Our Shortened Longlist of Oscars Longlist-Surpassing Shortlisted Shorts: 2026 Edition
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
We have reached my annual torture tradition of going through all of the fourty-five (!) shortlisted short film for consideration for this year’s Academy Awards. There are fifteen for each of the three categories: animated, documentary, and live action shorts. I will admit that I look forward to this every awards season while also dreading what I will come across with my findings (despite being short, many of these considered films — and even nominees — wind up being a chore to watch). It was a surprise that the majority of these films felt watchable, fine, or even really good; there were only a few head-scratching clunkers this year, in my opinion (watch those be the films that get nominated). Either way, good job on a solid job, Academy members: now, stick the landing with the final nominations. As we at Films Fatale anticipate the upcoming Academy Awards nominations announcement on the 22nd of January, I can only speculate and hope which of the following films will be selected, because we already have some winners down below. Let us explore all of the shortlisted shorts now, category by category.
For Your Consideration: Best Animated Short Film
Animated shorts are often experimental — at least they act as short bursts of creativity, imagination, and other creations that cannot be accomplished by traditional means. The animated short films selected this year are quite solid. None of the shorts were outright bad; maybe bland at worst. However, a majority of the short films here worked well enough for me to be pleased with what was selected. Furthermore, while there was a strong consistency across the board, one short here may be one of the best I’ve seen since I started watching every Oscar nominated short film (the tears just could not stop coming).
15. The Night Boots
This spooky-cutesy short featuring a little boy and his animal friend (whatever this animal may be) looks very nice: like a gloomy picture book come to life. However, it feels lifeless and not in its intended way. The Night Boots just feels like it was made and not given a proper purpose to flourish (or, in the case of its dark imagery, wallow). It takes a lot for a short film to feel dull (especially this short), and The Night Boots sadly does. At least it’s great to look at, but I felt very little.
14. Hurikán
This noir-esque short with a pigman (a pigman, Jerry!) could have been more effective in any way (comedy, tragedy, purpose), but it comes off as one of those more partialy-constructed animated shorts that we get every year. Maybe there is a fuller story here waiting to be told, but we instead get the idea of a harsh life and circumstance more than anything else. It’s at least a bit of a vibe (especially when the main theme consisting of haunting keys chimes in).
13. The Three Sisters
This quirky animated short about, well, three sisters trying to rent out one of their houses. We go through each day of the week and the shenanigans that ensue. This is a decent film that doesn’t really have much to offer outside of temporary fun with geometric animation. It’s harmless but also quite unimpressionable.
12. Cardboard
A struggling family of pigs move into a trailer park. The single father feels as though he has failed his children. Meanwhile, his children try to use their imaginations to make the most of their situation. This short is a bit overly cutesy at times, but it does seem effective at consoling any children who would need the cinematic, animated hug: everything is going to be okay.
11. The Shyness of Trees
Families can be complicated, and The Shyness of Trees tries to turn a complicated domestic matter — an elderly mother changing before her middle-age daughter’s very eyes — into a spectacle. I don’t know if it hits all of its emotional and creative tones it was aspiring for, but it at least gives us quite a bit to work with during its short run time; I just feel like it could have been even more.
10. Éiru
The title character’s coming-of-age story is depicted with Cartoon Saloon’s usual affinity for stunning animation and Irish folklore integration. While a little more tonally imbalanced than I’m used to by the iconic studio (it being only thirteen minutes doesn’t help fix that), the final act is quite a spectacle.
9. Autokar
The immigration experience is turned into a sketched wonderland in Sylwia Skiladz’s Autokar. As our young protagonist Agata meets various walks of life in her extensive journey, this short film turns from curious to moving, highlighting both the wonderment and the dread of venturing into the unknown.
8. I Died in Irpin
An autobiographical recount of tumultuous events for director Anastasiia Falileieva, I Died in Irpin depicts her experience in Ukraine during Russia’s occupation. The short conjures up the images one would have in their mind while listening to a harrowing story in scribbled fashion, and this animation style mimics the hasty chaos of trying to flee from danger. This is quite an effective short.
7. Forevergreen
Forevergreen is animated to look like little wooden sculptures used in stopmotion fashion. We follow an adorable grizzly bear and see his forest world around him crumble (down to an anthropomorphic tree). There’s an obvious ecological angle here that is quite important for all viewers to see; the film does verge on being the slightest bit pushy with its sentimentality, but this is still a lovingly made short.
