Critic Reviews

• Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

  There are no handy publicity campaigns to introduce you to the five live-action shorts and five animated shorts nominated for Oscars, but I can help.

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

  Gone are the days of "selected shorts" on movie bills, but thank the gods of cinema for this annual release of Oscar nominees.

• Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

  They help dispel our often fatigued prejudices about that format as a haven for all things digital, 3-D, snarky and kid-marketed.

• A.O. Scott, New York Times

  Its spirit is so easygoing that its visual complexity and emotional nuances may take awhile to register.

• Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

  There's no unifying theme here, except that there's surely a short here for every taste.

• Tim Grierson, Village Voice

  Writer-directors Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan elevate a familiar storyline into something exceptionally moving that touches on friendship, loneliness, and the tragedy of how getting older numbs us to the wonders of the small oddities around us.

• Rob Thomas, Capital Times (Madison, WI)

  In the past, we saw a lot of nominated animated films that seemed to be trying to out-Pixar Pixar, mixing gorgeous 3D animation and frenetic physical comedy. But this year's batch is more adventurous, harder to pigeonhole.

• Brian Tallerico, HollywoodChicago.com

  It's hard to believe that these are the ten best shorts of the year but it's a case of a good program that is only disappointing if one hopes that the Oscar nominees would be great instead of just good.

• Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

  This year's selection of five animated shorts is the strongest I've seen in a while, with all five contributing something special to the bunch, and no weak links.

• Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Dearest

  "The Lost Thing" is my fave.

• Frank Swietek, One Guy's Opinion

  A varied lot, in both subject and quality. But they're an interesting bunch, well worth taking a lot at.

• Maria Garcia, Film Journal International

  Those of us who began our romance with the movies when double features were preceded by cartoons will revel in some of the outstanding animated shorts nominated this year by the Motion Picture Academy.

• Keith Cohen, Entertainment Spectrum

  This impressive showcase of cinematic treasures all have in common the amazing way that a complete story arc comes to fruition in a brief amount of time. The clear favorite to win this category is "Day & Night".

• Alison Gang, San Diego Union-Tribune

  "The Lost Thing's" unusual steampunk aesthetic brings to life a first-person narrative that really resonates in its 15 minutes.

• Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press

  Like any compilation, it's a mixed bag, but this year's films are stronger than those of the past several years.

• Kimberley Jones, Austin Chronicle

  Teddy Newton's "Day & Night" is a six-minute spot of magic.

• Sarah Boslaugh, Playback:stl

  Retro is the theme for this year's Oscar-nominated animated short films, and whether that's a reflection of where the art is headed or more simply of the taste of the Viewing and Nominating Committees...we'll never know.

• Geoff Berkshire, Metromix.com

  The good news: they're all better than any of the live action short nominees.

Read all 18 critic reviews