Brandon MacMurray

Dec 10, 202412 min read

Live Action Short Shortlist Predictions for the 97th Academy Awards

For our final set of predictions we bring you our picks for Live Action Short Shortlist. This was by far the toughest one yet. We are exactly one week away from shortlist announcements. 180 shorts were submitted in the category and some really tough cuts had to be made that we really don’t feel good about (so pay close attention to the ones we put in our honourable mentions as well because many received votes to get in!). Please feel free to follow along with the podcast below but have included timestamps along with each description in case you want to skip ahead. Last year we guessed 8/15 correctly, let’s see where we end up this year!

1) The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, dir. Nebojša Slijepčević

Podcast Timestamp: 01:44

Directed and written by Nebojša Slijepčević, The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent had a great festival season, winning two prestigious Oscar qualifying awards: the Palm d’Or for Best Short Film at Cannes and the City of Melbourne Grand Prix at MIFF. Heading into Oscars season it remains a favourite and rightfully so. The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent is a powerful portrait of a true hero. Taking place solely on a train, this 13 minute historical drama recalls the events of the 1993 Strpci massacre where 24 Bozniak Muslims were removed from a train by a Serbian paramilitary group, eventually to be tortured and killed. This short takes a small snapshot of this story and the man who dared to stand up against these forces.

2) Clodagh, dir. Portia A. Buckley

Podcast Timestamp: 05:20

The lovely, understated Clodagh is the story of a lonely priest's housekeeper encounters a young Irish girl of exceptional promise. Of all the 180 eligible live action short films that were submitted to this year’s Oscars, the beautifully shot (on 35mm film!) Irish drama Clodagh is one of only four films that had unanimous votes from all of the ShortStick writers, who included Clodagh in their shortlist predictions. Clodagh had a successful festival season, playing at many international film festivals, including Tribeca, AFI, Short Shorts, and Hollyshorts. The catchy Irish music and talented step dancers of the church’s dance school, and the emotional performances by the charming Irish cast, including Bríd Ní Neachtain, and Katelyn Rose Downey as Clodagh will surely appeal to Academy voters, as will the heartwarming story that might remind voters of the recently Oscar-nominated The Quiet Girl.

3) Room Taken, dir. Tj O'Grady Peyton

Podcast Timestamp: 08:05

When Isaac needs somewhere to sleep, he secretly moves into the home of an elderly blind woman, in Room Taken, our next highest ranking prediction. The tensions between the two unlikely roommates leads them to form a unique bond. Room Taken qualified for the Oscar’s by winning the top short film prize at the Cleveland International Film Festival (US). Room Taken was another of ShortStick’s very fewunanimous choices, landing a place on each one of our shortlist predictions lists. The drama that beautifully mixes the despair experienced by its homeless and blind characters, with the relief given from a new relationship will appear to Academy voters who are moved by its engaging story and strong performances. Room Taken is also likely to be a BAFTA nominee in the live action short film category, an excellent bellwether for success in the same Oscar category. Room Taken has also added Colin Farrell as an Executive Producer.

Watch here: Room Taken: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhIZEYTSIM&list=PLwDe6hrCodhk0k3qCN0QTqixXu6g2R5Nh&index=9

4) Motherland, dir. Jasmin Mozaffari

Podcast Timestamp: 11:17

Jasmin Mozaffari’s energetic and deeply-felt short film Motherland opens with a sharply-paced montage of news footage summarizing the first six days of the Iranian hostage crisis. Nearly 60 American diplomats were held by Iranian students in the American Embassy in Tehran, angry after the Shah had left Iran and concerned by rumors of another U.S.–backed coup in Iran that would re-install him. As the short continues on, the brisk cutting and handheld camerawork the opening scenes give a restless energy to Motherland and a tension that continues to build to almost excruciating levels.

Motherland’s story is a personal one for Mozaffari, as some aspects of the story are similar to the director’s own life—her father was an Iranian immigrant who came to Canada from Tehran at the time of the Iranian Revolution. The intimacy with which Mozaffari handles the specifics of the story can’t be faked, and the cultural texture and familial details are packed into each vibrant frame.

