From ‘Death by Numbers’ to ‘Yuck!’: Ranking the 2025 Oscars Short Nominees Before the Big Night

The Oscars Short Films nominations sieve the most deserving of the collection to be categorized and awarded in threes : The Best Live-Action Short Film, Best Animated Short Film and the best Documentary. While the most creatively intricate and technically sound pieces make the cut, a piece making it to the nominations proves enough of their pioneering potential to have been considered for the standard of prestige. 

With expectations evolving each year, the stakes have somewhat decreased. While simply making it to the semi-awards stage was once a major achievement, being designated a category on The Academy charts now serves as an assurance, off the charts, funnily enough. As avid followers ourselves, here are some expectations for this year’s 15 nominees in the Oscars Short Films category (not to un-assure you!)

Best Animated Short Film Nominees

Though the Oscars boast a sprawling array of categories, parading some of Hollywood’s most celebrated figures each year, the animated category remains one of the most intriguing. Devoid of the uproar that the Best Picture nominees have managed to stir this season, here, instead, is a list of the Best Animated Short Film contenders, no scandals, just storytelling, in short.

Beautiful Men by Nicolas Keppens

With its visually jarring and interesting depictions of the human physicality with its highly imaginative character designs, helping break the disillusionment that toxic masculinity may have caused to the spectators line of sight, Beautiful Men offers us a peek into the how a touch of insecurity that resides within every person, regardless of biological manifestations, offering a fresh perspective on societal standards. Making it an easy favorite in a cinephile, and animation junkie’s drawer. 

In the Shadow of the Cypress by Hosseini Molayemi & Shirin Sohani

Set on the Iranian landscape, amidst a household, the story revolves around a post-traumatic-stress-stricken former captain. With frames so clean and stark it is haunting, the story progresses as the man and his daughter move about the film. A storyline with deep layers and cultural nuances that add a touch of mystery, and is bound to have the audience emotionally hooked from the get go. 

Magic Candles by Daisuke Nishio

A fresh new take in animation and a win for the enthusiasts of Japanese culture and traditions. Magic Candles thrives as a ghost of the past, based on human nostalgic and melancholic tendencies, the narrative centers on childhood wonder. Which might no doubt come off as too simplistic, but engaging nonetheless. With a little a little more refinement in its technical approach, the short is as good as a winner of the heart.

Wander to Wonder by Nina Gantz

Green tinged, gritty and dreamy in its appearance, captivating the spectators immediately, the mildly fantastical approach of narrative eventually gravitates towards themes of exploration and  imagination in an beautifully ambiguous manner. The short film uses mixed visuals of part live and part animated which gives an interesting visual texture to its depiction. 

Yuck! by Loïc Espuche

Highly simple visuals and bright colors to easily capture a child’s eye and heart, the films appearance is a filmed version of an easy-for-a-child to understand picture book. Its theme being the airy concerns of being a child, the short film is clear to become a hidden gem with its appeal towards the younger generations to come.

Best Documentary Short Film Nominees

The Best Documentary Short Film category remains a quiet yet compelling corner of the awards, where storytelling takes precedence over spectacle. Unburdened by the grand dramatics that Best Picture nominees tend to ignite, here is a list of this year’s Best Documentary Short Film contenders, proof that truth, in its briefest form, can be just as powerful as fiction

Death by Numbers by Kim A. Snyder

With dense and stark visuals, done to make apparent the seriousness of the subject and emphasize its graveness. Aided by weighty story-telling albeit through statistics, but also mixed with personal narratives, Death by Numbers goes on to tell the existential questions of hatred and justice that Samantha Fuentes deals with after being shot with an AR-15 in her high school. 

I Am Ready, Warden by Smriti Mundhra

Documenting John Henry Remirez, the Texas death row inmate, days before his execution and premiered to the world at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in February 2024, I Am Ready, Warden uses close cut shots to emphasize a sense of intimacy with the subject at hand, even creating empathy withing the spectator and the subject. Opting a linear manner of narrative, the film isolates and compels the spectator to focus on the story for the entirety of its thirty-seven minutes. 

Incident by Bill Morrison

Using archival footage as its foundations to create its tone of voice, Incident offers a unique and innovative outlook to historic events. Managing to captivate the audience with its haunting atmosphere. The plot follows the death of a man killed by the police on the street. Delivered through montages of images from surveillance and and security footage as well as police body cams, giving a second-hand and spine-chilling immersion into reality to the spectators. 

Instruments of a Beating Heart by Ema Ryan Yamazaki

Following little lives, posed with challenges of their own sizes, a class of Japanese first graders live through their days having to pass their final semester on the basis of performing “Ode to Joy” at their graduation ceremony. The documentary is shot intimately, to make apparent the tenacities of the Japanese education system that compels its pupils to form a balance between self-sacrifice and human growth. 

The Only Girl in the Orchestra by Molly O’Brien

Recently acquired by the streaming-platform-giant Netflix, the documentary is on the life of Orin O’Brien, New York Philharmonic’s first female musician appointed in 1996 by Leonard Bernstein. With warmer than summer visuals and a raw stylistic rendering of the footage, it gives an intimate peek into an underrepresented voice, aiming to create greater impact with the morals values upheld by The Only Girl in the Orchestra.  

Best Live Action Short Film Nominees

These Best Live Action Short Film Nominees at the Oscars 2025 distill drama, humor, and heartbreak into mere minutes, proof that a well-placed glance or a single, sharp line can outdo even the grandest of monologues. So while the industry debates its blockbusters, here are the films that prove less is, indeed, more.

A Lien by David Cutler-Kreutz & Sam Cutler-Kreutz

With Clever set design and intriguing visuals creating the most interesting atmosphere, immediately drawing the eye in. A Lien  also follows a unique take on human-alien interactions, which create food for the mind to feed on, something refreshing to learn in terms of perspective. Quirky, if one must. Teamed with strong performance and direction shining through. 

Anuja by Adam J. Graves

Focusing heavily on cultural intricacies and nuances, elements that enrich the dimensions of the story. Anuja explores the themes of belonging and identity with emotionally overwhelming visuals, with more than effective and traditional story telling techniques in filmography. 

I’m Not a Robot by Victoria Warmerdam

Modern visual styles resonating with contemporary issues, the film follows an engaging narrative with a topic highly relevant to the 21st century. It provides a strong character development contestant to the plethora of already existing ones, of the character, Lara that the story centers around. 

The Last Ranger by Cindy Lee

Evocative landscapes enhance the emotional weight of the story effectively. The story revolving around the themes of loss and legacy of those passed, uses familiar plot construction that do not make the spectator suffer from unnecessary shock at unneeded instances. With skillful cinematography and sound design, the film blends the subject with their surroundings in a seamless manner, combining their growth with that of what surrounds them. 

The Man who Could Not Remain Silent by Nebojša Slijepčević

Compelling visual effects make the protagonists struggle shine sharply, with the added layers of theatrics and drama. The story focuses on resistance and flourish that eventually ensues, of societal pressures and norms, with a simplistic manner of visual narration. Occasionally creating stark contrast with strong editing choices. 

What can you deduce from these rankings of the Oscars Short Film nominees? Let us know in the comments below!