The 2026 Oscars shortlist was revealed Tuesday, and the Live Action Shorts and Animated Short categories showcase a taste for the fantastical, the existential and the courage it takes to face great fear.
Each short uniquely showcases the endurance of the human spirit when faced with prejudice, trauma, or a supernatural element beyond themselves. Notable shorts that found a place for themselves across the 15 dedicated shortlist slots include, Lee Knight’s A Friend of Dorothy which centers the camera on an unlikely duo JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu), a queer high schooler with hidden talent for theater and Dorothy (Miriam Margolyes) an older woman seeking companionship as she’s ailing, who strike up an endearing and mutually beneficial friendship. The short film, also produced by Stephen Daldry and Sonia Friedman, has taken home multiple awards at various festivals, including the Indie Shorts Awards Cannes, HollyShorts London, HollyShorts Los Angeles, and OUTshine Film Festival.
Éiru
Cartoon Saloon
A dose of the existential variety this year hails from Spain and Ireland. James A. Castillo’s The Quinta’s Ghost is a haunting examination of the baggage we carry to the grave and whether we can lighten its load. The gothic-inspired animation offers a glimpse into the final years of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya’s life as he is tormented by demons from his past, which he tries to exorcise through dark paintings on the walls of his villa. The short film grabbed two Méliès d’Argent awards at the Sitges Film Festival and Best Art Direction at the Almería International Film Festival. In John Kelly’s Retirement Plan, the looming thought of death is served with a side of humor. The seven-minute short follows Ray (Domhnall Gleeson), a man of retirement age, as he ruminates on all the things he wants to do after he retires, such as finally being able to clean off his desktop, participating in an orgy, or catching up on a decade’s worth of books he’s been putting off reading. Kelly has received both the Grand Jury Award and the Audience Award at SXSW earlier this year, along with accolades from the Palm Springs International ShortFest, the Indy Shorts International Film Festival, and the Newport Beach Film Festival.
Bringing mysticism to the party are filmmakers Giovanna Ferrari with Éiru, a uniquely 2D animated tale that harkens back to the iron age of ancient Celtic folklore and follows a brave, young female warrior who must save her village from a drought; Maciek Szczerbowski and Chris Lavis’ The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a morality fable that poses the thought that in the search for love and social standing are even the purest of heart safe from corruption? And in Ali Cook’s fisherman’s tale, The Pearl Comb, set in the late 1800s, a humble medicine woman brings lifesaving treatments to the people of her small Cornish village; however, when her divine powers spark suspicion, the mysterious source of her powers is at risk of being revealed.
Other standouts on the list today were shorts grounded in various degrees of reality between the natural rhythms of the human body, the innate desires of passion and the effects of untreated horrors within a mental health crisis.
Praised by the likes of Dame Emma Thompson, is Julia Aks and Steve Pinder’s laugh-out-loud comedy Jane Austen’s Period Drama. Set in the Regency era, the Jane Austen-inspired comedy follows Ms. Estrogenia (Aks) as she gets her period in the middle of a long-awaited marriage proposal. Upon seeing the blood that accidentally seeps through her dress, her suitor, Mr. Dickley (Ta’imua), mistakes the bodily function as a grave wound, leading to a series of comical mishaps and meaningful conversations about destigmatizing menstruation. Thompson, who is no stranger to an Austen adaptation and also serves as the film’s Executive Menstrual Advisor, called the short a “bravely, revolutionarily funny thing to do” in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. It has also won awards across several festivals, including the HollyShorts Comedy Film Festival, the Aspen Shortsfest and the Indy Shorts International Film Festival.
The Pearl Comb
Dunninger Films
The throngs of dystopia pull the strings in Two People Exchanging Saliva. Written and directed by Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata, this black-and-white short is set in a reality where people pay for items with bodily harm and kissing is a death sentence. Two women (Zar Amir and Luàna Bajrami) must figure out how to cultivate their interest in each other while sneaking under the radar of an oppressive regime. The short won Best Drama Short from Out on Film in Atlanta, along with both the Canal+ and audience awards at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.
Sam Henderson’s Ado draws attention to the escalating gun violence in the country. It’s a staggering mental health portrait told through the eyes of an overworked and underpaid teacher (Jennifer Lewis) who, while in the middle of a rehearsal with her young class for William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, a former disgruntled student bursts in with a gun. The emotional stirrer took home wins at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, the BronzeLens Film Festival – Atlanta, and the Cleveland International Film Festival.
These are just a few standouts from today’s well-deserved shortlist contenders. Nomination voting opens January 12 and closes January 16. The final five Live Action Shorts and Animated Shorts will then be read at the Oscars nominations telecast on Jan 22nd. The 98th Academy Awards will air on March 15.
Here is the full list of Live Action Short Film and Animated shortlist nominees:
ANIMATED SHORTS
Autokar
Butterfly
Cardboard
Éiru
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Hurikán
I Died in Irpin
The Night Boots
Playing God
The Quinta’s Ghost
Retirement Plan
The Shyness of Trees
Snow Bear
The Three Sisters
LIVE ACTION SHORTS
Ado
Amarela
Beyond Silence
The Boy with White Skin
Butcher’s Stain
Butterfly on a Wheel
Dad’s Not Home
Extremist
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
Pantyhose
The Pearl Comb
Rock, Paper, Scissors
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