Motherland hass had an excellent year already, winning Best Drama at Aspen Shortfsest, the Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short as well as Best Drama at Hollyshorts Film Festival.

Watch here: https://vimeo.com/1028486299?share=copy

5) Anuja, dir. Adam J. Graves

Podcast Timestamp: 13:39

This short centres around a young girl and titular character Anuja who works with her older sister Palak in a back-alley garment factory in Delhi, India. Anuja was produced in partnership with the Salaam Baalak Trust (SBT), a nonprofit organization working to provide food, shelter and education to thousands of children living in the streets of New Delhi. Sajda Pathan who plays Anuja in the film is a resident of a SBT center and one of the children taken in by the foundation, adding a true layer of realism to the depiction. While the film is fiction, this is certainly the reality for many children worldwide as nearly one in ten children under the age of fifteen is subject to child labor. As the credits roll we see Sajda, together with the other children, watching the film for the first time at the SBT center.

The film finds brief moments of joy in the midst of the tough challenges of survival the two sisters face. Such as the playful retorts between them as Anuja practices her reading by checking out the contact ads in the local paper for her sister, or the childlike joy in their eyes as they come over a small sum of cash unexpectedly and make the decision to get snacks and go to the movies. And I think this mirrors much of what the organizations such as SBT is trying to achieve, a small glimmer of hope in a reality that can sometimes feel like endless darkness. One in ten is a huge statistic, but with films like these putting a spotlight on the issue we can all hope to shrink it down piece by piece.

Amuja qualified for the 97th Academy Awards after winning Best Live Action Short at Hollyshorts Film Festival.

6) The Masterpiece, dir. Àlex Lora Cercós

Podcast Timestamp: 17:15

The tautly tense Spanish live action short film The Masterpiece brings us into the world of Leo and Diana, a wealthy, white couple, who bring a broken TV to a recycle point where they meet Salif and his son, two immigrant scrap dealers. Diana asks them to come to their house to get more objects, where tensions between the two families begin to arise. The Masterpiece has qualified for the Oscars twice over, by winning prizes at both Raindance Film Festival (UK) and Sundance (US). The rich-vs-poor mind games of The Masterpiece could remind Academy voters of the similarly-themed Parasite, likely the most popular of recent Best Picture winners. The Masterpiece has had an incredibly successful festival season, winning an astonishing 41 short film prizes at various international film festivals.

7) Calf, dir. Jamie O'Rourke

Podcast Timestamp: 21:05

Calf is a dimly lit tale from a British farm run by Michael, Aine and their two kids Cáit and Sean. It begins at dawn with a cow about to give birth, as the farmer and father of the family tends to his morning chores. Mother Aine puts breakfast on the table and tells her teenage daughter Cáit to go out and get her father. As she approaches the barn to fetch her father, Cáit realises that there has been a terrible accident. Now faced with the reality of being the only person who knows that Michael is in grave danger, she finds herself in a difficult situation forced to confront her dark secrets.

Every element of this film is masterfully crafted to add suspense and mystery to the atmosphere. Sound effects such as the breakfast bacon frying in the pan or the cow panting as it is about to give birth are given tons of space to reel you in and keep you glued to the screen. The acting by Isabelle Connolly in the role of Cáit stands out as particularly striking, as she masterfully displays the increasingly skittish and nervous behaviour of the built up tension surrounding her. Equally impressive is the lighting throughout the film, and especially so in the introductory scenes shot at dawn where the silence is louder than ever. The parallel and thematically resonant arc of the cow calving on the farm, giving the film its title, gorgeously intertwines the tales of sorrow and rebirth, and the final shot stays with you long after the credits roll.

Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DzEzAdpwnk&list=PLwDe6hrCodhk0k3qCN0QTqixXu6g2R5Nh&index=12

8) The Heart of Texas, dir. Gregory J.M. Kasunich

Podcast Timestamp: 25:55

The film is centered around Janie May Collins, a young woman living paycheck-to-paycheck working at a diner in Waco, Texas. Janie dreams of one day making it big as a country singer and when she hears the local radio host announce their ‘Opening act, singer songwriter competition’, featuring celebrity judge Harlan Thompson, she sees her shot at success finally materialise. With no time to waste she quickly submits her application and shortly thereafter she gets the exciting news that she’s in the top ten.

Back at work she eagerly listens to the radio to hear who has been selected as the top three to come in and perform her song live in front of Harlan himself. As the news breaks that she is in and needs to hurry down to the station she quickly sorts out the last of her tables and on her way back with the dishes bumps into Jesús Perez, an undocumented newly hired friend of a cousin to one of the back staff who speaks little to no english. The brief chance encounter will prove to hold much more weight than Janie could have ever imagined, as she whisks off to the radio station only to run into Jesús again.

The short mixes in home video style footage with sunbathed widescreen modern shots, quickly establishing the depth of the main character’s struggle in pursuit of the American dream. Intertwined with Jesús and his own version of the American dream, the two serve as a natural two sides of the same coin, reminding the viewers of a commonality in spite of our differences in background and opportunity. We see this as something that will resonate well with the Academy voters, especially in an election year like this.

9) Hamdardi, dir. Stefan Fairlamb, Ashley Tabatabai

Podcast Timestamp: 28:42

Hamdardi is directed by Stefan Fairlamb and Ashley Tabatabai, who also is the writer, producer and lead actor of the film. Starting on January 27th 2017, we are immediately taken into the waves of the Trump administration's 2017 travel ban and its chaotic effects on the day to day affairs of the airport immigration office. Ethan (played by Ashley Tabatabai) is an officer on duty that day, in the midst of grieving the loss of his partner and trying to gain custody of their young daughter. Two Iranian siblings, Reza and Parvaneh, arrive at the terminal on their way to see their hospitalised dying father. Caught by Ethan and his colleagues, the two kids are taken into custody and pinched in a struggle between Ethans pro-ban racist boss and their lawyer who tries every which way to get the kids to their father in time. It quickly becomes apparent that Ethan needs to make a decision, to do what he feels is right as a father or to keep his head down and carry out his duties as an immigration officer.

Hot off the recent election results this film feels as relevant as ever and sure to be in the minds of voters for this year's academy awards. It is a well produced short utilizing a lot of angles and lighting from the open plan office space to emphasize emotions. Alongside it runs a score by Howard Carter who beautifully further amps up the tensions and sorrow of the characters on screen. Whether you can relate to the specific situation or not, we can surely all relate to the desperation and humanity on screen.

Watch here: Hamdardi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEqyTJxXu6A&list=PLwDe6hrCodhk0k3qCN0QTqixXu6g2R5Nh&index=3

10) Dovecote, dir. Marco Perego Saldana

Podcast Timestamp: 31:52

Dovecote is a visual feast that takes you on a journey as Javier Julia (Argentina, 1985) puts on impressive displays of cinematography. Directed by Marco Perego and starring Zoe Saldana, Dovecote asks the question: What does it mean to be truly free? A beautiful score mainly drives this short as there is next to no dialogue, more fitting for such a contemplative short as opposed to sticking to a strict narrative. Zoe Saldana is hot on the campaign trail for Emilia Perez and we wouldn't be surprised at all to see this short end up competing hard in live action too! Dovecote qualified after a theatrical run in the Manhattan Short program.

11) Marion, dir. Joe Weiland, Finn Constantine

Podcast Timestamp: 33:52

Marion, directed by Joe Weiland and Finn Constantine, is a narrative story about the only female bull-jumper in France and the adversity she has to fight through to be there. Marion has already garnered a lot of attention with Cate Blanchett and Sienna Miller as Executive Producers, and having its premiere at Venice right before playing at TIFF. Marion is truly a memorable short. It is a short that reminds you that you are worthy of success, and if you fail to get right back up and try again. It's about a woman carving a way for the next generation and being a person her daughter can be proud of. Even if she has to take the men by the horns so to speak and force them to see, she is worthy.

