Oscar shorts are here
With the Academy Awards just 2½ weeks away, it’s time to take part in one of the greatest Oscar traditions, viewing the diverse collection of short-film nominees. They might not be as well-known as their feature-length counterparts, but they often are more affecting and even more relevant.
The “2021 Oscar Nominated Short Films” come in three categories — animation, liveaction and documentary — that are streaming separately. The animated category package features all five nominees plus three additional entries that were shortlisted but didn’t make the final cut. The one to watch for, of course, is Pixar’s “Burrow,” a heartwarming familyfriendly fable about a bunny wanting to create a sweet spot to call a home. It was directed by Alameda native Madeline Sharafian.
In the live-action category, each entry seems deserving of an award. Personal favorites include “Feeling Through,” in which a Black
unhoused teen connects with a deaf and blind passenger who’s trying to get to the right bus stop, and a prison drama, “The Letter Room,” starring Oscar Isaac.
The wide-ranging documentary category touches on everything from the Holocaust (“Colette”) to the 2019 democracy protests in Hong Kong (“Do Not Split”) to an impressionistic look at Los Angeles teen Latasha Harlins (“A Love Song for Latasha”), whose shooting by a grocer was seen as a secondary cause (after the Rodney King verdict) of the 1992 riots.
Details: Available for streaming as part of the Virtual Cinema series by the Roxie Theater, www.roxie.com; and the Smith Rafael Film Center, rafaelfilm.cafilm.org, $7-$12.50 each; playing at select theaters, including Embarcadero Cinema in San Francisco and Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley (live-action and animation only); streaming on Amazon Prime and other major platforms April 20.
— Randy Myers, Bay City News Foundation