‘2021 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Animation’ Review: Toons Tap Diverse Approaches

If Anything Happens I Love You challenge. The rules were simple—to participate, TikTokers had to film themselves before and after watching an animated short on .

Nominated for best documentary feature alongside “Collective,” “Crip Camp,” “The Mole Agent” and “Time,” Netflix’s ode to nature, “The Octopus Teacher,” has gained traction in the Oscars race over recent weeks. The film, which chronicles a diver named Craig Foster, who documented his time swimming with an octopus that lives in a kelp forest off the coast of South Africa, has recently picked up wins at the BAFTAs, alongside a surprise win at the Producers Guild of America Award.

In his 92 years, African-American businessman Horace Bowers Sr.—one of the two main subjects of the Oscar-nominated short documentary A Concerto Is a Conversation—has faced many obstacles in his path. He’s always found a way around them.

When Judy Heumann—one of the main subjects of the Oscar-nominated documentary Crip Camp—was five years old in the early 1950s, her mother tried to register her for kindergarten in New York City. The staff took one look at Judy, who used a wheelchair as a result of polio, and denied her.

Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal went into 2019’s Toronto International Film Festival without a distributor. Now, a year-and-a-half on, it’s a six-time Oscar nominee and perhaps the most hard-fought of all of this year’s crop of Best Picture candidates. Joe Utichi meets Marder and stars Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci to take stock of a film that transformed its key players in ways they hadn’t expected.

EXCLUSIVE: WarnerMedia has revamped its content innovation hub WarnerMedia OneFifty, relaunching a redesigned platform focused on highlighting new content and projects from underrepresented creators. The new site features a bulked up content acquisitions and projects slate, including its recent acquisition of Tomer Shushan’s White Eye, which has just been nominated for the Live Action Short Form Oscar.

EXCLUSIVE: Following its Oscar nomination, Elvira Lind’s short film The Letter Room has been racking up the sales. The movie, which stars Oscar Isaac and Alia Shawkat, has sold to France and Germany (ARTE France), Spain (Telefonica), Denmark (TV2), Russia (Shot TV), Poland (New Europe Film Sales), Airlines (JetBlue) as well as an international deal with Kanopy for the educational circuit.

Despite previous outrage that streaming service Netflix could have films nominated for Oscar Awards, this year the site has proven once again that its movies can play with the big boys.

The Oscar-nominated filmmaking team behind the documentary Time are looking forward to a reunion at Union Station in Los Angeles, the main venue for this year’s Academy Awards. Director-producer Garrett Bradley and producers Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn haven’t seen each other in person for a while, because of Covid-19.

In the Oscar-nominated documentary short A Concerto Is a Conversation, acclaimed composer Kris Bowers traces a line from his family history to the premiere performance of his original concerto "For a Younger Self" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2019. Following that line is Horace Bowers Jr., Kris Bowers' 91-year-old grandfather, who sits down with his grandson to tell the story of his journey out of the Jim Crow-era South in the pursuit of his American Dream.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticLaw and order, and the lack thereof, were impossible to ignore amid last year’s “defund the police” protests, and the same tensions are reflected in the Oscar-nominated live-action shorts lineup. Some of the entries predate the George Floyd killing, while another was shot in direct reaction to that tragedy last summer; two more were made abroad, on opposite sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, touching on themes that transcend borders.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorOscar-nominated short film “A Concerto Is a Conversation” is the story of love between a grandfather and his grandson woven together through music. It’s also a narrative about race in America.Composer Kris Bowers, the virtuoso behind “Green Book” and “When They See Us,” wears multiple hats for the film, as co-director (with friend Ben Proudfoot), producer, composer and star.

wrote TheWrap in a survey of the Oscar shortlist for live-action shorts.

Every year, ShortsTV brings the best in short film to the big screen, with a presentation of Oscar nominated shorts in the Animated, Live-Action and Documentary arenas. While movie theaters only recently reopened in Los Angeles and Orange County—with Covid cases, hospitalizations and fatalities on the descent—the distributor has already set theatrical and virtual premiere dates in both counties, for the Oscar Nominated Shorts of 2021.

Antonio Ferme editorThe 93rd Oscar nominations have finally been announced, recognizing films released during a year where movie theaters were largely closed.

Andra Day — correction: Best Actress nominee Andra Day — couldn’t be more excited. ET spoke with the star following news of her Oscar nomination Monday to get the details on how she first learned she was nominated and what this recognition means to her. “When I looked at my phone I saw that it was full of messages,” she shared about first realizing she was nominated.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterMaria Bakalova was shooting a scene opposite Pedro Pascal for “The Bubble,” an upcoming meta-comedy about actors filming a movie in the middle of a pandemic, when she found out she landed her first Oscar nomination.“We were in the middle of a take,” she says.

Priyanka Chopra cutely pops her heel during a sweet moment with husband Nick Jonas while announcing the 2021 Oscars nominations on Monday morning (March 15).

1. One Night in Miami and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom snubbed for Best Picture - It seemed likely both films would secure Best Picture nominations, but surprisingly, neither did.