12) The Compatriot, dirs. Viktor Horák, Pavel Sýkora

Podcast Timestamp: 37:13

Directed by Pavel Sýkora & Viktor Horák, The Compatriot (Krajan) is this year’s Student Academy Awards Gold medalist. In the past five years, four Student Academy Awards Golden winners made the shortlist: Miller and Son (2019), When the Sun Sets (2021), Almost Home (2022), and Invisible Border (2023). Produced in the Filmová Akademie Miroslava Ondříčka v Písku in Czech Republic. The Compatriot narrates the story of Petr (Jiří Štěpnička), a widower who is celebrating the 1944 New Year’s Eve by himself. Suddenly, a Nazi officer, Konrad (Pavel Batěk) appears amid the snowstorm to ask for a roof while the other soldier cleans the automobile to continue their travel. While the men talk for a few hours, they clash about their opinions on the war, and things quickly escalate.

Alongside the favorable SAA winner stat, The Compatriot holds a topic that the academy appreciates: World War II. But also, it is a tense and impressive student work, once Sýkora and Horák manage to control the tension and deliver a memorable twenty-five-minute piece about how humanity clashes with their ideology.

13) I'm Not a Robot, dir. Victoria Warmerdam

Podcast Timestamp: 40:03

Victoria Warmedam’s I’m Not a Robot (Ik Ben Geen Robot) follows a young music producer, Lara (Ellen Parren). In a brief moment, when she is answering a survey, she is about to submit it, however, the Captcha verifying system does not recognize her as a human being. Lara embarks on a journey of questioning herself as a human. The dark comedy reflecting on what it means to be a human person and the societal formation makes the film a wild ride to follow. The spot-on jokes and the kinetic directing create a singular experience of deepening the nuances of existence and how hard truths can transform our perceptions.

The New Yorker distributes the film, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/4VrLQXR7mKU?si=MUo7TLKbKHEZjrXL

14) La Cascada, dir. Pablo Delgado

Podcast Timestamp: 42:42

Pablo Delgado presents The Cascade (La Cascada), an absurdist take about a man who discovers that he has been crying internally for almost two months. Out of the blue, he starts dripping tears and flooding the rooms in which he is present. He then goes on a journey for questions that he may not get the answers to while the viewer questions the reality and life’s possibilities in this highly creative and engaging short film. In the past, the Academy has been supportive of films that use the cinematic medium to question the status quo, such as Dead Cat, You’re Dead, Helene, and Censor of Dreams. La Cascada fits the challenging approach that has been rewarded with a mention in their live-action shortlist in the past years.

15) Tea, dir. Blake Rice

Podcast Timestamp: 46:30

Tea is a snapshot taken directly from a simpler time, mirrored in the 90s style of the footage and the worldly fears of the cool kids mocking you or saying hi to the girl you fancy, it is reminiscent of an era many of us look back on fondly. Starring Michael Gandolfini and Olivia Nikkanen, it has tender pacing and framing it lets the characters and dialogue shine as it needs to for the story to resonate. At the same time the film is surprisingly comedic at times. The way that writer / director Blake Winston Rice plays with the mixture of format and pace could have easily felt misaligned or fallen flat, but he makes it look effortlessly smooth and natural. Inspired by a monologue with the same name written and performed by Isaac Lee, the film flows not unlike a poem, especially in the first act. Mixing in blatant realism with deeper abstract feelings it becomes a small capsule of a collective memory we might not all have lived, but still firmly remember with a warmness in our hearts. Tea is a sweet and heartwarming tale that is sure to be relatable to many who watch. Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman, Monster) also just recently signed on as an Executive Prodcuer for the short.

Honourable Mentions:

Let me first start off by saying, I do not feel good about leaving any of these first five out. They are all shorts that received votes from some of us in our rankings and we all firmly believe they could replace any of the shorts above. Definitely not to be ruled out. Podcast Timestamps in brackets.

Crust, dir. Jens Georg (50:32)