Live Action Short Film
Nominees:
| “All in Favor” |
| “Almost Home” |
| “An Irish Goodbye” |
| “Ivalu” |
| “Le Pupille” |
| “The Lone Wolf” |
| “Nakam” |
| “Night Ride” |
| “Plastic Killer” |
| “The Red Suitcase” |
| “The Right Words” |
| “Sideral” |
| “The Treatment” |
| “Tula” |
| “Warsha” |
Per the Academy’s press release:
15 films will advance in the Live Action Short Film category for the 95th Academy Awards. 200 films qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation, Directors, Producers and Writers Branches vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
Each shortlist is determined by members of that corresponding branch, except for International Feature Film. (Members from all branches are invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.)
The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, while the Oscars ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.
OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS
“Almost Home”
Nils Keller
“Le Pupille”
Alice Rohrwacher
“The Lone Wolf”
Filipe Melo
“Night Ride”
Eirik Tveiten
“Warsha”
Dania Bdeir
WHY I CHOSE THOSE FIVE?
As I have not seen any of these short films, my picks are made solely on their subject matter and the quality of how they look. Long story short, I’m judging these books by their covers. “Almost Home” looks like the more highly produced of the shorts. The film takes place on a spaceship, the production quality looks excellent, and the plot holds some emotional weight. “Le Pupille” is put out by Walt Disney and has Alfonso Cuarón attached as a producer, so that sounds like a recipe for a nomination. I like the look of “The Lone Wolf” and hope it gets selected so I can see it.
The plot of “Night Ride” sounds exciting, and the performances look strong. “Warsha” is the one short I will be surprised if it does not get picked, as the visual and subject matter look the strongest out of all of them. Regardless of which gets chosen, I’m excited to see what makes the final cut.
All in Favor
(Votamos)
Country: Spain
Directed by Santiago Requejo
Produced by Tono Escudero
Cast: Raúl Fernández, Miriam Díaz Aroca, Charo Reina, Neus Sanz, Alberto Chaves, Agustín Ustárroz, David Tenreiro, Teresa del Olmo, and Fernando Ustarroz
Runtime: 12 minutes
Synopsis: What begins as an ordinary meeting of neighbors to vote on the change of elevator, ends up becoming an unexpected debate on the limits of coexistence.
Almost Home
Country: Germany
Directed by Nils Keller
Produced by Jonas Lembeck
Cast: Susanne Wolff, Jeremias Meyer, Stephan Kampwirth, Patricia Meeden, and Malaya Stern Takeda
Runtime: 30 minutes
Synopsis: When they learn of an outbreak of a dangerous virus shortly before their long-awaited return to Earth, a teenager and his mother struggle to decide whether to land or return to space aboard their confined spaceship.
An Irish Goodbye
Country: Ireland
Directed by Tom Berkeley and Ross White
Produced by Tom Berkeley, Pearce Cullen, Sean A. Murray, and Ross White
Cast: Michelle Fairley, Paddy Jenkins, James Martin, and Seamus O’Hara
Runtime: 23 minutes
Synopsis: In rural Northern Ireland, a pair of estranged brothers reunite following their mother’s untimely death.
Ivalu
Country: Denmark
Directed by Anders Walter
Produced by Kim Magnusson and Rebecca Pruzan
Cast: Angunnguaq Larsen, Nivi Larsen, and Mila Heilmann Kreutzmann
Runtime: 16 minutes
Synopsis: Ivalu is gone. Her little sister is desperate to find her. Her father does not care. The vast Greenlandic nature holds secrets. The search for Ivalu is on.
Le Pupille
Country: Italy
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina, Alfonso Cuarón, and Gabriela Rodriguez
Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Melissa Falasconi, Greta Zuccheri Montanari, Carmen Pommella, Lady Maru, Luciano Vergaro, Carlo Tarmati, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Runtime: 37 minutes
Disney+
Synopsis: Follow the rebellious girls of a Catholic boarding school before Christmas, a time of war and scarcity.
The Lone Wolf
(O Lobo Solitário)
Country: Portugal
Directed by Filipe Melo
Produced by Sandra Faria
Cast: Adriano Luz, Maria João Pinho, Miguel Faustino, Luís Araújo, João Vaz Silva, Juan Cavia, Teresa Sequeira, Dinis Oliveira, and Diogo Fontes de Melo
Runtime: 23 minutes
Synopsis: One night on Viva FM’s late night show, host Vitor Lobo gets a phone call from an old friend.
