Oscar-Nominated Short Films Grab $1M In Box Office In First Weekend

In what’s become an awards-season tradition, the compilations of Oscar-nominated short films in live-action, animation and documentary categories are back in theaters ahead of the big night March 2, and already have grabbed $1.04 million in box office on 350 screens, said Carter Pilcher, CEO of the series’ distributor, Shorts.TV.

That works out to a substantial $3,278 per screen, pretty good for three compilations of films shorter than 40 minutes, with nothing in common but their shared short formats and Motion Picture Academy acclaim. This year’s was one of the best per-screen debut weeks the series has had in what is now 20 years of annual releases.

“We’ve had a few good days,” Pilcher told me in an interview.

This year’s release was delayed a week (along with rest of the awards season schedule) because of the devastating Southern California wildfires in January, Pilcher said.

That delay makes it unlikely this year’s group will top the pre-pandemic cumulative grosses of the shorts series in 2019 and 2020, which topped $3.6 million to $3.7 million, Pilcher said. All told, the three compilations are expected to appear for at least a week in around 700 theaters, and be available through at least a week after the Oscar ceremony.

Despite the late start, this year’s shorts are a good bet to finish their run around last year’s $3.1 million total, said Pilcher, a long-time member of what is now called the academy’s short films branch.

There’s plenty for fans of shorter cinema to dive into in the three compilations, Pilcher said. Each has a run time of more than 80 minutes.

The five live-action shorts are particularly strong this year, Pilcher said, even when compared to the 10 best picture nominees, none of which has managed to gather the support to be considered a clear favorite to win.

“The five live-actions taken together are almost better than any single best picture nominee,” Pilcher said. “I’ve never said that before.”

The live-action shorts are: A Lien, from Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz; Anuja, from Adam J. Graves and Suchitra Mattai; I’m Not a Robot, from Victoria Warmerdam and Trent; The Last Ranger, from Cindy Lee and Darwin Shaw; and The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, from Nebojša Slijepčević and Danijel Pek,

“It’s (four) movies that will keep you on the edge of the seat and one that’s hilarious,” said Pilcher. “They’re really good movies.”

Pilcher said a childhood friend told him after watching the live-action shorts that they were, “Powerful movies. She was moved to tears by two, stirred to discomfort by two others. Beautiful, all of them are moving.”

The animated shorts feature “a lot of international ones,” Pilcher said. The group is “more of a precis of animation styles and work from different countries. and different takes.”

The animation nominees Beautiful Men, from Nicolas Keppens and Brecht Van Elslande’; In the Shadow of the Cypress, from Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi; Magic Candies, from Daisuke Nishio and Takashi Washio; Wander to Wonder, by Nina Gantz and Stienette Bosklopper; and Yuck! from Loïc Espuche and Juliette Marquet.

Magic Candies, from Korea, is “about a boy who eats different candies and each one gives him the ability to hear the sofa talking, or what his dog is saying,” Pilcher said.

Pilcher’s own favorite of the year is an Iranian project, Shadow of the Cypress, “an amazing story about a beached whale and how they help him survive,” Pilcher said.

Wander to Wonder sticks out among the animated nominees for the polarized responses it earns, Pilcher said. Last weekend, it won the BAFTA in London for best animated short. And then there are those who don’t like it all.

“It’s an animation of an old, supposedly animated story, very cleverly done,” Pilcher said. “What’s happening is that the animated creatures are real and they’re not animated, but they’re actually animated. It’s very, very meta. It’s hilarious but kind of a spoof on the making of 1970s shows and how that happened.”

My college buddy, still an editor for his suburban Kansas City, Mo., hometown newspaper and an ardent annual attendee of the shorts screenings, affirmed Wander to Wonder’s divisive responses.

“Some in the audience laughed a lot,” he texted me. “I just thought it was a bit much. Let’s say this: They committed and did not compromise.” My friend’s wife, a librarian for decades,“disliked it.”

The documentary shorts are: Death by Numbers, from Kim A. Snyder and Janique L. Robillard; I Am Ready, Warden, from Smriti Mundhra and Maya Gnyp; Incident, from Bill Morrison and Jamie Kalven; Instruments of a Beating Heart, from Ema Ryan Yamazaki and Eric Nyari; and The Only Girl in the Orchestra, from Molly O’Brien and Lisa Remington.

Three of the doc shorts tell dauntingly serious stories about a convict on death row, a survivor of a school shooting, and a murder in Chicago told through police body-cam footage. The other two shorts are far more upbeat, Pilcher said.

“They’re very, very gripping, amazing stories,” Pilcher said.

To find theaters near you that are carrying the three short-film series, go to Shorts.tv/theoscarshorts and enter your zip code. Shorts.TV operates cable and other channels, including in India and several European countries, built around its library of more than 12,000 short films. In the United States, Shorts.TV is available on DirecTV.