The Oscar season is just around the corner! So, we’re excited to announce that we’ll be screening some of the short films from both the Animated Shorts category and the Live Action Shorts category that have been nominated for cinema’s most prestigious award.

It’s a great honor to offer our community the chance to see these amazing and creative films before the official Academy Awards broadcast taking place on Sunday, March 15th, 2026!

Some films in this program contain adult language, adult themes and sensual images. Recommended for persons 17 and up.

Featured Live Action Shorts

Butcher’s Stain – written and directed by Meyer Levinson-Blount / Israel. 26 min

Samir, a Palestinian butcher working at an Israeli supermarket, is accused of tearing down the Israeli hostage posters in the break room. Samir sets out to prove his innocence in order to keep his job he desperately needs.

A Friend of Dorothy – written and directed by Lee Knight / 21 min

Dorothy (BAFTA winner Miriam Margolyes) is a lonely widow whose body is failing, but her mind remains as bright as ever. When 17-year-old JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu) accidentally kicks his football into her garden, he upends Dorothy’s daily routine of pills, prunes and crosswords, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. Despite being worlds apart in every way, the two come to find they have more in common than they could ever imagine.

Jane Austen’s Period Drama – written and directed by Steve Pinder and Julia Aks / USA. 12 min

Jane Austen’s Period Drama is a 2024 English-language short comedy written and directed by Julia Aks and Steve Pinder. The film is a satire on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

England, 1813. Miss Estrogenia “Essy” Talbot gets her period during a long-awaited marriage proposal. Mr. Dickley mistakes the blood for an injury and rushes off to fetch a doctor. While he’s gone, Essy’s sisters plead with her not to imperil her engagement by telling Mr. Dickley the truth. But when he returns, Essy barrels ahead, sharing every little bloody detail.

The Singers – directed, edited, and shot by Sam A. Davis / USA. 18 min

The Singers is a short film adaptation of a 19th-century short story written by Ivan Turgenev, in which a lowly pub full of downtrodden patrons connect unexpectedly through an impromptu sing-off. With a cast comprised of viral video singing talents and other one-of-a-kind personalities from the unlikeliest corners of the internet, the film is an experimental docu-musical hybrid crafted like an improvisational play.

Two People Exchanging Saliva – directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandre Singh / France, USA. 36 min

Two People Exchanging Saliva explores a dystopian world where kissing is punishable by death.

In a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face, Angine, an unhappy woman, shops compulsively in a department store. There, she becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl. Despite the prohibition of kissing, the two become close, raising the suspicions of a jealous colleague.

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119 MIN

This new neo-noir historical political thriller from Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (co-director of the 2019 Cannes Jury Prize-winning film Bacurau) takes us back to the tumultuous socio-political hurly-burly of Brazil in the 1970’s!

Ex-professor Armando (played by award-winning Brazilian actor Wagner Moura of Narcos) arrives in Recife as a refugee from the political upheaval spreading throughout Brazil as a result of the strongarm policies of the country’s military dictatorship. He becomes enmeshed in the underground inner-workings of a resistance movement and finds himself the target of hitmen assigned to kill him. Will he be able to escape the turmoil of his homeland and find a place where he can be free..?

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161 MIN

Forty-one years after the release of the groundbreaking mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, the now estranged bandmates David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer) are forced to reunite for one final concert. Spinal Tap II: The End Continues also marks the resurrection of documentarian Marty Di Bergi (Rob Reiner), who once again tries to capture his favorite metal gods as they contemplate mortality — and the hope that their 12th drummer doesn’t join them in The Great Beyond. Joined by music royalty Paul McCartney and Elton John, Spinal Tap wrestles with their checkered past to put on a concert that they hope will solidify their place in the pantheon of rock ‘n’ roll.

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83 MIN

Amanda Seyfried stars in the latest film from Mona Fastvold (co-writer of The Brutalist, and director of The World to Come) that blends historical narrative and elements of a musical to tell the true story of Ann Lee – founder of the 18th century religious sect the Shakers.

Born in Manchester, England in 1736, Ann Lee grows up with a fixation on piety and sin. When she has a chance encounter with a Quaker couple, she is informed that the Second Coming of Jesus will be in the form of a woman. From that moment onward, Ann’s desire to live a pious life intensifies – especially in the face of the sinning she perceives around her. She not only begins gathering followers to her own, highly-animated brand of worship, but she also comes to believe that she may actually be the messiah herself. Eventually, Ann and her cohort relocate to New England in order to escape persecution; however, as her dedication and deepening faith gets ever more serious, she discovers that the community she has striven to establish is not immune to external attacks and that not everyone shares in her unorthodox beliefs.

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137 MIN

In his feature film debut, YouTuber Mark Fishbach, a.k.a. “Markiplier”, offers up a cinematic adaptation of the sensational online submarine game Iron Lung!

A mysterious event known as “The Quiet Rapture” has beset the Universe, resulting in the disappearance of all known stars, constellations, and habitable planets. Having discovered a distant moon allegedly surfaced with an ocean of blood, humanity, in an act of desperation, employs a convict (Fishbach) to travel there and explore the depths in the hopes of finding out the Rapture’s cause. Trading one prison for another, The Convict is sealed inside a rickety submarine vessel — The Iron Lung — that he’ll pilot through the remnants of humanity’s cosmic existence…with little hope of returning to life as he knew it.

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127 MIN

Based on one of the most unforgettable stories by Stephen King (who wrote it under the pseudonym “Richard Bachman) comes an adaptation of The Long Walk from Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence!

In an alternate reality (although one not far removed from our own), a dystopic America is ruled over by an authoritarian regime which holds an annual contest for young men whereby they are required to walk at a constant speed of 3 mph. If they slow down or stop, they face a deadly ultimatum: Execution! The only way to win this lethal lottery is be the last one standing.

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108 MIN

Things aren’t going well for married couple Ashley and Carey. When Ashley asks for a divorce, Carey seeks some consoling advice from his happily-married friends Julie and Paul. As it turns out, the secret to Julie and Paul’s nuptial success is the fact that they have an “open marriage” and allow one another to be intimate with other people. In an effort to save his own marriage, Carey takes a dive into this new relational territory; however, he soon finds out that he may have just brought about the end of not only his own marriage, but Julie and Paul’s as well.

This fun, “un-romantic comedy” from writer/director Michael Angelo Covino stars Covino himself, Kyle Marvin, Dakota Johnson, and Adria Arjona.

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100 MIN