Oscar Live-Action Short Films (2009)

Another round of Oscar Short films. All but Kavi are available on youtube so you are welcome to check them out yourself very easily. The New Tenants won the Oscar, I can't say it would have been my choice, but I think it was a decent choice.

Film: Kavi
Director: Gregg Helvey
Runtime: 19 min
Country: India
Vote: 8/10
Review: The only one I couldn't find on youtube, and bought through the itunes store for $2. This intense short about a child slave in India is difficult to watch. Hard to pick as my favorite because I won't necessarily want to see it again. Powerful and gripping, the 19 minutes go by really fast.




OSCAR WINNER

Film: The New Tenants
Director: Joachim Back
Runtime: 20 min
Country: Denmark
Vote: 7/10
Review: A violent short that starts with a gay guy bitching for about 5 minutes. The storyline isn't bad but I could have done without the intro. Probably meant to be a dark comedy, yet I didn't really find it that funny. Not sure what critics would say about why it deserved the win.





Film: Instead of Abracadabra: Istället för abrakadabra
Director: Patrik Eklund
Runtime: 22 min
Country: Sweden
Vote: 7/10
Review: A Swedish comedy about a 20-something that lives at home and aspires to be a magician. With a sick idea of what emotional reactions he is trying to get from his audience this is an interesting watch. I can see how people would either love or hate it, so I recommend this to only those that like international comedy already.




Film: The Door
Director: Juanita Wilson
Runtime: 17 min
Country: Ireland
Vote: 5/10
Review: An incredibly depressing film about a family that lived in Chernobyl during the nuclear accident in the 1980s. It didn't teach me anything and was just sad.

Film: Miracle Fish
Director: Luke Doolan
Runtime: 17 min
Country: Australia
Vote: 5/10
Review:I found this film almost pointless, when held up against a film like "New Boy" from last years nominees this one was really weak. Telling you much of anything would ruin the surprising plot. Almost disturbing.






I was not impressed with this grouping of short films. The 2008 nominees were all much stronger than this group. I would rank 3 or 4 of them higher than Kavi. Outside of the top two here I didn't feel they were even worthy of nominations. Hopefully next year is better.

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