The Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action

Five Films that run between seventeen and twenty two minutes, an ecletic mix of comedy, tragedy, and farce that were the academy's selections for the category this year.
Kavi: A bit of a Unicef advert, but an important call-to-attention of the human slavery business in India. It seemed a little like a number of even-tinier films tacked together, but had some fine shots and convincing performances. The music was delightfully different.
The New Tenants: A comedy/ farce that brings up a few laughs, and has one very arresting character (the druggy). However, it is not sharp enough to have consistent comedy, and tries to pack too much in, leaving an unsatisfactory and pretentious ending. Lacks the bite better direction could have given it.
Miracle Fish: Probably the winner we would have crowned, this establishes well and has a wondrous, dreamy quality to both the child's vision and the whole later scenes. Nicely enigmatic, shot with an eye to lighting effects, but quick enough for the format. It rather over-eggs the ending, but all told very impressive.
The Door: Undoubtedly the most boring to watch, and it is unrelentingly gloomy, easy to cast off with a big who cares. One was rather wishing for it to end. Despite this, the auteur would likely make the best feature film of the five. There are some wonderful, slow moving shots of the snow, the weary travellers passing through. Individual scenes, individual pictures (the ferris wheel, the entire packing-up scene) are nicely, calmly evoked. Perhaps with a more focussed sriptwriter, this could be a talent. Not a great short film though.
Instead of Abracadabra: Delightful, funny little piece of Scandanavian whimsy, with strong comedy of embarrasment (in an absurd manner) as well as some near-slapstick. It had cheery music, a bright and breezy aesthetic, and was the funnest to watch out of all the five. It also had an ability to make itself rather touching, the absurdity and silliness cloaking real characterisation. Impressive.
So, we have very different themes in all five, and if none really blew us away then all had some redeeming features. The winner, 'The New Tenants' was the wrong decision; it may not have been the worst to watch, but it was the worst made. We will watch out particularly for the directors of 'Miracle Fish' and 'Abracadabra', though we will also do so for the director of the rather dull 'The Room'.
Short Films are rarely seen, but are a terrific medium that should be brought out of the film school. To reflect on the use of images, slow or fast, to tell no story or a quick one, we look forward to having more experience of the art form.