2022 Oscar Nominated Short Films | Live-Action

Every year five short films from across the globe are nominated for an Academy Award and in the process receive a tremendous amount of positive exposure. For new filmmakers, an Oscar nomination can fast-track future projects or help highlight the underlying messages, political themes or social views within the short film itself.

The Academy Awards has historically received a lot of criticism for the lack of diversity in their award selections. The short film categories have always been an exception with a selection of films drawn from a worldwide pool. The 2022 program features films from Canada, Chile, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and The United States of America.

Interfilm Berlin has put together two programs that will be released in cinemas across Germany. Five Animated short films will be included in one 90 minute program and five live-action short films will be presented in a separate two-hour program.

SHORT FILM INFO:

The 2022 Nominated Short Films

Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
SWITZERLAND/38 MIN/2020
Director
MARIA BRENDLE
Synopsis
Sezim, 19 years old, wants to fulfill her dream of studying in the Kyrgyz capital when she gets kidnapped by a group of young men and taken to the hinterland. There, she’s forced to marry a stranger. If she refuses the marriage, she is threatened with social stigmatization and exclusion. Torn between her desire for freedom and the constraints of Kyrgyz culture, Sezim desperately seeks a way out.

On My Mind
DENMARK/18 MIN/2021
Director
MARTIN STRANGE-HANSEN
Synopsis
Henrik wants to sing a song for his wife. It has to be today, it has to be now. It’s a question of life, death and karaoke.

Please Hold
USA/19 MIN/2020
Director
KD DAVILA
Synopsis
In the not-so-distant future, Mateo (20s, Latino) is arrested by a police drone without explanation. Finding himself locked in a fully automated jail with no means of recourse, Mateo realizes he’s fallen through some kind of crack in the system. To get out alive he’ll have to go head-to-head with the labyrinthine, computerized bureaucracy of the privatized American justice system, in search of an actual human being who can set things right.

The Dress
POLAND/30 MIN/2020
Director
TADEUSZ LYSIAK
Synopsis
Lust, sexuality and physicality. These are the deepest desires virgin Julia suppresses while working at a wayside motel. That is until she crosses paths with a handsome truck driver, who soon becomes the object of her fantasies…

The Long Goodbye
UK/12 MIN/2020
Director
ANEIL KARIA
Synopsis
Riz and his family are in the middle of preparing a wedding celebration when the events unfolding in the outside world arrive suddenly on their doorstep. The result is a devastating and visceral feat of filmmaking, and a poignant poetic cry from the heart.