The 2020 Oscar-Nominated Shorts: Animated

For the 15th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on Jan. 31st. With all three categories offered – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – this is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place Sunday, Feb. 9th.

ANIMATED SHORTS (Running Time: 85 minutes)

Hair Love – Matthew A. Cherry, USA, 7 min. Synopsis: Hair Love is a heartfelt animated short film about the relationship between an African-American father, his daughter Zuri and the most daunting task a father could ever come across - doing his daughter’s hair for the first time.

Dcera (Daughter) – Daria Kashcheeva, Czech Republic, 15 min. Synopsis: In a hospital room, the Daughter recalls a childhood moment when as a little girl she tried to share her experience with an injured bird with her Father. A moment of misunderstanding and a lost embrace has stretched into many years all the way to this hospital room, until the moment when a window pane breaks under the impact of a little bird.

Sister – Siqi Song, China/USA, 8 min. Synopsis: A man thinks back to his childhood memories of growing up with an annoying little sister in China in the 1990s. What would his life have been like if things had gone differently? 

Memorable – Bruno Collet, France, 12 min. Synopsis: Recently, Louis, a painter, has been experiencing strange events. His world seems to be mutating. Slowly, furniture, objects and people lose their realism. They are destructuring, sometimes disintegrating…

Kitbull – Rosana Sullivan, USA, 9 min. Synopsis: Kitbull, directed by Rosana Sullivan and produced by Kathryn Hendrickson, reveals an unlikely connection that sparks between two creatures: a fiercely independent stray kitten and a pit bull. Together, they experience friendship for the first time.

PLUS A SELECTION OF ADDITIONAL ANIMATED SHORTS:

Henrietta Bulkowski – USA, 16 min. (featuring the voices of Chris Cooper and Ann Dowd!)

The Bird and the Whale – Ireland, 6 min.

Hors Piste – France, 5 min.

Maestro – France, 2 min.

Were this collection MPAA rated, it would likely be PG-13. The themes tackled in this year’s animated program are quite heavy – the death of a parent, Alzheimer’s; China’s one child policy; and more. The program overall is rather melancholy, and while there’s nothing especially objectionable within, most of these shorts will not appeal to children under 12, at all. The films are all very good, but adult audiences will appreciate them much more than kids.