2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films - Documentary Short Subject (2023)
SHOULD I SEE IT?
YES
Always a great presentation and fantastic trip to the movies, you have to look fast because the short films are only in theaters for a few weeks, prior to the Oscars.
Oscar pools and Oscar party contests can be won and lost with the Short Film categories. Experiencing these nominees achieves both a better chance at victory and the opportunity to see some terrific and original films.
NO
Casual movie watchers tend to watch high profile, big name star movies and convincing people to watch short films is a challenge. No matter how good these films are, a large number of people are not going to care much.
You are not a fan of a wide range of genres and themes. You never know what you are going to get with these short film presentations and that mix of styles can throw people off.
OUR REVIEW
Every year, the ballot busters for Oscar pools and Oscar parties often prove to be the short film categories. Collating the short film nominees since 2006, ShortsTV and ShortsHD produce some of the most unpredictable and entertaining moviegoing experiences of the year. Short films celebrate the creativity that lies within the artists and creators; they are a fertile ground of new voices, challenging perspectives, and innovative presentation. I love uncovering these films and stories each year.
Now playing in theaters, and scheduled to play on VOD the week before the 95th Oscars, the Short Film packages continue to prove wildly popular with audiences. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the box office numbers for the Oscar nominated short film presentations grew year-to-year and these films matter to those genuinely curious about the potential next wave of storytellers and filmmakers emerging around the world.
And so, without any further ado, let's dive into this year’s nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject.
THE ELEPHANT WHISPERERS | 39 MINUTES
Directed by: Kartiki Gonsalves
★★★★1/2
Beautifully shot in Southern India, and existing as one of two Netflix shorts nominated in this category, The Elephant Whisperers is a touching and endearing story of a couple, Bomman and Bellie, who work with a federal reserve to take care of baby elephants who have been orphaned or otherwise displaced from their parents. Their main “child” is Raghu, an elephant who warms to their kindness, care, and affection. For Bellie, Raghu is a surrogate of sorts for a daughter she lost, and she still struggles with her emotions over such a tragedy. For Bomman, Raghu gives him purpose and resolve.
At 39 minutes, director Kartiki Gonsalves never runs out of gorgeous images or narrative developments to bring into the film. The Elephant Whisperers steals your heart and you cannot help but get lost in its charm. This film may prove to be hard to beat when voters cast their ballots.
HAULOUT | 25 MINUTES
Directed by: Maxim Arbugaev, Evgenia Arbugaev
★★★★
With arguably the best sound design this year of any film - short, feature or otherwise - Haulout also delivers one of the best reveals from any movie of recent memory. Framed around the lonely solitude of a man, Maxim Chakilev, who lives by himself in a hut in the Russian Arctic, we initially see him go about his days - reigniting old cigarettes, pouring hot water into soup cans, and reading through some books. Then, one morning he wakes up only to find over 100,000 walruses outside his door and canvassing the sprawling beach near where he lives.
For most of Haulout’s 25 minutes, we embed with Chakilev, and directors Maxim and Evgenia Arbugaev have remarkable access to him. Then, however, it becomes clear why we are experiencing these moments with Chakilev. He is a scientist studying walrus migration. The walruses have arrived looking for sea ice, that, because of climate change, no longer exists. More walruses die each year in their migration efforts and he spends months each year studying the conditions impacting the walruses who populate outside his front door.
If the film didn’t feel a bit stagnant at times, this might be a lock to win the award. Haulout delivers a powerful message, and with next to no dialogue, the visuals and transformative sound design draw you into Chakilev’s cold, solitary world. Distinctive and important, Haulout is hard to shake once it fades to black.
HOW DO YOU MEASURE A YEAR? | 29 Minutes
Directed by: Jay Rosenblatt
★★★1/2
Truly it feels wrong to take a film so personal to those involved and write anything critical about it. Jay Rosenblatt, a nominee in this category for last year’s moving When We Were Bullies, is nominated again this year with a simple concept executed really well. In How Do You Measure a Year?, Jay reveals he has filmed his daughter Ella, each year on her birthday, from the age of two to 18. He asks largely the same questions of her each year and films her responses.
