Starting February 20, the 2026 Oscar-nominated Short Films will be available in theaters. This is the only opportunity for audiences to watch all of the short film nominees in theaters before the 98th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, March 15, 2024. Each nominee is released in one of three distinct feature-length compilations according to their category of nomination: Live Action, Animation, or Documentary.
Buy Odds & Ends: Rare Animated Shorts from the Thunderbean Archive Blu-ray
Butcher’s Stain (director Meyer Levinson-Blount; Israel; 26 min) – Samir is a hard-working butcher at grocery store. He’s been accused of tearing down posters in the break room of the October 7th hostages. He didn’t do it, but his social media sympathy for the residents of Gaza, and the time he is alone in the store make him suspect #1. The truth is revealed but Samir chooses not to share it. There’s a subplot with custody of his son that doesn’t add much to the story.
A Friend of Dorothy (director Lee Knight; UK; 21 min) – At the reading of Dorothy’s (Miriam Margolyes) will, her grandson (Oscar Lloyd) is annoyed that J.J. (Alistair Nwachukwu), a young man has been added as a beneficiary. In a flashback, a chance meeting due to J.J. accidentally kicking his ball into her backyard develops into beautiful friendship once she learns of their shared interest in drama. The title of this heartfelt story has multiple meanings.
Jane Austen’s Period Drama (director Julia Aks & Steve Pinder; USA; 13 min) – The only comedy of the nominees. As Mr. Dickley is about to propose to Miss Estrogenia Talbot, whom he believes is gravely injured, he is taught the working ways of a woman’s body in this funny period drama about period drama.
The Singers (director Sam A. Davis; USA; 18 min) – Inspired by Ivan Turgenev’s 1850 short story, a group of barflies compete to see who is the best singer. Not much of a story beyond people have more to them then what they show on the surface.
Two People Exchanging Saliva (director Natalie Musteata & Alexandre Singh; USA/France; 33 min) – Too focused on the artifice, and not enough focus on the story. In an alternative universe, where people pay for things with slaps to the face, contraband is required to brush one’s teeth, and bodies are disposed of in cardboard boxes that are then thrown into a barren. Malaise gets a job at a department store where she meets Angine, whom she shops for, replacing Pétulante. Malaise and Angine grow close, which further upsets Pétulante. Doesn’t say much of anything though it tries so hard to.
If I was an Oscar voter, I would select Jane Austen’s Period Drama as it comes the closest to achieving its goal, and comedy doesn’t get enough recognition.
