2026 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS

Don’t miss your chance to see all of the 2026 Oscar nominees for best Live Action, Documentary, and Animated short film on the big screen!

FEB 27 | FRI

LIVE ACTION: 4:50 p.m.
DOCUMENTARY: 7:20 p.m.

FEB 28 | SAT

LIVE ACTION: 12:00 p.m.
ANIMATION: 2:30 p.m.
DOCUMENTARY: 4:30 p.m.
LIVE ACTION: 7:30 p.m.

MAR 1 | SUN

ANIMATION: 12:00 p.m.
DOCUMENTARY: 2:00 p.m.
ANIMATION: 5:05 p.m.
LIVE ACTION: 7:05 p.m.

MAR 2 | MON

DOCUMENTARY: 6:00 p.m.

MAR 3 | TUE

ANIMATION: 5:10 p.m.
LIVE ACTION: 7:10 p.m.

MAR 4 | WED

LIVE ACTION: 4:50 p.m.

MAR 5 | THU

DOCUMENTARY: 6:00 p.m.

SYNOPSIS

Presented by Roadside Attractions and Taika Waititi, the 2026 Oscar-Nominated Short Films, features all three categories – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – showcasing outstanding short films from around the world! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, Shorts program offers audiences a rare opportunity to experience these celebrated works on the big screen ahead of the Oscars®. 

This year’s selection of shorts are not recommened for all ages. Please check the indivudual program notes for more content information. 

A FESTIVAL PASS, good for admission to all three programs, will be available at the Ross Box Office. PASS PRICES: $20 General Admission | $17 Students, Seniors, Military | $13 Friends of the Ross Members and UNL students. 

ANIMATED SHORTS

Suggested rating: PG to PG-13. Some films in this program include disturbing and mature content and may not be suitable for very young children. PROGRAM RUN TIME: 1 hour, 23 minutes

THE THREE SISTERS
Director: Konstantin Bronzit / Israel, Cyprus / 14 Mins
Three sisters live a lonely life on an isolated island, each in their own small house. One day, circumstances develop in such a way that they are forced to rent out one of the houses.

FOREVERGREEN
Directors: Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears / United States / 13 Mins
A joyful adventure featuring an orphaned bear cub and a fatherly tree turns serious when the cub is tempted by the allure of easy food. Fire and deadly danger ensue as the cub is left bereft of hope and on the verge of a ruinous end, until the sacrificial love of the tree falls into place.

THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS
Director: Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski / Canada / 17 Mins
In Montreal, at the dawn of the 20th century, a poor boy falls in love with a girl whose sorrow turns into pearls. He sells them to a ruthless pawnbroker, who hungers for more. Tempted by greed, the boy must choose between love and fortune. The choice could damn his soul. From the Oscar-nominated team of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli-Putli), this meticulously crafted film is a testament to the magic of stop-motion animation. With handmade puppets, mesmerizing narration by Colm Feore and a haunting score by Patrick Watson, The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a timeless parable of desire, deception and the price of innocence.

BUTTERFLY
Director: Florence Miailhe / France / 15 Mins
In the sea, a man swims. As he does, memories come to the surface. From his early childhood to his life as a man, all his memories are linked to water. Some are happy, some glorious, some traumatic. This story will be that of his last swim. It will take us from the source to the river – from the waters of childhood pools to those of swimming pools – from a North African country to the shores of the Mediterranean – from Olympic stadiums to water retention basins – from concentration camps to the dream beaches of Reunion.

RETIREMENT PLAN
Director: John Kelly / Ireland / 7 Min
Ray (Domhnall Gleeson) lays out a beautiful life for himself in his retirement plan. He will pursue his curiosities, challenge his limiting beliefs, embrace fear, beauty, even the complexities of wine culture. Ray will check off every box on every list for every interest he ever even half-thought about. He will discover what he loves (Italian red wine), what he hates (camping). He will grow and learn and change rapidly. It’s beautiful and it’s messy and achingly relatable. But Ray is forgetting something. The one thing he treats as flippantly disposable will be the single most rapidly depleting resource of his future self. His healthy-ish, agile enough 40-something-year-old body. Also, actual retirement time is not endless, but guaranteed to be finite.

EIRU *Shortlisted Extra Short*
Director: Giovanna Ferrari / Ireland / 13 Min
When the water mysteriously disappears from the well in a warrior clan’s village, an intrepid child descends into the belly of the earth to retrieve it. Éiru is the story of a child in search of a challenge, and a goddess in search of a champion.

