Oscar-Nominated Animated Short Films

On a whim, I decided to jump on the subway and catch the Oscar nominated shorts at the IFC Center. I have seen all the live action and documentary shorts, but only two of the animated ones (those were the only ones on YouTube). Every year, the IFC screens the nominated shorts, giving a leg up to Award show fans in their party betting pools. As I have related before, I've actually been at Oscar viewing parties where people objected to allowing me to bet in the pool because I had the unfair advantage of seeing all the films in these categories, even though they were open to the public and playing only a few blocks away. This year's animated shorts are high-caliber and it's difficult to pick a favorite, but here are some thoughts:

Our Uniform

Our Uniform (Iran): Yegane Moghanddam cleverly uses clothes as a backdrop for her ruminations on attending an all-girls school in Iran where the students had to wear the hijab, even though there were no males present. "Who were we covering up from," she asks in her voice-over narration. She says she learned to be a female in Iran, but nothing else, not a doctor or soccer player, just a female. She examines attitudes about the dress codes women must adhere to as figures move along dresses, slacks, jeans, and the hijab itself.