6. Butterfly
This hand painted short film is sublime to look at, but Butterfly’s story is far less pleasant. This film about racism and antisemitism in the world (and within the sporting community) places us in the pool with a professional swimmer. With the hurdles he faces and the psychedelic, flowing images that pair up with the story, we get a sense of how beautiful and awful the world can be at the same time.
5. Retirement Plan
Domhnall Gleeson voices this powerful, poetic short about all of the things one wants to do once they are able to retire: the forever constant plague of postponing important things (taking care of one’s self biologically, mentally, spiritually). We as humans are forced to work ourselves to death and wind up with regrets when we are old (if we even make it that far). A short like Retirement Plan beautifully — and comically — confronts the tough questions while reminding us to live like every day is our last: embrace your existence before it is too late.
4. The Girl Who Cried Pearls
A stirring short — animated in a way that every figure looks delicate like porcelain. The Girl Who Cried Pearls combines the art of storytelling with the handling of grief and trauma (it feels akin to Tim Burton’s Big Fish in that sense). I feel like some viewers may find the conclusionary message pointless, but to me — as a cinephile — I concur: the way in which someone bears themselves even if through fantasy reveals more than simply displaying the truth sometimes.
3. The Quinta’s Ghost
The paintings of Francisco Goya are notoriously haunting, mainly because of the tribulations he faced in his life. The Quinta’s Ghost exemplifies the agony he faced and how stirred his mind became, and I think the end result is truly special. Here is a biographical animated short that plants you in the imagination of a tormented artist and I feel like the medium, story, and objective are all exactly what they need to be. My only complaint is that I wish this was longer; Goya was so complicated that I feel like we could have gone even deeper. Otherwise, this is a great short.
2. Playing God
A powerful claymation short featuring a sculpted subject who instantly rejects being born the second he is granted life. This existentially colossal short does much with very little as our protagonist feels the burden of answering to his creator (as well as other realizations). This short will either make you feel highly uncomfortable and anxious, or it may even move you (as it did me).
1. Snow Bear
This animated short by Aaron Blaise (known for Disney’s Brother Bear; it all makes sense now) is gorgeously animated and incredibly sweet. A lonely polar bear makes himself a snow bear companion, only to find the snow bear slowly melting under the harsh sun (as the result of climate change); in seeing the snow bear melt, we understand that the polar bear, too, can perish. Charming and emotional, Snow Bear is simply stunning with what it pulls off with very little. If something around twelve minutes can well up my eyes with burgeoning tears, it must be special.
For Your Consideration: Best Documentary Short Subject
Documentary shorts are often produced when there simply isn’t a budget for a larger-scaled feature, or when the topic can be summarized in a shorter project. The worst documentary short nominees can make forty minutes feel like four hours, and we usually cross paths with such works when we go through fifteen shortlisted candidates. However, I am pleased to say that even the weakest documentary shorts here are so-so, and that I was not bored to tears this year (at least not from the documentary shortlist selections). I always preface documentary discussions by saying that any ranking and opinions are not based on the politics or talking points of these works but, rather, how well done they are as films. Let’s proceed.
15. Classroom 4
Classroom 4 pits together students of all walks of life in a class that studies the history of the justice system in America. The catch is that half of the students are presently incarcerated, while the other half have never had a criminal record. The idea is to unite all of these students as one cohesive class regardless of their histories. The idea is nice, and I’m sure the experiment itself was quite worthwhile, but it doesn’t function all that well as a forty-minute film; it certainly lasts longer than it needs to (we don’t learn much more from the end of the film than we do from the start of it).
14. Last Days on Lake Trinity
Last Days on Lake Trinity chronicles the months leading up to the closure of a trailer park due to its owner, the evangelical network TBN (of all things), wanting to shift their priorities; it’s so Christian to evict people without just cause, am I right? I am all for the film’s message and what it depicts, but the way the film is laid out doesn’t make for the strongest version of this story (outside of the touching testimonies at the core of this picture); instead, we get the thesis objective (that this is an awful thing to do to innocent people) and not much more.
13. We Were the Scenery
Two Vietnamese refugees leaving their motherland at the end of the war randomly wound up as extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now while residing in the Philippines. The documentary short, We Were the Scenery, attempts to merge their experiences both in real life and in the film, blending the horrors of war with the artistic representation of such. I absolutely love this idea but don’t think We Were the Scenery goes far enough with this concept; I don’t expect a bloated three-hour feature film about the experience, but I guarantee that there is more juice in this story than what is extracted.
