Oscars 2024: Who Should Win the Best Live-Action Short Academy Award

On March 10, 2024, Hollywood will hand out Oscars to honor the year's best movies. Big releases competing in a handful of categories monopolize attention, but we are partial to the short categories. Without the constant coverage, they offer more surprises. Full of new talent, they point towards the future of the industry. 

Alas, we are facing an anomaly: a veteran filmmaker is my favorite to take the Oscar home in the Best Live Action category. But don't open the champagne just yet. History might repeat itself. Last year, Italian director Alice Rohrwarcher looked as a shoo-in for her instant Christmas classic "The Pupils." It went home empty-handed in favor of the maudlin "An Irish Goodbye." The suspense is killing me. Please don't follow my lead for the office poll, but here's my take on this year's Best Live Action Short Film nominees. You can watch them on the big screen thanks to ShortsTV's theatrical programs, now playing all over the country. We take note of streaming options whenever they are available. Movie buff, take note!

The After

Do you know that dreadful feeling when a movie shows you a moment of pure bliss, and you just know they are prepping you for a horrible development? The bait-and-switch trick is alive and well in "The After." Done well, this trick can be devastating. The problem is that there is no chance to build up the experience in a short film, giving you something more than a nasty surprise. It's worse yet if you open up the movie with it. David Oyelowo is Dayo, a busy executive gallivanting around London with his cute-as-a-button little daughter (Amelie Dokubo). They dance along the banks of the Thames, making time for their beautiful wife and mother (Jessica Plummer) to appear. High on life, he decides to forego an important business meeting to go to the kid's dance recital. Let's just say they never make it. 

After an episode of shocking violence, the movie jumps several months in the future. Incapable of returning to his job, a still shell-shocked Dayo bides his time and makes money as an Uber driver. The gig allows him to remain somewhat connected to the world, as evident in the montage of riders from all walks of life. In this rather naturalistic sequence, "The After" manages to portray how trauma leaves you outside but looking into society, eager to return but disconnected by a pain that feels too personal. How can people go around living their lives normally when your world has fallen apart? An emotional breakthrough comes up when he picks up a family very much like the one he lost.

You may be shocked or annoyed, but Oyelowo performs well as a man paralyzed by grief. He is good, but not enough to justify an Oscar. "The After" is available to stream on Netflix.

Red, White, and Blue

An issues-driven drama about a ripped-from-the-headlines subject. Brittany Snow shows unexpected grit as Rachel, a single mother of two kids. She can barely make the rent but needs to take a break to deal with an unexpected pregnancy. Preachiness is kept in check thanks to the attention to family dynamics every parent can relate to. 

I'd guess every little kid has been on a vacation to be spared of a traumatic moment in every family's history. See how the steely Rachel deals with the logistics of a cross-state road trip while shielding Maddy (Juliet Donnenfeld) and Jake (Reeding Munsell) by making everything look like an adventure. After dropping the little boy off with a family friend, Rachel brings Maddy along for a road trip with all the vibes of a girl's excursion, complete with junk food and a pit stop at a country fair. 

When they leave Arkansas behind, they share how it's the first time mother and daughter travel outside their home state. There are no straight references to the criminalization of abortion that puts undue strain on women's access to health services. Still, the tight script construction and the resolution's emotional punch make the whole thing work. You will be furious at the end, as you should be. "Red, White, and Blue" is available to stream on AppleTV+.

Knight of Fortune

This marvelous dark comedy from Denmark packs a lot in a swift running time of 26 minutes. Karl (Leif Andrée) is a lonely widower visiting an antiseptic morgue to mourn his recently deceased wife - the titular "Knight of Fortune" was her favorite song. He crosses paths with Torben (Jens Horn Pottage), who asks him for help opening his own wife's casket. This simple favor leads to escalating screwball complications. There is no remedy for death, but the survivors can find solace in each other. As Karl and Torben get closer in a buddy comedy of errors, director Lasse Lyskjaer Noer finds warmth in the cold institutional setting.

A surprise ending of O'Henry-an deftness makes this short a delight. This one would be my winner if I were handing out Oscars - and if it was not competing against solid work from Wes Anderson. However, whenever it contemplates mortality, the Academy favors maudlinness over sobriety. I'm still reeling at last year's win for "An Irish Goodbye" (Tom Berkeley, Ross White, 2022), the lesser of all the nominees, just because it gave you all the feels. Justice for "The Pupils"! 

"Knight of Fortune" is available to stream on AppleTV+.

Invincible

Canadian director Vincent René-Lortie renders homage to a lost friend in "Invincible." The short begins with a shocking flash-forward to get your attention and raise your pulse: a young man being pursued by the police receives a call from his mother, asking him to surrender himself. Instead, he drives forward into a lake. 

After the title card, we go into the past to contemplate Marc (Léokime Beaumier-Lepine), a teen boy going through a whiplash-inducing routine. He spends weekdays at home and weekdays at a reformatory. The nature of the offenses that landed him there is never revealed. The lack of definition can be maddening, but that is the point. Family and estate fail to protect this kid from himself. His coming-and-goings are portrayed with the clear-eyed empathy of the Dardenne Brothers until the narrative closes the circle, taking us back to the beginning. As affecting as the movie can be, you can't quite skate the feeling you are watching the beautiful film production of a particularly tragic school special. How is he invincible? The idealization of self-destruction rubs me the wrong way.

"Invincible" is not available to stream in the US yet, but you can watch in the ShortsTV's Oscar-nominated Shorts program playing theatrically around the country.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

2023 was a landmark year for Wes Anderson. "Asteroid City," his eleventh feature film, gathered great reviews and a healthy box office beyond the Art House circuit. On top of that, he released four shorts based on stories by Roald Dahl. In their infinite wisdom, the Academy shut "Asteroid…" out of any nomination, leaving "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar" as the only chance to honor one of the most distinctive American contemporary directors. 

It may seem unfair to pine a pro at the height of his creative powers against up-and-coming talent, but that is the hand that has been dealt. And the truth is, the competition is not even close. By far, "…Henry Sugar" should be the winner. Anderson crafts an intricate miniature that looks like the epitome of his dollhouse aesthetic. He makes the artifice obvious, with the theatrical make-believe coming together and apart right before your eyes. It may be another convention of his style - you can trace it back to Max Fischer's (Jason Schwartzman) fanciful school plays in "Rushmore" (1998). Here, it goes beyond a visual gag. Ralph Fiennes, playing the brusque Dahl as he writes the story, conjures this world out of thin air. The plot is a literary Chinese box with a story within another story. Actors play their characters and comment on the action through fourth-wall-breaking asides. Ben Kingsley is a man in colonial-era India who learns to see with closed eyes. His testimony inspires dissolute millionaire Henry Sugar (Benedict Cumberbatch) to become a good human being. You cannot deny the star power or the artisanship on display.

Bear in mind that the other three Dahl shorts would be equally award-worthy. You could've filled this category with them, and it would not bother me. After seven nominations and no wins, it would be a bittersweet development to see Anderson take the statuette home. "...Henry Sugar," "The Swan," "The Rat Catcher," and "Poison" are all available to stream on Netflix.