2013 Oscar Nominees - Live Action Short Film

Last night I saw the Live Action Short Films nominated for the Oscar. I haven't seen many short films but was impressed and thoroughly entertained by the nominees (there were 5 total). Two shorts stood out to me as the best of the bunch.

The best of the five IMO was "Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)". I don't want to spoil it but the basic plot is a man who was killed during World War I is stuck in limbo/purgatory and is involved in a Faustian bargain where he uses a camera to capture a person's shadow at the moment of their death. I felt it was pretty much perfect and it left me wanting more/wishing it was a feature length film.


The other short that I really enjoyed was "Curfew". About a troubled man at his lowest point who receives a call from his sister asking him to watch her daughter for a few hours. This too was close to perfect. And an added bonus were some scenes in a bowling alley that I instantly recognized because I've been there a few times (Brooklyn Bowl). I also think this film could have easily been feature-length.


The other three short films I was not as impressed with. Although the short film "Henry" seems to have received a lot of positive reviews from critics and regular folk. Anyway, if you get a chance to watch these, I highly recommend it. I think they are available as VOD and/or on iTunes. I was lucky enough to have a local movie theater that was showing them.

Yay! So "Curfew" won. Definitely deserved, although like I said in my first post, I did like "Death of a Shadow" just a bit more. I still think if you guys get a chance you should check out some of these shorts. Who knows, it could inspire an editor to make a short, or perhaps spawn new consecution ideas.