12. Heartbeat
Jay Rosenblatt is back yet again after numerous brushes with the Academy (When We Were Bullies, How Do You Measure a Year?). Heartbeat is similar to anything else he has made before (an upfront reflection of self), this time with co-director Stephanie Rapp and their relationship twenty-five years ago (as well as their hopes to conceive and bring up a child together). Like other Rosenblatt works, Heartbeat is fascinating but also sometimes left a little too primitive; there should be more to what we see than what we get (even though what candid footage we do have works quite well on its own).
11. Perfectly a Strangeness
I love films about donkeys; Au hasard Balthazar; EO; the like. I was so excited to watch a documentary like Perfectly a Strangeness where we follow the paths of three rogue donkeys to see their findings; like a real-life, less extravagant Flow. However, simply following donkeys around with various forms of recording (cameras, drones) doesn’t really amount to much (yes, even when the donkeys stumble upon the observatory); the film feels so orchestrated that — while I can still consider it a documentary — it hardly feels like one. This is a peculiar selection, if I’m honest; I subjectively liked it quite a bit, but I can admit that this intended statement on the evolution of industrialism is also insanely thin on substance.
10. Chasing Time
Director Jeff Orlowski and photographer James Balog reunite after their successful documentary Chasing Ice. Here is the short film Chasing Time, which shows the even-further destruction of the world’s glaciers and ice caps as a result of climate change. I suppose an entire feature film wasn’t necessary this time around to reiterate the same point; the short also covers Balog’s battles with cancer and how he has reevaluated life after being diagnosed back in 2019. Outside of Balog’s personal story playing a vital part here, there isn’t much difference between this film and the stronger Chasing Ice; I do see this as a bit of a strong epilogue of sorts.
9. All the Walls Came Down
After the 2025 California fires ripped through Altadena, Ondi Timoner started working on a documentary account of what her experience was like — as well as her community’s union during tribulation. The result is All the Walls Came Down: another documentary short that has great intentions and noteworthy subject matters but also feels drawn out to the point that it feels repetitive of its commentary. Even so, it’s important to see the true destruction of a crisis like this, seeing as the rest of the world is often quick to move on after enough time has passed.
8. Cashing Out
By interviewing many different lives of those who were affected by the AIDS crisis (either directly or indirectly), Cashing Out is already a touching memento; look how many years it’s been since the time when HIV was considered an automatic death sentence. The myriad of testimonies and homages shared here are sure to move you to varying degrees. The film feels the slightest bit overlong, but I also wouldn’t know where I would trim Cashing Out when all of it feels quite important.
7. The Devil is Busy
Meant to focus on the importance of abortion clinics when the United States is encouraging their criminalization, The Devil is Busy is the kind of film that preaches to the choir; those who support the right to choose will already agree with this documentary, and those who oppose it (like the staunch protesters featured) likely will never waver. Even so, The Devil is Busy gives us some extra information that paints a fuller picture, like how one of the practitioners is Christian herself (so why do Catholics have to oppose all of the reasons a woman would choose to abort?). I think it goes without saying that this film isn’t for everyone (including those who love to create arguments just for the hell of it; if you’re already viciously “pro-life”, then don’t even bother).
6. Rovina’s Choice
After the Trump administration cut funds to USAID, one could only imagine what ripple effect would take place. Rovina’s Choice proves that even our worst expectations weren’t anywhere close to reality. By following the personal impact on the title subject and her ailing children (the film’s title is a sad nod to Sophie’s Choice in this way) — as well as the larger impact worldwide — we get quite a shocking picture. Honestly, this should be an even longer film and I feel like we need to dig even deeper (because, clearly, this is still just the surface of how effected millions of people are).
5. Children No More: Were and Are Gone
Circling around a silent vigil in Tel Aviv, Isreal, by Isreali activists mourning the killed children on the Gaza Strip, Children No More: Were and Are Gone is — like many other documentaries — a hard watch. While understanding just how long its runtime should be to best get its point across and remain a visceral documentary, Children No More: Were and Are Gone is punchy enough with its evidence to linger with you.
4. Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
Of course the Russo-Ukrainian War is going to be a heavy topic of conversation in many works of art, and the documentary short here is no different. We stand side-by-side with the title focal point, Brent Renaud, who was killed while covering the war from the frontline. What is meant to be a documentary winds up being a memento to this departed soul (and the countless who were lost alongside him). I feel like this could have benefited from being a complete feature instead of just a short; I feel like there is so much more to give regarding the subject, his life, and his importance.
3. Bad Hostage
Have you ever wondered why it is called “Stockholm syndrome?” Well, the thorough and captivating documentary short, Bad Hostage, may illuminate the subject. Interesting to the point of sounding fabricated (yet reality is stranger than fiction, as they say), Bad Hostage is a bit of a slam dunk of a documentary. Oftentimes, great ideas or important subjects don’t read well in film form. That couldn’t be further from the truth of the fairly gripping Bad Hostage and how it relays a personal experience in the grand scheme of the history of crime.
2. On Healing Land, Birds Perch
They say an image speaks a thousand words. Such is the case with the iconic image of Viet Cong Captain Nguyen Van Lem getting shot at point blank that is often deemed one of the great and most effective photographs. Brilliantly, On Healing Land, Birds Perch takes this image and provides even more words and context by following up with those who may have been effected by the shooting. Not only is the premise of this documentary mind boggling (it’s something that isn’t considered enough), the way it is accomplished — both conceptually and artistically — is extraordinary; to take an image that has already cemented itself and recontextualize it is audacious and magnificent.
1. All the Empty Rooms
Short films can show that much can be said with very little. When it comes to a film like All the Empty Rooms, that couldn’t be more true. We join correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp in the visitation of, well, a number of empty rooms; these happen to be the rooms of children who were murdered in school shootings. As Hartman calls his family from the car, we are reminded to never take the lives of our loved ones for granted. Each and every room is full of life and character, outside of the blatant omission of those who used to inhabit them. This short is crushing and brilliantly crafted.
For Your Consideration: Best Live Action Short Film
The live action short films feel evenly spread here. We have a couple of stinkers (as is expected by now) and some real winners (as well as everything in between). With live action short films, the goal is often to get us acquainted with characters and their stories in a short amount of time. As you will read below, some films accomplished this better than others. Even so, I find that the “best” of a year’s shortlist contenders may just be the best of that group but otherwise not truly special. Well, I do think we have a couple of true standouts this year that I hope get selected by the Academy on the 22nd.
15. Butterfly on a Wheel
Butterfly on a Wheel has an important message, seeing as it features a musically gifted savant who also suffers from OCD and feels broken as a person. Having said that, this film is sadly so sappy and overwhelmingly forceful with its themes that it comes off as a not-so-short (at thirty-five minutes) that wants you to weep; you may be clock-watching instead. For a film that is about being gifted and accepting who you are, I wish it was more natural than it is.
14. Pantyhose
A couple is preparing for a major event but a hole in the wife’s pantyhose delays them from leaving. This could have been a far more interesting character study but it is instead a cinematic take on a Reddit “Am I the Asshole?” thread with far too little information for us to work with. Seeing as the short gets more and more unlikable as it goes, I’ll just conclude that ESH (or, in plain English, “Everybody Sucks Here”). We don’t get a strong look at the film’s themes or ideas. We just see both players being selfish and frustrating.
13. Butcher’s Stain
What is meant to be a powerful look at heightened sociopolitical situations in the workplace and at home, Butcher’s Stain features an Arab Israeli worker who is placed in an unfavourable position after a damning allegation is made. This is yet another short that I think shows promise but doesn’t quite get to the heights that it should because of its narrative and budgetary limitations, but I do think it is a noble effort at a difficult conversation.
12. Amarela
Showcasing a Japanese girl in Brazil during the 1998 World Cup Final (where Brazil faced France), Amarela is a short story on the racism our protagonist experiences (while she doesn’t quite fit in with her traditional family either). If the World Cup is meant to signify a union between nations and cultures, how can it — and we — still get it so wrong? Amarela is far too short to get into the crux of its point effectively outside of displaying that of which we already know, but it is still a decent approach.
11. Extremist
Based on the real events surrounding an anti-war artist, Extremist is meant to carry the same provocation and meaning as the central figure’s stunt does (the artist places purposeful messages on the food labels in a grocery store). Instead, Extremist comes off as rather ordinary and safe when this should have been as bold as the person it is depicting; I don’t expect the film to be overly edgy or intense, but it needed more oomph than it has.
