Each year when the nominees for the various categories at the Academy Awards are released, my family always pokes me and says, “Drew, when and where could we have seen these shorts?” Viewed as the go-to guy when it came to, perhaps, more obscure tastes in movies, I still wouldn’t really know what to say. Shorts are a category within the nominations that provides a quick and complete start-to-finish production designed to drive home some theme, usually something societally topical.
However, now they — and consequently, all of you — know exactly where to go to see all of these shorts: Ragtag Cinema. Right here, close to campus, everybody has the opportunity to go to see all five Oscar-nominated animated shorts.
A short film is defined by the Academy as “an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all the credits.” The viewing, which will showcase all of the animated shorts back-to-back, will last 110 minutes. The shorts will begin showing Feb. 17.
**Oscar nominees for best live-action short:**
**”Raju,” directed by Max Zähle**
“Raju” is about the emotions a German couple goes through while adopting a young orphan boy from India. After losing him in the streets of India, they try to find him. This short looks to be extremely gut-wrenching.
**”Tuba Atlantic,” directed by Hallvar Witzø**
This short follows a 70-year-old man who has just six days to live. He wants to reconnect and reconcile with his brother after a lifetime of disagreement and misunderstanding. The plot line of this movie sounds interesting because of its uniqueness and immediate empathy. What would you do if you had just six days to live?
**”The Shore,” directed by Terry George and Oorlagh George**
This story is about two childhood friends who reunite after 25 years with lots of misunderstanding. Their friendship is all but destroyed due to the escalating conflict in Northern Ireland where they grew up. Fast forward to when the one who left the Emerald Isle returns to Northern Ireland with his daughter, and a lot has changed. Among the changes is the marriage of his former best friend to his former fiancée.
**”Pentecost,” directed by Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane**
This is quite the interesting story, especially for Catholics and soccer fans. Damien is serving a three-month ban from his true passion in life: soccer. After knocking a friar off the altar, he is forced to sit out for three months as a penance. Making things worse is the fact that Damien’s favorite team, Liverpool FC, is playing his team in the first European Cup Final in just two weeks. His dad says he can potentially watch the final if he serves mass correctly.
**”Time Freak,”** directed by Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
This short sounds the most interesting to me. A “neurotic inventor” has discovered time travel. and the film is about his experiences going back in time to change every little mistake or screw-up he’s ever had. However, he gets lost just trying to make the day before perfect. I feel like that’s really relatable. We could all do that in some form or another if we had made such a time machine ourselves.