The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2019: Live Action

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Just like a short story, a short live action film has a power quite unlike longer features. This year’s Oscar nominees are:

Detainment (Vincent Lambe), a chilling reenactment of the real-life, 1993 interrogation of two boys in Liverpool who are suspecting of kidnapping and killing a toddler, in a case that shook the world.

Madre (Rodrigo Sorogoyen) is a remarkable acting tour de force by Marta Nieto. Alone, with only a telephone, she must help her 6-year-old son who is lost in the French wilderness.

Skin (Guy Nattiv) shows us an American family of skinheads, as seen by an Israeli filmmaker. The fact that we get to know the family only makes the violence to comes even more inexplicable.

Marguerite the only live action short directed by a woman (French-Canadian Marianne Farley) stars Beatrice Picard as an elder woman whose long-repressed memories of love are finally confided to the young woman who cares for her.

Jeremy Comte took the Oscar with Fauve, a mesmerizing story of two boys whose discovery of a surface mine turns treacherous. By the dramatic ending, “Adulthood, in all its intimidating mysteries and unresolvable challenges, rears its awe-inspiring head.” Eric Kohn, IndieWire.