Oscar Shorts

Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominates a bunch of short films that almost nobody gets to see. If you’re tired of the elitism of the Hollywood muckety-mucks, now’s your chance to fight back by actually viewing these forbidden contenders. While this year’s selections are a bit weaker than last year’s, there is still plenty of amusement in shorts like West Bank Story, which comically relocates West Side Story to either occupied Palestine or the Jewish homeland, depending on your political leanings. There’s also Éramos Pocos, which imagines new uses for the elderly; The Danish Poet, a cartoon about love and life and cows and Danes; and the saddest, most Disneyfied version of The Little Matchgirl ever. Hell, even if some of the films aren’t great, none of them are bad, and all of them are short!