Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts

"Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall"

After viewing the Oscar nominated Live Action and Animated Shorts at Time and Space Limited in Hudson, NY, I was determined to see the nominated Documentary Shorts. Last year I tried to, but it didn't work out. The five films are divided into two programs and Upstate Films screwed up the order so I wound up only see two of the five. So this year after two attempts to get into sold-out screenings at IFC Center in Manhattan, I finally succeeded. (The programs were shown in a tiny screening room which only sat about 75 people, so on a weekend it tends to fill up pretty quickly.)

Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts

A scene from "That Wasn't Me," nominated
for the Best Live-Action Short Film Oscar

The five films nominated for the Best Live-Action Short Academy Award run the gamut from hilarious comedy to intense drama and interestingly, none are from the U.S. I recently caught all of them at Time and Space Limited in Hudson, NY in order to increase my odds for winning the pool at a friend's Oscar viewing party (the prize is usually about $20.) The program ran just short of two hours and the shorts were interspersed with interviews and observations from filmmakers including Steve McQueen and Matthew Modine.