17 Apr FINAL 2021 Oscar Predictions: Live Action Short, Animated Short, Documentary Short
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
To me, the winners of these short categories either go to a film with qn extremely satisfying ending or a film that touches on an especially relevant issue. Two Distant Strangers, a film about a man who has to constantly relive his encounter with a police officer, is extremely relevant right now with the trial of Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd going on right now and the killing of Daunte Wright on Sunday fresh in our memories. While a film like Feeling Through or The Present may have won last year or the year before, I don’t really see how Two Distant Strangers loses this award especially since the voters have previously awarded a film tackling race relations recently in this category (Skin in 2019), so they are not shy about this topic. Still, watch out for Feeling Through which is the probably the most optimistic of the films here and follows the past templates of films that have won. Also, The Letter Room stars Oscar Isaac so make of that what you will.
Nominees:
Two Distant Strangers
The Letter Room
Feeling Through
The Present – BAFTA
White Eye
Pick: Two Distant Strangers
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Two shorts, If Anything Happens I Love You and Burrow are the only two that I can see winning here. The former is a Netflix tearjerker that tackles the subject of school shootings, while the latter is a comparatively lighter Pixar short. While Pixar has a great track record here, I believe that If Anything Happens I Love You will win as I have heard talk about it in non-Oscar contexts and it is a tearjerker, which will be really tempting to vote for especially in this category.
Nominees:
If Anything Happens I Love You
Burrow
Genius Loci
Opera
Yes-People
Pick: If Anything Happens I Love You
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
This one is probably the most wide-open of the categories and there definitely is no clear frontrunner. However, since I chose a Netflix-distributed short in the previous two categories I don’t think I can choose A Love Song for Latasha here since the Academy still does have a bias against streaming films. Granted, Netflix has had a lot of past success in these categories but I don’t see them sweeping these categories when films like Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom were left out of the Best Picture fold partly since it was a Netflix film (my theory). Anyway, that leaves the other three films with the greatest odds of winning this: A Concerto is a Conversation, Colette, and Hunger Ward. I am going to go with A Concerto is a Conversation since Colette doesn’t seem to have enough timeliness or lightness to win here and while Hunger Ward tackles an important subject, its probably too long as it is 40 minutes while the other films are closer to 20. That is if the Academy members actually watch the films because I don’t believe that the majority of the Academy chooses to vote in the shorts categories. Quick note: Do Not Split is about the protests in Hong Kong and I am barely mentioning it because I don’t believe that the Academy wants to anger China when it is so important to Hollywood market.
Nominees:
A Conversation is a Conversation
A Love Song for Latasha
Colette
Hunger Ward
Do Not Split
Pick: A Concerto is a Conversation