One of our favorite film categories at the Academy Awards is the Live Action Shorts. This season of films have been absolutely wonderful to watch with so many creative directors and writers. The stories have been some of the best in years. So why did the Academy get it so wrong?
All current five Oscar nominees are very deserving to be nominated, but the category needs to be expanded to at least 7 films and not just 5. To stand a bit on our soapbox, the category should be independent filmmakers only. This year we see two studios in this category, one hybrid film from an independent with studio money, one from a famed director and three are independent films. Ok, off our soapbox.
There were at least three live action short films we deemed as Oscar nomination worthy. One didn’t get shortlisted and should have and two were shortlisted that really should have gotten a nomination. Yes, not everyone can received a shortlist or a nomination as it’s a very competitive category this year. I don’t review films with a critical eye, I dissect them like a surgeon, so the Academy either needs a heart transplant or a brain implant from Elon Musk. So what are our picks of “Could’ve and Should’ve”?
THE STUPID BOY
The moment I watched Phil C. Dunn’s brilliant short I was left with a feeling that all of humanity needed to see this film. The first film I saw this season that left tears in my eyes. A neuro-divergent teen with an innocence that proved we need to look at our world with more innocent eyes and in some cases, at face value. The headline for this film was “an autistic teen and a white supremacist”. This film goes far beyond this headline as I viewed it, it was about an innocence that was on the verge of being lost, but it was that innocence that save a man from making a tragic mistake. Proving that love can still conquer hate. My tagline would’ve been “A neuro-divergent teen’s innocence is tested in a world that has lost it.”
I wanted so much to see this film get nominated, but it didn’t make the shortlist. For this film not to get shortlisted was heartbreaking to one of the most memorable films of the season. A film that still lingers in me, I can still see the ending in my mind over and over again. A few films can mesh intensity, innocence and beauty together with such grace, but Phil C. Dunn’s brilliant storytelling and cinematic eye did just that and more. If I was an Academy member, The Stupid Boy would be mentioned on Oscar night.
Want to see the world through a real lens? Stop looking through your smartphone and go buy a Kodak Instamatic and a roll of film. See what develops and you’ll understand what I am saying.
THE ONE NOTE MAN
Seriously, what is wrong with the Academy? Am I finger pointing at the wrong people? The One Note Man is the film I said is the one we needed in our lives. A film that covered the mundane of one’s life, but behind that mundane routine was a man who needed to rediscover life, purpose and love.
The One Note Man is a dialogue-less short film directed by Greek filmmaker George C. Siougas. This warm and fuzzy film captures your heart and if you shed a tear, that tear is full of joy. Variety magazine kept picking this short film as a top five for a nomination. Even they will get it wrong, and some of these publications should stay quiet and not build the hopes up of some of these films, and the people who make them. Hey, I’m protecting my people here.
The One Note Man is brilliant and magnificent at the same time. Jason Watkins plays the bassoon player (he actually learned how to play it!) and Crystal Lu plays the orchestra conductor who will make you cringe in fear and laugh at the same time. Louisa Clein plays the violinist, and who actually plays the violin, so the film has as much realism as Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.
So with both The Stupid Boy and The One Note Man, I had tears in my eyes. Joyful ones, because both of these films possess the elements of great filmmaking that contain lessons for budding filmmakers. Watch them and watch them over and over again. They both teach you how to tell a story with dialogue, without dialogue and with great emotion.
YELLOW
The only short film out of thousands of shorts that could literally change a nation, Yellow WAS it. This is not a political film, it’s a film about having the decency of humanity. Afghan film director Elham Ehsas who I have had the pleasure of interviewing twice is a powerful storyteller. His story is true and based on fact. A film that shows how the Taliban has taken away the rights of Afghan women to have an education and force them to hide under a full body hijab as if they didn’t exist.
I saw Yellow right before it debuted at the Palm Springs ShortFest. The moment I saw this film, I knew it should be in the race for an Oscar and it was. It was shortlisted and it too I feel should have been nominated.
When one watches Yellow, you have to watch it not as a film, but through the eyes of the its main character, a beautiful Afghan woman who walks into a hijab shop knowing her life as she knew it is gone.
A film so quietly powerful, it should be shown to every member of the United Nations and if it ever does, it will go far beyond what winning an Oscar can do. Elham has become a crusader for human rights and women’s rights in Afghanistan with one powerful film.
Yellow, a film that stands alone, but I stand with Elham and his film. Oscars be damned, we have a world to save!
So there you have it. The Academy does get it wrong. How wrong? Why was Barbie even nominated for anything?
Academy members, watch the actual Live Action Shorts and vote correctly. I know who should win, but you’ll have to wait until March 10th at the Oscars. Now where is my bowtie.
