OSCAR SHORTS 2022
SYNOPSIS
For the 17th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on Feb. 25th. With all three categories offered – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – this is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place Sunday, March 27th.
A FESTIVAL PASS, good for admission to all four programs, will be available for purchase at the box office. PASS PRICES: General admission $18 | Seniors/Military $15 | Students/Members $13
ANIMATED SHORTS
Run Time: 97 Minutes
Suggested Rating: R
(for adult themes and content, violence, language)
*NOT APROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN*
ROBIN ROBIN
UK | 32 MIN | 2021
ROBIN ROBIN, an Aardman Production is the tale of a small bird with a very big heart. After a shaky nativity of her own – her unhatched egg falls out of the nest and into a rubbish dumpster – she comes out of her shell, in more ways than one, and is adopted by a loving family of mice burglars. As she grows up, though, her differences make her something of a liability, especially when the family take her on furtive food raids to the houses of the humans in the dead of night. Neither fully bird, nor fully mouse, Robin embarks on a food heist of her own to prove herself worthy of her family and also, hopefully, to bring them back a Christmas sandwich.
BOXBALLET
RUSSIA | 15 MIN | 2019
Delicate ballerina Olya meets Evgeny, a rough boxer who personifies “strong but silent.” With very different lives and worldviews, will they be brave enough to embrace their feelings? Can two fragile souls hang on to each other despite the world’s cruelty?
AFFAIRS OF THE ART
UK/CANADA | 16 MIN | 2021
With AFFAIRS OF THE ART, director Joanna Quinn and producer/screenwriter Les Mills continue the series of beloved, hilarious and award-winning animated UK films starring Beryl, a 59-year-old factory worker who’s obsessed with drawing and determined to become a hyper-futurist artiste. We also meet her grown son, Colin, a techno geek, her husband, Ifor, now Beryl’s model and muse, and her sister, Beverly, a fanatical narcissist living in LA. AFFAIRS OF THE ART provides glimpses into Beryl’s, Beverly’s and Colin’s peculiar childhoods, and we see that obsession is in this family’s DNA.
BESTIA
CHILE | 15 MIN | 2021
Inspired by real events, BESTIA enters the life of a secret police agent in the military dictatorship in Chile. The relationship with her dog, her body, her fears and frustrations, reveal a macabre fracture in her mind and a country.
THE WINDSHIELD WIPER
SPAIN | 14 MIN | 2021
Inside a cafe, while smoking a whole pack of cigarettes, a man poses an ambitious question: “What is Love?” A collection of vignettes and situations will lead the man to the desired conclusion.
LIVE ACTION SHORTS
Run Time: 121 Minutes
Suggested Rating: R
(for adult themes, violence, language)
ON MY MIND
DENMARK | 18 MIN | 2021
Henrik wants to sing a song for his wife. It has to be today, it has to be now. It’s a question of life, death and karaoke.
PLEASE HOLD
USA | 19 MIN | 2020
In the not-so-distant future, Mateo (20s, Latino) is arrested by a police drone without explanation. Finding himself locked in a fully automated jail with no means of recourse, Mateo realizes he’s fallen through some kind of crack in the system. To get out alive he’ll have to go head-to-head with the labyrinthine, computerized bureaucracy of the privatized American justice system, in search of an actual human being who can set things right.
THE DRESS
POLAND | 30 MIN | 2020
Lust, sexuality and physicality. These are the deepest desires virgin Julia suppresses while working at a wayside motel. That is until she crosses paths with a handsome truck driver, who soon becomes the object of her fantasies…
THE LONG GOODBYE
UK | 12 MIN | 2020
Riz and his family are in the middle of preparing a wedding celebration when the events unfolding in the outside world arrive suddenly on their doorstep. The result is a devastating and visceral feat of filmmaking, and a poignant poetic cry from the heart.
ALA KACHUU – TAKE AND RUN
SWITZERLAND | 38 MIN | 2020
Sezim, 19 years old, wants to fulfill her dream of studying in the Kyrgyz capital when she gets kidnapped by a group of young men and taken to the hinterland. There, she’s forced to marry a stranger. If she refuses the marriage, she is threatened with social stigmatization and exclusion. Torn between her desire for freedom and the constraints of Kyrgyz culture, Sezim desperately seeks a way out.
