2020 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS
Here is the complete list of this year's Oscar Nominated Shorts in the three categories of animated, live action, and documentary. They will be shown starting Wed., Jan. 29, 2020 in New York and Washington, DC, and Los Angeles Jan. 31, and show nationwide, eventually on 500 screens, from Feb. 8. Filmleaf comments on the films will follow, and watch here for the actual Oscar winners. But these are all winners: an Oscar nomination is a big win in itself, as any former nominees will tell you.
ANIMATED SHORT FILM NOMINEES
DCERA (DAUGHTER)
Director: Daria Kashcheeva
Synopsis: The bond between a father and a daughter is imperiled by matters that go unspoken and hurts that are slow to heal.
Country of Origin: Czech Republic
TRT: 15 minutes
Language: None
HAIR LOVE
Directors: Matthew A. Cherry Everett Downing Jr. and Bruce W. Smith
Synopsis: Hair Love is an animated short film about an African American father trying to do his daughter’s hair for the first time.
Country of Origin: USA
TRT: 7 minutes
Language: English
KITBULL
Directors: Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson
Synopsis: An unlikely connection sparks between two creatures: a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pit bull. Together, they experience friendship for the first time.
Country of Origin: USA
TRT: 9 minutes
Language: English
MÉMORABLE
Directors: Bruno Collet and Jean-François Le Corre
Synopsis: Recently, Louis, painter, and his wife Michelle are experiencing strange events. Their world seems to be mutating. Slowly, furniture, objects, and people lose their realism.
Country of Origin: France
TRT: 12 minutes
Language: French
SISTER
Director: Siqi Song
Synopsis: A man remembers his childhood memories of growing up with an annoying little sister in 1990s China. How would his life have been if things had gone differently?
Country of Origin: CHINA/USA
TRT: 8 minutes
Language: Chinese
(There are also three "highly commended" animated films: Henrietta, The Bird & the Whale, and Hors Piste.)
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM NOMINEES
BROTHERHOOD
Directors: Meryam Joobeur and Maria Gracia Turgeon
Synopsis: Mohamed is deeply shaken when his oldest son Malik returns home after a long journey with a mysterious new wife.
Country of Origin: Tunisia | Canada | Qatar | Sweden
TRT: 25 Minutes
Language: Arabic
NEFTA FOOTBALL CLUB
Directors: Yves Piat and Damien Megherbi
Synopsis: In a Tunisian village, children are playing football on a wasteland. Meanwhile, Abdallah and Mohammed come across a donkey with headphones on his ears and bags full of a white powder on his back. The two young brothers decide to bring those bags back to their village.
Country of Origin: France - Tunisia
TRT: 17 Minutes
Language: Arabic
THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW
Director: Marshall Curr
Synopsis: It tells the story of a middle aged woman with small children whose life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street.
Country of Origin: USA
TRT: 20 Minutes
Language: English
SARIA
Directors: Bryan Buckley and Matt Lefebvre
Synopsis: SARIA explores the unimaginable hardships faced by young female orphans at the Virgen de La Asuncion Safe Home in Guatemala, leading up to the tragic fire which claimed 41 of their lives in 2017.
Country of Origin: USA
TRT: 23 Minutes
Language: Spanish
A SISTER
Director: Delphine Girard
Synopsis: A night. A car. Alie is in danger. To get by, she must make the most important phone call of her life
Country of Origin: Belgium
TRT: 16 Minutes
Language: French
[Compare Gustav Moller's Guilty (ND/NF 2017).]
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM NOMINEES
IN THE ABSENCE
Directors: Yi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam
Synopsis: Documents the sinking of a South Korean Ferry. As a result of the ineptitude of the first response to the emerging situation, hundreds of people, mostly children lost their lives
Country of Origin: USA
TRT: 28 Minutes
Language: Korean
LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL)
Directors: Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreichev
Synopsis: Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You're A Girl) is the story of young Afghan girls learning to read, write-and skateboard-in Kabul.
Country of Origin: UK
TRT: 39 Minutes
Language: Dari
LIFE OVERTAKES ME
Directors: John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson
Synopsis: In the grip of trauma, hundreds of refugee children in Sweden withdraw from life's uncertainties into a coma-like illness called Resignation Syndrome.
Country of Origin: Sweden | USA
TRT: 39 Minutes
Language: English
ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN
Directors: Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan
Synopsis: Bruce Franks Jr. is a 34-year-old battle rapper, Ferguson activist and state representative from St. Louis, Missouri. Known as Superman to his constituents, he is a political figure the likes of which you've never seen - full of contradictions and deep insights, who has overcome unspeakable loss to become one of the most exciting and unapologetic young leaders in the country.
Country of Origin: USA
TRT: 28 Minutes
Language: English
WALK RUN CHA-CHA
Directors: Laura Nix and Colette Sandstedt
Synopsis: Paul and Millie Cao lost their youth to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they have become successful professionals in Southern California-and are rediscovering themselves on the dance floor.
Country of Origin: USA
TRT: 20 Minutes
Language: English, Mandarin
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