Article by Marcus Siu

The 2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films opens Friday, February 20th at a movie theater near you. There are three separate programs and admissions: Live Action, Animation, and Documentary; five nominated shorts in each category.

The program will be presented by acclaimed filmmaker, writer, and actor Taika Waititi, who won an Oscar for the brilliant and hysterical “JoJo Rabbit” in 2020.

Waititi, also an Oscar® nominee for Live Action Short Film for Two Cars, One Night (2004), commented, “Short films occupy a singular space in the global filmmaking community, inviting artists to experiment, challenge conventions, and tell stories with unparalleled creative freedom.”

With Waititi on board, it guarantees to be a memorable event.

https://shorts.tv/theoscarshorts/tickets

TRAILER

Each year it seems more and more theaters are adding the Oscar Nominated Short films to their programming as there is a increasing interest in seeing these short films on the big screen from around the globe. This surely is a bright spot for the generally troubling film industry these days.

There are many short films that often get neglected by the general public, but deserved to be seen. The US represents six of these films. Ireland, France, and Israel have multiple mentions, along with the UK and Canada also represented.

Interestingly, out of the fifteen films from the three categories, eleven are available to stream and six of those eleven can be streamed are on YouTube for free. Five of them are available to stream on premium channels, Netflix, HBO Max and Disney Plus.

I have provided links below for the fifteen titles, which include nine trailers and six titles that can be shown in its entirety, with two of those films sponsored from the “New Yorker”: the Live Action short, “Two People Exchanging Saliva” and the Animated short, “Retirement Plan”.

The others available for free streaming include three animated shorts including, “The Girl Who Cried Pearls”, “Butterfly” and “Forevergreen”. Surprisingly “Jane Austen’s Period Drama” is also free on YouTube in 4K, with Emma Thompson as the “Executive Menstrual Advisor for the film.

However, the theatrical release is the way to go. I would strongly urge you to see these in the theaters, the way it was meant to be seen.

LIVE ACTION

BUTCHER’S STAIN

ISRAEL/26 MINS/2025

Director: Meyer Levinson-Blount

Synopsis

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.

A FRIEND OF DOROTHY

UK/21 MINS/2025

Director: Lee Knight

Synopsis

A FRIEND OF DOROTHY is a tender story of loneliness and unexpected friendships.

JANE AUSTEN’S PERIOD DRAMA

USA/12 MINS/2024

Director: Steve Pinder and Julia Aks

Synopsis

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.

THE SINGERS

USA/18 MINS/2025

Director: Sam A. Davis

Synopsis

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.

TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA

FRANCE/USA/36 MINS/2024

Director: Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh

Synopsis

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.

ANIMATED

BUTTERFLY

FRANCE/15 MINS/2024

Director: Florence Miailhe

Synopsis

A poignant retelling of Olympic swimmer Alfred Nakache’s life, from his rise to fame to surviving Auschwitz, presented as memories flashing back during his final swim.

ÉIRU

IRELAND/13 MINS/2025

Director: Giovanna Ferrari

Synopsis

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.

FOREVERGREEN

USA/13 MINS/2025

Director: Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears

Synopsis

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

CANADA/17 MINS/2025

Director: Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

Synopsis

A haunting fable about a girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds.

RETIREMENT PLAN

IRELAND/7 MINS/2024

Director: John Kelly

Synopsis

RETIREMENT PLAN tells the story of Ray (Domhnall Gleeson) as he fantasises about everything he’d love to do in retirement, once he finally has the “time.”

THE THREE SISTERS

ISRAEL/CYPRUS/14 MINS/2024

Director: Konstantin Bronzit

Synopsis

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.

DOCUMENTARY

ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS

USA/33 MINS/2025

Director: Joshua Seftel

Synopsis

In this moving short documentary, a journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.

ARMED ONLY WITH A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD

USA/38 MINS/2025

Director: Craig Renaud and Brent Renaud

Synopsis

An intimate chronicle about documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, the first American journalist killed while reporting on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE”

ISRAEL/36 MINS/2025

Director: Hilla Medalia

Synopsis

In Tel Aviv, activists gather weekly to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Gaza with a silent vigil for the children killed in Israeli attacks.

THE DEVIL IS BUSY

USA/31 MINS/2024

Director: Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir

Synopsis

The film chronicles a day on the frontlines in the battle for reproductive rights at a women’s healthcare clinic.

PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS

CANADA/15 MINS/2024

Director: Alison McAlpine

Synopsis

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.