10. The Boy with White Skin
Featuring an albino Black child who is treated as a good luck fortune of sorts within the gold-mining community, The Boy with White Skin takes the concept of race relations and turns it into a bit of an eerie fable. Well shot and stirring to watch, I do wish that there was also a bit more — either in duration or story — here, because the premise is quite effective.
9. The Pearl Comb
I do love gothic stories, especially ones that feature beings like mermaids, and The Pearl Comb is a mainly transfixing film. I feel like its story and its themes of misogyny and feminism are a little half-baked, but I otherwise find this to be a fun and thrilling short that would make fans of such cinema, like Guillermo del Toro, proud. I do wish there was a bit more to it, though.
8. A Friend of Dorothy
A young teenager befriends an older woman when his soccer ball winds up in her backyard. What transpires is a charming and lovely friendship of different cultures and generations. While A Friend of Dorothy isn’t too soppy, it is sweet enough to work at least quite a bit. It is precisely the correct length and never under or overstays its welcome. If you are looking for a quick pick-me-up, this could be it.
7. Beyond Silence
Abuse is sadly a universal language. In the film Beyond Silence, different women connect over their shared trauma; one speaks her agony out loud, while another — who is hearing impaired — is silent. This becomes a back-and-forth of sorts, and, while the short feels a little limited with how it means to convey this conversation, the final act is quite a powerful one of catharsis and the act of being understood after years of blame and neglect.
6. Jane Austen’s Period Drama
What begins as a traditional Jane Austen affair turns into a goofy comedy about the cluelessness of men (yes, including the “perfect” dreamboats written to match your fantasy’s expectations). As our leading man has no idea what menstruation is, Jane Austen’s Period Drama (a great pun that doesn’t take long to realize) is the kind of short that usually runs dry very quickly. However, this short manages to maintain its electricity throughout its twelve minute runtime. It is nice to see a short of this nature not feel one-note, narratively scant, or incomplete.
5. Ado
The innocence of a high school Shakespearean production is interrupted by the gruesome act of a school shooter. The shooter recognizes his teacher from when he used to study there, and Ado becomes a showdown between a troubled former student and a teacher who uses both her wisdom and her knack for dramatic acting to try and help him see the light. It uses one major conversation to try and convey many complexities of this ongoing crisis in the world; it is audacious yet confident in its approach to the point that it works.
4. Dad’s Not Home
Two young boys are keeping up the charade that their single father is okay when, in actuality, he is suffering from dementia; should anyone catch wind, the boys could be whisked away and the father as well. The creative methods the boys implement in Dad’s Not Home is half of the magic here; what director Jan Saczek does with this brief-yet-mighty story is sure to leave you astounded; this is one of those open-ended situations where your heart dreads what’s to come (as you muster all the hope in the world).
3. The Singers
Sometimes, a conversation just won’t cut it. Sam Davis’ The Singers is a spiritual connection through the art of song, and it is a mutual agreement to never let anyone feel alone again. When we are all persuaded to hide away, this pub of broken men find exaltation in this vérité-esque sequence of fantasy-like proportions. Sometimes, a short film doesn’t have to be a blatant story: as long as there is something to take away from what you watch. The Singers feels like a genuine moment, and one you won’t be able to shake off.
2. Rock, Paper, Scissors
A short that takes place during wartime, Rock, Paper, Scissors is not concretely about the popular children’s game but it is about trying to make major moves and be two paces ahead. Based on a true story of a Ukrainian soldier during the Russian invasion, this calculated, shocking short boasts much staying power, especially — and tragically — due to its contemporaneous stature. When I complain about shorts not having enough juice in them, something like Rock, Paper, Scissors is why I complain like this: it uses its minimal means wisely, creatively, and confidently.
1. Two People Exchanging Saliva
When a simple concept gets turned into a fully-fledged experiment, this is the designation that a short film like Two People Exchanging Saliva has. Here’s the skinny: it is illegal to kiss anyone in this dystopia. Yes. Anyone. If you are wondering why this is, consider how many people in reality are forbidden from being in love. Two People Exchanging Saliva goes the extra mile with its costumes, ideas, and absurdity; it’s the kind of film Yorgos Lanthimos would like (but, in that same breath, it is also more depressing than most of his works are). Even though it is nearly forty minutes in length, I wouldn’t shave off a second of it.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Toronto Metropolitan University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.