5 Stories From Around the World in Under 40 Minutes
Oscar Nominated Short Films - Live Action
The Oscar for Best Live-Action Short has been handed out since 1931, making it one of the oldest categories at the Academy Awards. It’s also one of the wildest to predict. This year’s five nominees span the globe and cover everything from a Jane Austen period piece with a very modern punchline to a dystopian French film where kissing gets you killed. You’ve got an Israeli workplace thriller, a British intergenerational friendship story starring the great Miriam Margolyes, and a Turgenev adaptation set in a dive bar that might make you cry harder than most feature films. The runtimes range from 13 minutes to 36, so clear an afternoon and watch them all.
Two People Exchanging Saliva
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.
Dirs. Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata | France/USA | 2024 | 36 min. | In French with English subtitles
So French it should come with a beret and an Agnès Varda trading card. In bold black and white, we enter a dystopian department store where items are paid for by receiving slaps to the face and the crime of kissing is punishable by death. When a clerk finds herself drawn to a sad, compulsive shopper, disaster looms. The filmmakers have said they were inspired by Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law and the global policing of queer love, and Oscar winner Barry Jenkins praised the film’s increasing relevance. I can see the talent behind the camera. The black-and-white cinematography married with sharp costume and production design creates some striking visuals. But the story just wasn’t for me. At 36 minutes, it’s the longest nominee and feels it. The world-building is interesting in concept, unpleasant in practice. I’ll be curious to see what Singh and Musteata do next, because the skill is clearly there even if this one left a bad taste in my mouth.
Butcher’s Stain
Samir, an Arab Israeli working in a supermarket in Tel Aviv, is accused of tearing down hostage posters in the break room. He sets out to prove his innocence to keep this job that he desperately needs.
Dir. Meyer Levinson-Blount | Israel | 2025 | 26 min. | In Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles
This one feels like the opening act of a longer film, and I mean that as both a compliment and a criticism. Sefi Elisha Nahmani plays Samir, a Palestinian butcher working at an Israeli supermarket who gets accused of tearing down hostage posters in the break room after October 7th. The premise is strong and the lead performance is excellent. There’s a small mystery at the center that plays out almost like an Agatha Christie setup, and when the reveal comes, it lands. But the execution sometimes drifts into “sizzle reel” territory. Scenes feel like they belong to a feature about Samir’s larger life rather than this specific story. Levinson-Blount, who also appears in a supporting role, clearly has something to say about what happens to ordinary people caught in the crosshairs of collective trauma. I’d be curious to see if he has a bigger canvas planned for this character, because the potential is there.
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
England, 1813. In the middle of a long-awaited marriage proposal, Miss Estrogenia Talbot gets her period. Her suitor, Mr. Dickley, mistakes the blood for an injury, and it soon becomes clear that his expensive education has missed a spot.
Dirs. Julia Aks and Steve Pinder | USA | 2024 | 13 min. | In English
Yes, the title is a pun. Yes, it’s exactly what you think. And yes, it works brilliantly. Julia Aks co-wrote, co-directed, and stars as Miss Estrogenia Talbot, a Regency-era heroine whose long-awaited marriage proposal from the very aptly named Mr. Dickley is derailed by the arrival of her period. What follows is a hilarious farce that spoofs Austen’s Pride and Prejudice while sneaking in something smarter about how society has struggled to talk about menstruation for centuries. The character names alone (Dr. Bangley, Labinia) are juvenile in the best way, but there’s a sophistication to the jokes that keeps this floating above cheap laughs. I saw this nearly a year before Oscar night and knew right away it was something special. At 13 minutes, it’s the perfect length. Any longer and the joke would wear thin. Any shorter and you’d miss the sweetness hiding underneath the comedy. Educational groups have screened it. That tells you everything.
A Friend of Dorothy
A lonely widow's quiet life is upended when a teenage boy accidentally kicks his football into her garden.
Dir. Lee Knight | UK | 2025 | 21 min. | In English
Can we please make this into a feature film? Miriam Margolyes plays Dorothy, an 87-year-old widow whose body is failing but whose mind could still run circles around most of us. When teenager JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu) accidentally boots a football into her garden, what starts as an awkward encounter becomes something genuinely lovely. Director Lee Knight based the story on his own friendship with an elderly neighbor, and that personal touch shows. This isn’t some generic “young person gets sage advice from elder” setup, even if it walks that line. Margolyes is especially terrific in a role that seems tailor-made for her but never feels phoned in. Nwachukwu matches her beat for beat. It’s the sweet, sentimental, harmless film you walk away from wanting to hold someone’s hand. The kind of short that makes you wonder why more films like this exist in the 20-minute space when they’d clearly thrive as something bigger. Give Margolyes the feature. She deserves the nomination that would come with it.
The Singers
An impromptu sing-off will decide the best singer in the bar tonight.
Dir. Sam A. Davis | USA | 2025 | 18 min. | In English
The moment I casually put this one on from my screening pile at Tribeca, I knew. Adapted from a 19th-century Ivan Turgenev short story but transplanted to a contemporary American dive bar, The Singers follows a group of downtrodden men whose idle night turns into an impromptu singing contest. Director Sam A. Davis cast mostly non-actors, including viral singing sensations he found on Instagram, and the result is a film that feels entirely authentic. The bar itself is draped in painterly shadows inspired by Renaissance masters, and you can practically smell the stale cigarettes. Then the singing starts, and every cynical bone in your body dissolves. It keeps building to an emotional climax that’s hard to believe given how little time you’ve spent with these people. This is the definition of a self-contained short. Compact, captivating, massively moving. It’s the best of the bunch and the most deserving. All my fingers and toes are crossed that it takes home the prize tonight.
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