LIVE ACTION SHORTS

Suggested rating R. Some films in this program contain adult language, adult themes, and sensual images. Recommended for persons 17 and up. PROGRAM RUN TIME: 1 hour, 59 minutes

THE SINGERS
Director: Sam A. Davis / United States / 18 Min
The Singers is a short film adaptation of a 19th-century short story written by Ivan Turgenev, in which a lowly pub full of downtrodden patrons connect unexpectedly through an impromptu sing-off. With a cast comprised of viral video singing talents and other one-of-a-kind personalities from the unlikeliest corners of the internet, the film is an experimental docu-musical hybrid crafted like an improvisational play.

A FRIEND OF DOROTHY
Director: Lee Knight / United Kingdom / 21 Mins
Dorothy (BAFTA winner Miriam Margolyes) is a lonely widow whose body is failing, but her mind remains as bright as ever. When 17-year-old JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu) accidentally kicks his football into her garden, he upends Dorothy’s daily routine of pills, prunes and crosswords, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. Despite being worlds apart in every way, the two come to find they have more in common than they could ever imagine.

BUTCHER’S STAIN
Director: Meyer Levinson-Blount / Israel / 26 Mins
Samir, a Palestinian butcher working at an Israeli supermarket, is accused of tearing down the Israeli hostage posters in the break room. Samir sets out to prove his innocence in order to keep his job he desperately needs.

TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA
Directors: Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh / France, United States / 36 Mins
In a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face, Angine, an unhappy woman, shops compulsively in a department store. There, she becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl. Despite the prohibition of kissing, the two become close, raising the suspicions of a jealous colleague.

JAN AUSTIN’S PERIOD DRAMA
Director: Steve Pinder and Julia Aks / United States / 12 Mins
England, 1813. Miss Estrogenia “Essy” Talbot gets her period during a long-awaited marriage proposal. Mr. Dickley mistakes the blood for an injury and rushes off to fetch a doctor. While he’s gone, Essy’s sisters plead with her not to imperil her engagement by telling Mr. Dickley the truth. But when he returns, Essy barrels ahead, sharing every little bloody detail.

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Suggested rating R. Some films in this program contain graphic war imagery, adult themes, and language. Recommended for persons 17 and up. PROGRAM RUN TIME: 2 hours, 37 minutes

PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS
Director: Alison McAlpine / Canada / 15 Mins
In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.

THE DEVIL IS BUSY
Director: Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir / United States / 31 Mins
The Devil is Busy takes viewers on a daylong journey with Tracii, the determined
head of security at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia as she works to ensure the safety of women seeking abortions in the face of new restrictions and persistent protests. The film is a clear-eyed portrayal of the shifting landscape for patients and abortion providers in America today, and depicts the complex, day-to-day realities facing those working to provide safe reproductive healthcare to women. The film captures a unique snapshot of reproductive healthcare in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a shift that has led to abortion bans and significant restrictions in many states.

ARMED WITH ONLY A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD
Director: Craig Renaud and Brent Renaud /United States / 38 Mins
On March 13, 2022, filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed by Russian soldiers – the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine. His younger brother and collaborator, Craig Renaud, recovered Brent’s body and his final recordings from Ukraine and brought them back to their childhood home in Arkansas. As Brent’s journey to his final resting place unfolds, the film chronicles the years he and his brother spent covering some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts.As journalism becomes one of the most dangerous professions in the world, Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud is dedicated to Brent and all the devoted journalists who use their cameras to work for truth and understanding.

ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS
Director: Joshua Seftel / United States / 33 Mins
All the Empty Rooms follows veteran CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. Hartman steps away from his heartwarming human interest stories and unbeknownst to his network’s bosses, pursues a piece on absence, memory, and the unseen ripples of America’s gun violence epidemic. As these senseless incidents claim more young lives than any other cause in America, these quiet bedrooms reveal truths more powerful than statistics ever could.

CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE”
Director: Hilla Medalia / Israel / 36 Mins
Children No More: “Were and are Gone” is an observational documentary short about a vigil that began in March 2025, when a handful of women stood silently in a public square in Tel Aviv, each holding a photograph of a child killed in Gaza. On every image: the child’s name, age, date of death, and the words “WAS AND IS NO MORE.” Their stillness is heavy, pressing against the rhythm of ordinary life. Some passersby look away; others respond with denial, sorrow, or rage. Yet week after week, new names are added, new photographs are printed and lifted high. And each week, more people step forward to join this quiet act of protest.