Saluting the 'Shorts'

The hubbub concerning the Oscars tomorrow is reserved for the full-length feature films. What about a category that doesn’t get much attention? The short film category. So much talk about “The King’s Speech,” “The Social Network,” “Black Swan,” and “The Fighter” leaves no room in the spotlight for other types of films. Don’t forget the little guys, the underdogs.

The nominations for animated short film include Pixar and Disney’s “Day and Night,” where jealousy sparks a competition between the two. Magic Light Pictures is nominated for “The Gruffalo” and Australia makes the cut with their short “The Lost Thing.” A Geefwee Boedoe Production called “Let’s Pollute” parodies educational science films from the ’50s and ’60s. The animated short, “Madagascar, carnet de voyage” (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), has nothing to do with talking zoo animals lost on an island, but instead covers a record from a European traveler in Madagascan culture.

Nominations for live action short films consists of a young boy worrying he has no sins to confess for his first confession, so he recruits his friend’s help in committing one, in a short film fittingly titled: “The Confession.” Ireland shows an 8 year-old boy who has a crush on his engaged teacher in “The Crush.” Luke Matheny’s short, “God of Love,” is nominated, and Ivan Goldschmidt is nominated for Rwandan genocide short film, “Na Wewe.”

NPR has been one of the few giving the short film category some spotlight. In fact, NPR guest host Audie Cornish spoke with short film expert Roberta Marie Munroe, author of “How Not To Make A Short Film: Secrets From A Sundance Programmer.”

In the interview transcript Munroe explains what makes a short film great: “Wow. I think to make a short film great, you have to have a great script. So, that's the platform, that's your foundation, and a fresh story in that script. And I always tell filmmakers that it's always better to spend more time on your script than on all of the fancy cameras and equipment that you could get to make this film to look beautiful. If there's no story, there's no short.”