Oscar-nominated short films are long on diversity and thoughtfulness

Despite the uproar over the lack of diversity in the major categories of this year’s Academy Awards nominees, it’s hard not to notice the cultural scope of the shorter offerings.

Filmmakers with roots in Chile, Kosovo, Germany, Israel, Russia and India are among the honorees in the two narrative shorts categories: live-action and animated.

Kansas City film fans will have the opportunity to view all 10 nominated efforts when both programs open Friday at Tivoli Cinemas. (A collection of documentary shorts contenders will also play at the theater beginning next week.)

Communication seems to be the factor that binds the five nominated in the live-action short film category at the 88th Oscars. Perspective is what epitomizes those in the animated short film group.

Here is The Star’s assessment of these noteworthy films.

Live-action short film nominees

“Ave Maria”: Conflict in the Middle East often provides a springboard for Oscar nominations in the short categories. In the case of “Ave Maria,” the perilous setup is used for comedy.

At a convent in the West Bank, the Sisters of Mercy are enjoying an evening meal (amusingly framed like the Last Supper) when a group of outsiders interrupts their vow of silence. A bickering Israeli family has crashed into the convent’s statue of the Virgin Mary, and the parties must figure out a solution — an unorthodox one — to transport the clan home in time for the Sabbath.

This Cannes film festival hit from Basil Khalil offers strong sight gags but not a whole lot more. Cute but lightweight.

“Day One”: This is unlikely to be called cute or lightweight. The half-hour short portrays the harrowing first mission of an Afghan-American interpreter (a stellar Layla Alizada) assigned to U.S. troops ferreting out bomb-making insurgents in Afghanistan.

With high production values and a sustained intensity to rival most thrillers, the film comes up with an unusual scenario that integrates wartime, religious and gender obstacles.

This nominee represents the first foray into filmmaking by U.S. paratrooper Henry Hughes. After serving two tours in Afghanistan he applied to the American Film Institute, where he entered a program that partners veterans with industry professionals. His randomly designated mentor? “Star Wars” creator George Lucas.

“Everything Will Be Okay”: The title of this short drama (translated from the original German “Alles Wird Gut”) implies things will work out for the best. But it becomes clear within minutes that that’s not likely to be the case.

Michael (Simon Schwarz) picks up 8-year-old daughter Lea (Julia Pointner) from his ex-wife for a scheduled weekend. He buys her Playmobil toys, they hit the bumper cars, then he takes her to get passport photos on the way to the airport.

Patrick Vollrath earned third place at the Student Academy Awards last year with this same film, which proved strong enough to graduate to the big leagues. There’s not a scene in this naturalistic piece that doesn’t ring true. And the performance by Pointner is heartbreakingly pure. “Everything Will Be Okay” draws immense power from its simplicity.

“Shok”: The first Oscar nominee ever for the disputed territory of Kosovo, “Shok” follows two youngsters (Lum Veseli and Andi Bajgora) braving the brutality of the Kosovo war during 1998. The boys’ friendship is tested when Serbian troops disrupt their day-to-day-lives, treating them as “Albanian scum.”

A stolen bicycle, banned books and contraband all factor into the based-on-a-true-story film by British director Jamie Donoughue. The powerful short struggles with a disjointed approach that makes some of its flashback choices unclear. But it affords a ground-level view of war from those least able to control their own destinies. And the ending packs an almost mythological wallop.

“Stutterer”: The captivating Matthew Needham stars as a Londoner named Greenwood used to playing a game where he makes “snap judgments” about strangers, presented as an internal monologue. Trouble is, he can’t spout these opinions in real life because of his debilitating stuttering affliction.

“Communication skills nonexistent,” he self-analyzes. “Excels in the art of self-pity.” So when faced with the opportunity to finally meet a foreign girl (Chloe Pirrie) he has been messaging for six months, Greenwood must formulate a strategy.

The most artistically constructed of these live-action efforts, “Stutterer” (written and directed by Benjamin Cleary) conveys drama more by what it leaves out than what it includes. Kind of like Greenwood himself.

What deserves the Oscar: “Day One”

Animated short film nominees

“Bear Story”: An old bear hauls a mechanical diorama onto a street corner. He invites patrons to view a stylized version of his own personal story involving a circus bear trying to escape and return home to his family.

The Chilean short uses the metaphor of caged animals and their oppressors to reveal the horrors of police state brutality. Filmmaker Gabriel Osorio took inspiration from the story of his own grandfather, who in 1973 was incarcerated for two years, then forced to leave the country because of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship.

Osorio’s work is made to look like stop-motion yet is actually all digitally created. Both visually mesmerizing and emotionally wrenching, “Bear Story” triumphs on multiple levels.

“Prologue”: This short has everything that indicates it’s a student film: scant narrative, stream-of-consciousness storytelling and graphic violence. Hard to believe it’s the work of 82-year-old Richard Williams, a two-time Oscar winner best known as the animation director on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

“Prologue” takes place 2,400 years ago as Spartan and Athenian warriors engage in a death match witnessed by a young girl. Visually, the five-minute project is all hand-drawn by Williams, a process that took him a dozen years to complete. If only he’d spent that much time writing a compelling story.

Interesting note: When Williams was a commercial artist, he designed the iconic poster for “The Graduate” that depicts Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft’s leg.

“Sanjay’s Super Team”: Longtime Pixar animator Sanjay Patel extracts a tale from his own childhood for his directorial debut. It focuses on the youngster of the title, who would rather play with the action figures of his favorite American cartoon “Super Team” than meditate with his father at the Hindu shrine opposite their TV. But then Sanjay’s imagination mingles these competing concerns, and deities Durga, Hanuman and Vishnu spring into action to take out a villainous foe.

This short accompanied the theatrical release of “The Good Dinosaur” and certainly has the colorful cinematic imagery one expects from the celebrated animation studio. (Guessing its budget was more than all these other entrants combined.) But Patel’s rudimentary idea can’t sustain the flick’s seven-minute run time. Self-serving and repetitive, it’s tough to name a weaker Pixar film — and that’s including “Cars.”

“We Can’t Live Without Cosmos”: The far-reaching bonds of friendship are examined in “We Can’t Live Without Cosmos.” The dialogue-free effort follows two cosmonauts as they train to be selected for a manned rocket mission. Childhood pals, roommates and standouts among their other orange-suited teammates, the pair have formulated a plan that goes accordingly … until it doesn’t.

Writer/director Konstantin Bronzit was nominated in this Oscar category for 2009’s “Lavatory Lovestory.” The St. Petersburg-based contender is considered one of Russia’s top animators. He succeeds in creating an appealing short that balances humor and sadness, its message one with universal appeal.

“World of Tomorrow”: There are enough ideas exhibited in Don Hertzfeldt’s 16-minute effort to sustain 16 sci-fi features. Told entirely in narrated exposition, “World of Tomorrow” centers on Emily (voiced by 4-year-old Winona Mae), who is visited by a clone of her future self.

This condescending adult version of Emily explains how humans have vastly elongated their lifespans by uploading memories into clones they grow in their own bodies — although the working class can afford to situate these uploads only in inanimate objects. But they’ve lost their humanity and happiness in the process.

Both quite funny (Emily Prime reacts to this situation like any distractible preschooler) and darkly dystopian, the film offers the opposite strengths as “Sanjay.” The visuals are quirky yet quite elementary, whereas the writing is superior to that of the other nominees. It’s easily the weirdest of these nominated shorts.

What deserves to win: “Bear Story”

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 4:11 AM with the headline "Oscar-nominated short films are long on diversity and thoughtfulness."