2017 Oscar Nominated Short Films - Live Action

The 2017 OSCAR® nominated short films, live action: Midenki (Sing), Silent Nights, Timecode, Ennemis Interieurs (Enemies Within), La Femme et le TGV (The Woman and the TGV).

Smoker of the Future

This anti-smoking public information film has the kind of stylistic sheen often associated with 1980s British advertising, with its sci-fi setting, filtered smoke and gloomy aesthetics clearly inspired by the works of Ridley Scott (although it’s directed by his contemporary, Barry Myers). It imagines a genetically advanced future humanoid who’s evolved to be a ‘natural born smoker’ – complete with enlarged nostrils and tapping finger - before reminding us that no such creature yet exists. While we expect smoking adverts to be disturbing, the titular character is disquieting in a refreshingly unusual sense.

Faint Traces

In Paris, Lola, a carefree artist, and Emma, a guarded runaway share a life of art, stolen thrills, and quiet intimacy. When Emma leads Lola into what seems like just another heist, the night unravels into a confrontation with Emma's past. What was meant to be a game forces them to test the unspoken bond that holds them together.

Nobody, Not Even the Mist

A woman finds old video tapes with memories of a trip taken by her late mother, Silvia. Moved by what she sees, she embarks on the same journey to the same place, falling asleep on the way.

Rest Stop

John Dykstra – a writer who takes on the pseudonym of Rick Hardin – desperately pulls over to a seedy rest area in the middle of the desert. Little does he know... Dykstra has parked at the rest stop from hell.

The Decision

A film about the divorce decision and its impact on the children.

Smart Card

Contradictions

A transvestite is bedridden in a colorful room. A customer arrives, then a game of hide-and-seek, of pretense and confusion of feelings begins.

Linger

After months of ignoring her father's phone calls, a stubborn young addict is finally forced to make her way home.

Oblio

Heavenly Vessel

The uneasy stasis of a space-dwelling Monarchy is shaken by the arrival of a hypnotic, luminous dwarf planet. Caught between the authoritarian Duke and the impulsive Prince, all will come to light.

Silencio Nuclear

After a nuclear catastrophe, a man who did not know how to continue living in silence went out to look for sounds, voices and whispers in the remains of a scorched nature.

The Great Metaphor

What does a bankrupt poet with no desire to live have to say about life?

A Boy and His Dog

Set in the year 2024 in post-apocalyptic America, 18-year old Vic and his telepathic dog, Blood, are scavengers in the desolate wilderness ravaged by World War IV, where survivors must battle for food and shelter in the desert-like wasteland. Vic and Blood eke out a meager existence, foraging for food and fighting gangs of cutthroats.

The World, the Flesh and the Devil

Ralph Burton is a miner who is trapped for several days as a result of a cave-in. When he finally manages to dig himself out, he realizes that all of mankind seems to have been destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. He travels to New York City only to find it deserted. Making a life for himself there, he is flabbergasted to eventually find Sarah Crandall, who also managed to survive. Together, they form a close friendship until the arrival of Benson Thacker who has managed to pilot his small boat into the city's harbor. At this point, tensions rise between the three, particularly between Thacker, who is white, and Burton, who is black.

Marbles

In a world where lives are measured by a jar of marbles and our days are literally numbered, Lisa is coming to terms with and preparing for her final days with her family. As she reminisces the time she’s had with her family, her daughter has yet to realize her mom will be gone soon until it’s almost too late.

Street Samurai

Think 'The Raid', but with cyborgs. This short film sees the title character fighting her way through an army of henchmen in order to stop a black market organ/cybernetics trafficker.

Rest Stop

John Dykstra, a mystery novelist better known as Rick Hardin, stops at rest stop on his way home. When he hears a woman being abused in the bathroom, he's forced to decide who he really is and what he's willing to do.

Tussen Sana en Zee

Short film.

Little Lillith

A high ranking senior officer is debriefed on a top secret program.

The Giver

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

Light of My Life

Parent and child journey through the outskirts of society a decade after a pandemic has wiped out half the world's population. As a father struggles to protect his child, their bond—and the character of humanity—is tested.

The Matrix Resurrections

Plagued by strange memories, Neo's life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself back inside the Matrix.

These Final Hours

With the end of the world only hours away, self-absorbed James heads to the ultimate party-to-end-all-parties. On his way there, he saves the life of a young girl named Rose who is searching desperately for her missing father. This simple act sets James on a path to redemption.

Timescape

Before they can complete renovations on their new country inn, a widowed father and his young daughter are visited by a strange group of tourists. He soon makes a chilling discovery: they are disaster junkies from the future who visit the past to witness history's greatest catastrophes—and his small town is their next stop.

2073

Inspired by Chris Marker's iconic 1962 featurette La Jetée; the year is 2073—a not-so-distant dystopian future—and the setting is New San Francisco, the scorched-earth tech-dominant police state where democracy and personal freedom have been well and truly obliterated.

Chaos Walking

Two unlikely companions embark on a perilous adventure through the badlands of an unexplored planet as they try to escape a dangerous and disorienting reality, where all inner thoughts are seen and heard by everyone.

Stowaway

A three-person crew on a mission to Mars faces an impossible choice when an unplanned passenger jeopardizes the lives of everyone on board.

2012

Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.

Next

Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson has a secret which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling "winnings." But when a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles, government agent Callie Ferris must use all her wiles to capture Cris and convince him to help her stop the cataclysm.

Fortress

In the future, the inmates of a private underground prison are computer-controlled with cameras, dream readers, and devices that can cause pain or death. John and his illegally pregnant wife Karen are locked inside "The Fortress" but are determined to escape before the birth of their baby.

The Zero Theorem

A computer hacker's goal to discover the reason for human existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the Management; this time, they send a teenager and lusty love interest to distract him.

O'Dessa

A farm girl is on an epic quest to recover a cherished family heirloom. Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love – but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test.

The Time Machine

Hoping to alter the events of the past, a 19th-century inventor instead travels 800,000 years into the future, where he finds mankind divided into two warring races.

Code 8 Part II

In a world where superpowered people are heavily policed by robots, an ex-con teams up with a drug lord he despises to protect a teen from a corrupt cop.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

The sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission lands on the planet of the apes, and uncovers a horrible secret beneath the surface.

Oblivion

Jack Harper is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

Titan A.E.

A young man finds out that he holds the key to restoring hope and ensuring survival for the human race, while an alien species called the Drej are bent on mankind's destruction.

Automata

Jacq Vaucan, an insurance agent of ROC robotics corporation, routinely investigates the case of manipulating a robot. What he discovers will have profound consequences for the future of humanity.

The Mandela Effect

A man becomes obsessed with facts and events that have been collectively misremembered by thousands of people. Believing the phenomena to be the symptom of something larger, his obsession eventually leads him to question reality itself.