The novelty is irresistible and Ella is a wonderful subject. We see a girl grow from a toddler who loves lollipops, to a pre-teen who loves Broadway tunes from shows like Wicked and Rent (the film’s title a reference to a line from the ever-popular “Seasons of Love” from Rent), to a disinterested teen, to a young woman ready for college. The film is certainly a fun watch, but, at least for me, I felt a little distanced from the emotions that Ella and Jay clearly feel for the project and for each other. I also think that’s okay. Perhaps that comes with trying to edit 17 years of material down to under a half an hour.
How Do You Measure a Year? is a fun and engaging film. And certainly, among this year’s nominees, the one film that never could ever have expected to have Oscar call its name.
Clockwise (L-R): Haulout, How Do You Measure a Year?, Stranger at the Gates,The Elephant Whisperers, and The Martha Mitchell Effect.
THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT | 39 Minutes
Directed by: Anne Alvergue, Debra McClutchy (co-director)
★★★★
Netflix’s second nominated Documentary Short this year, The Martha Mitchell Effect captures the iconic firebrand in all her abbreviated glory. A thorn in the side of the Nixon White House during the Watergate scandal, and an additional vocal opponent of her then, and soon-to-be ex husband John Mitchell, Nixon’s former Attorney General and campaign manager, Martha Mitchell became a celebrity for speaking her mind and not holding her opinions back from a media ready and eager to capture her every word.
Director Anne Alvergue, and co-director Debra McClutchy, zip the film along briskly, capturing Mitchell’s penchant for inciting chaos and disruption with a wink, a smile, and a “come-get-me” attitude. The film properly gives Mitchell her flowers, decades after she died from bone-marrow cancer in 1976 at just 57 years of age. Informative, entertaining, and full of great history, The Martha Mitchell Effect could easily boost itself up to a feature-length film.
STRANGER AT THE GATE | 28 Minutes
Directed by: Joshua Seftel
★★★★1/2
Executive produced by human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, Stranger at the Gate is a powerful look at prejudice, hatred, and eventually, tolerance, warmth, and understanding. Even revealing those details seems to minimize where director Joshua Seftel takes viewers as we meet Richard “Mac” McKinney, a former United States Marine, who returns to his home of Muncie, Indiana after his years of service fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a community with a growing Muslim population, he struggles to rectify his hatred of Muslims, drummed into his conscience from his experiences at war. As he reaches a breaking point, he constructs a plot to bomb a local Muslim mosque, frequented by more than 200 people a day.
Seftel’s film is brilliantly constructed, individually interviewing Muslim residents of Muncie, Muslim leaders from the community, McKinney’s ex-wife and stepdaughter, and eventually Mac himself. When we think we know where the film is going, it turns, in a breathtaking, emotional, and stunning way.
Though it may wrap things up a little too clean and neat based on the striking subject matter, Stranger at the Gate is one of those films you simply want to show those around you. From where it starts to where it ends, Seftel has fixed a lens on Islamophobia, still rampant in our country, but also in the unyielding kindness and love we can find within ourselves, no matter who we are or what we have endured.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
For me, the beauty and tender nature of The Elephant Whisperers could easily bring Netflix some gold, but Stranger at the Gate is one of those documentaries that brings searing truth, powerful emotion and speaks to a common sense and decency that seems so lost in our world nowadays. Haulout is unlike anything to come along in this category in quite some time, but seems to be a longshot, as are, most likely, How Do You Measure a Year? and The Martha Mitchell Effect.
CAST & CREW
Directors:
• The Elephant Whisperers - Kartiki Gonsalves
• Haulout - Maxim Arbugaev, Evgenia Arbugaev
• How Do You Measure a Year? - Jay Rosenblatt
• The Martha Mitchell Effect - Anne Alvergue, Debra McClutchy (co-director)
• Stranger at the Gate - Joshua Seftel
Release Date: February 17, 2023
ShortsTV/Shorts International