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
Presented in two separate programs
Suggested Rating: PG-13
(for adult themes and topics)
PROGRAM A
Program A Run Time: 75 min
.
AUDIBLE
USA | 38 MIN | 2020
AUDIBLE is a cinematic and immersive coming-of-age documentary following Maryland School for the Deaf high school athlete Amaree McKenstry and his close friends, as they face the pressures of senior year and grappling with the realities of venturing off into the hearing world.
WHEN WE WERE BULLIES
GERMANY/USA | 36 MIN | 2021
A mind-boggling coincidence leads the filmmaker to track down his fifth grade class and fifth grade teacher to examine their memory of and complicity in a bullying incident 50 years ago.
PROGRAM B
Program B Run Time: 83 min
.
THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR
AFGHANISTAN | 22 MIN | 2021
The story of Shaista, a young man who—newly married to Benazir and living in a displacement camp in Kabul—struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with the responsibilities of starting a family. Gulistan and Elizabeth Mirzaei’s remarkable access sheds light on the experience of modern-day Afghans who live, love, and seek space for themselves amid constant instability.
LEAD ME HOME
USA | 39 MIN | 2020
500,000 Americans experience homelessness every night. LEAD ME HOME is a documentary short by Jon Shenk and Pedro Kos that captures the experience from multiple perspectives. This immersive, cinematic film personalizes the overwhelming issue by telling the real-life stories of those going through it as a first step toward challenging uninformed attitudes and outmoded policies and gives the audience a rare, in-depth look at the scale, scope and diversity of unsheltered America today.
THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL
USA | 22 MIN | 2021
She is one of the greatest living women’s basketball players. 3 national trophies. Scored the first basket in women’s Olympic basketball at the ‘76 Olympics. Drafted to the NBA. But have you ever heard of Lusia Harris?
Run Time
Live Action: 121 minutes
Documentary Program A: 75 minutes
Documentary Program B: 83 minutes
Released
Distributed by
Hearing Assistance
SUGGESTED RATINGS
ANIMATION: R
LIVE ACTION: R
DOCUMENTARY: PG-13
Content Warning: Unlike previous years, the 2022 animation nominees are NOT appropriate for young audiences. The suggested rating for both the Live Action and Animation programs is R due to adult content and themes.
SHOWINGS
FEB 25 | FRI
Animation: 7:25 p.m.
Live Action: 9:30 p.m.
FEB 26 | SAT
Documentary A: 11:45 a.m.
Documentary B : 2:15 p.m.
Animation: 4:45 p.m.
Live Action: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary A: 9:45 p.m.
FEB 27 | SUN
Documentary B: 11:45 a.m.
Animation: 2:15 p.m.
Live Action: 4:45 p.m.
Documentary A: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary B: 9:45 p.m.
FEB 28 | MON
Animation: 4:45 p.m.
Live Action: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary A: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 1 | TUE
Documentary B: 4:45 p.m.
Animation: 7:15 p.m.
Live Action: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 2 | WED
Documentary A: 4:45 p.m.
Documentary B: 7:15 p.m.
Animation: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 3 | THU
Live Action: 4:45 p.m.
Documentary A: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary B: 9:45 p.m
MAR 4 | FRI
Animation: 4:45 p.m.
Live Action: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary A: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 5 | SAT
Documentary B: 11:45 a.m.
Animation: 2:15 p.m.
Live Action: 4:45 p.m.
Documentary A: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary B: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 6 | SUN
Animation: 11:45 a.m.
Live Action: 2:15 p.m.
Documentary A: 4:45 p.m.
Documentary B: 7:15 p.m.
Animation: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 7 | MON
Live Action: 4:45 p.m.
Documentary A: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary B: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 8 | TUE
Animation: 4:45 p.m.
Live Action: 7:15 p.m.
Documentary A: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 9 | WED
Documentary B: 4:45 p.m.
Animation: 7:15 p.m.
Live Action: 9:45 p.m.
MAR 10 | THU