Nakam
Country: Germany
Directed by Andreas Kessler
Produced by Max Breuer and Janick Gootz
Cast: Anton Krymskiy, Peter Miklusz, Yevgeni Sitokhin, Rostyslav Bome, Irina Usova, and Yurij Rosstalnyi
Runtime: 33 minutes
Synopsis: Twelve year old violin player Mitka is supposed to execute an attack on several SS officers in the name of a Ukrainian partisan movement. But his attempt will also put his only friend in life danger.
Night Ride
(Nattrikken)
Country: Norway
Directed by Eirik Tveiten
Produced by Heidi Arnesen and Gaute Lid Larssen
Cast: Axel Barø Aasen, Runar Koteng Frønes, Sigrid Kandal Husjord, and Ola Hoemsnes Sandum
Runtime: 15 minutes
Synopsis: It is a cold night in December. As Ebba waits for the tram, an unexpected turn of events transforms the ride home into something she was not expecting.
Plastic Killer
Country: Spain / Andorra
Directed by Jose Pozo
Produced by David Ortiz and Jose Pozo
Cast: Laura Gómez-Lacueva, José Mota, and Elisabet Terri
Runtime: 21 minutes
Synopsis: Amparo de Dios lives in an old abandoned family haderdashery in the center of Madrid with the only company of Carmela, a plastic bag whom she considers her daughter. Nancy Guerrera is a director of a reputable organization that fights against the use of plastics. The confrontation between the two is latent and cruel and Amparo, seeing her daughter’s existence in danger, threatens to kill the ecologist.
The Red Suitcase
Country: Luxembourg
Directed and Produced by Cyrus Neshvad
Cast: Nawelle Ewad, Sarkaw Gorany, Anne Klein, and Céline Camara
Runtime: 18 minutes
Synopsis: Luxembourg Airport. Late in the evening. A veiled 16-year-old Iranian girl is frightened to take her red suitcase on the automatic carpet. She keeps pushing back the moment to go through the arrival gate and seems more and more terrified.
The Right Words
(Haut les coeurs)
Country: France
Directed by Adrian Moyse Dullin
Produced by Donna Hamilton
Cast: Yasser Osmani, Aya Halal, Rama Ndongo, and Sanya Salhi
Runtime: 15 minutes
Synopsis: When naive and romantic Mahdi is peer-pressured into confessing his love to Jada, a girl who doesn’t know he exists, his declaration becomes a public spectacle.
Sideral
Country: Brazil / France
Directed by Carlos Segundo
Produced by Pedro Fiuza, Damien Megherbi, and Justin Pechberty
Cast: Priscilla Vilela, Ênio Cavalcante, Fernanda Cunha, and Matheus Brito
Runtime: 15 minutes
Synopsis: In Natal, on the Brazilian coast, the country is preparing to launch its first manned space rocket into space. A couple lives with children near the space center, she is a cleaner and he is a mechanic, but she dreams of other horizons.
The Treatment
(El tratamiento)
Country: Spain
Directed and Produced by Álvaro Carmona
Cast: Álvaro Carmona and David Ramírez
Runtime: 9 minutes
Synopsis: Miguel is bald and thinks it is a problem, but now he has been contacted by a clinic that promises a treatment with one hundred percent results. Sounds almost too good to be true – and that’s what the side effects are.
Tula
Country: Spain
Directed by Beatriz Silva
Produced by Katixa De Silva and Iñigo De Silva
Cast: Tamara Berbés and Eider González
Runtime: 12 minutes
Synopsis: Tula is the cleaning lady at a private school for girls. During her workday, she meets the headteacher’s fourteen-year-old daughter in the toilet. The girl is going to tell Tula her secret. Tula will have to decide whether to help her or not.
Warsha
Country: Lebanon
Directed by Dania Bdeir
Produced by Coralie Diasm, Carine Ruszniewski, and Pierre Sarraf
Cast: Hassan Aqqoul, Khansa, and Kamal Saleh
Runtime: 15 minutes
Synopsis: Away from everyone’s eyes, a Beirut crane operator is able to live out his secret passion and find freedom.
