animations of the year. A 2019 Annie Award nominee.

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Adventure Andrew Chesworth & Bobby Pontillas

One Small Step

From TAIKO Studios, a new Chinese/American company made up of Disney alums, comes the story of Luna, a Chinese American girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut.

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Drama Lucrèce Andreae

Pépé Le Morse (Grandpa Walrus)

On a windy and cloudy beach, Granny is praying, Mum is shouting, the sisters don’t care, Lucas is alone. Grandpa was a weird guy, now he’s dead.

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Drama Trevor Jimenez

Weekends

**CURRENTLY OFFLINE** - Nominated for an Annie Award, and one of 10 films on the Oscar shortlist, 'Weekends' is an animated short film about a young boy shuffling between the homes of his recently divorced parents in 1980's Toronto.

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Drama Louise Bagnall

Late Afternoon

Oscar Shortlist for 2019! Emily has her afternoon tea and lets her mind wander back into the past. She journeys through her memories, reliving moments from her life. What she discovers there will challenge her in unexpected ways.

Animation can be the most frustrating category for knowledgeable observers, but now that 6 of the 10 films on the shortlist are S/W featured picks it’s hard to complain. Additionally all 10 of the shortlist films are available to stream for free for a limited time — catch them quick though, Weekends comes offline Jan 14th, and others could be quick to follow.

Age of Sail – Streaming on Vimeo
Bilby – Streaming on YouTube
Bird Karma – Streaming on YouTube
Animal Behaviour – Streaming on YouTube

 

Live-Action

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Drama Jérémy Comte

Fauve

Set in a surface mine, this Special Jury Prize winner from Sundance 2018, follows two boys as they sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer.

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Drama Logan George & Celine Held

Caroline

When plans fall through, a six-year-old is faced with a big responsibility on a hot Texas day.

No one really knows how or why live-action shorts progress in the Oscar-running, it’s easily the most befuddling of the categories, but two of our picks make it the shortlist, and they are two great ones—both likely to figure into our own Best of the 2018 awards. If you haven’t seen them yet, rectify that now! Additionally two other Live-Action shorts recently dropped online. Links below, but again be quick—Chochotage we know for certain will be disappearing after the 14th. 

Icare – Streaming on Vimeo
Chuchotage – Streaming on Vimeo (until Jan. 14th)