Movie #3603 ........................"Retirement Plan" (theatre)

 Movie #3603 "Retirement Plan" (theatre)  This was the last oscar-nominated animated short 2026 film we watched.   This was too simplistic for me, but possibly very universal --- just a list of what should be in your retirement plan.  Stick figure animation.  I'd give it a 3.  Some were funny.

"RETIREMENT PLAN"       2024   7 minutes   prime video

In the throes of his overstimulated, energy poor midlife, Ray fantasies about everything he'd love to do in retirement, once he finally has the time.

Director:  John Kelly

Writers:  John Kelly, Tara Lawall

Actor's voice:  Domhnall Gleeson

P.S.  it looks like if you good Awardswatch.com you can see most of these.  Just a thought.

Movie #3602 ........................."Butterfly" (theater)

 Movie #3602 "Butterfly" (theater)  This is the 4th oscar-nominated animated short 2026, and I didn't like it much -- hard to follow.  Here's what a critic said about it on Awardswatch.com:

If this category were only about rewarding the most innovative style of animation, Butterflywould be the unquestionable winner. The dreamy film tells the true story of Alfred Nakache, a Jewish competitive swimmer who competed at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, survived being separated from his family at Auschwitz, and went on to compete in the Olympics once again, this time in London in 1948. 

To bring this extraordinary tale to the screen, director Florence Miailhe made the unique choice to use animated oil paintings. This gives the film a swirling, fantastical energy, which not only calls to mind the movements of water that were so familiar to Nakache, but it also feels like watching someone else’s memory somehow brought to visual life. The transitions between moments are particularly stunning, flowing from one image to another in stylish, unexpected ways. It’s simply a gorgeous experience, using animation to tell its story with an emphasis on the unique qualities that are only possible in this medium.  

Now that I read the above, I respect the film more --- I'd give it a 4 and maybe root for it at the academy awards ceremony.

Director:  Florence Miailhe and Ron Dyens

Movie #3601 ........................"The Girl Who Cried Pearls" (theater)

Movie #3601 "The Girl W@ho Cried Pearls" (theater)  This is the third oscar-nominated animated short 2026 we watched and it was weird and gothic like.  And the animation was of a style I have never seen before, where doll's heads are on animated bodies.....dark sets.....not for kids really to watch.  A little girl is crying and a little boy sees that and discovers her teats turn to pearls --- he takes them to a pawn shop to get money for her, but things go awry.  The ending is up in the air because it is a story within a story -- a sobbing little girl is being told this by her grandpa and she asks him a question :  Did the crying girl exist?  the grandfather didn't answer the girl --- as if she didn't get the story was a metaphor?  Is it a comment on how some people feel about fables and storytelling?  If the story is't based on reality, is there still a lesson to be learned?  Maybe I missed the boat, but that's what I got out of it.    It kept my attention and made me think  so I'd give it a   4.

"THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS"     2025    17 mins   prime video

A haunting fable about a girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds (didn't get that from the film)

Directors:  Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski

Writers:  same as above + Isabelle Mandalian

Movie #3600 .........................."Forevergreen" (theater)

 Movie #3600 "Forevergreen " (theater)  This is the second oscar-nominated animated short 2026 that we watched, and I thought it was the best.  It is just a quiet, calm nice picture about a giant tree taking care of a baby cub --- and through some fire the cub actually starts, the cub is left on his own.....until the tree does a very brave thing.  Its focus I think was on how nature gets along with each other if left alone.  Once mankind interrupts with our greed and consumerism, we bring on destruction of nature.  I'd give it a 5.

"FOREVERGREEN"    2025    13 mis   prime video

an orphaned bear cub finds a home with a fatherly evergreen tree, until his hunger for trash leads him to danger.

Directors:  Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears

Writers :  same as above

Movie #3599 ........................."The Three Sisters" (theater)

 Movie #3599 "The Three Sisters" (theater)  the first oscar-nominated animated short we saw was "The Three Sisters" --- very basic animation, usually a style used by Nordic countries, but this time it was Israeli/Cypress/Russia -- straight lines in black for houses, and that's what we see in the opening shot -- 3 houses, actually, like a casita on a big snow bank on top of water, where 3 sisters live - each to her own house -- when they move around, they are small to tall from left to right.  They move around and the food boat comes and this particular day, they lose their pocketbook into the water and the gulls take their big fish they just bought.  bad Luck!  But then a big burly man rows his boat up to shore and you see the sisters competing for his attention.  It is a cute movie, bull of humor ,  but I thought a bit shallow in theme . I'd give it a 4.

"THE THREE SISTERS"    2024      14 minutes  amazon prime

no synopsis

Director:  Konstantin Bronzit under pseudonym Timur Kognov.  

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Movie #3598 ........................"Children No More.....Were and Are Gone" (theater)

 Movie #3598 "Children No More....Were and Are Gone" (theater)  This was the last oscar-nominated short doc 2026 that we saw, and it was very powerful...... the first few minutes had a woman who was in charge of this campaign talking about not getting info on where these kids were killed, and how old they were and their names..... and I wouldn't have started the film that way at all.  Once we got into reminding us that we were in Israel and  these people were holding these signs up about Palestinian kids being killed then we saw the real story --- how some of the israeli people were supportive because yes, thee are kids and they shouldn't be killed vs,  what about our hostages?  we should be protesting that!  the rest of the film shows silent protestors holding these signs up while others yell at them and tell them they should worry about the hostages..... it tugs at your heart.  It's just that in a film sense,  it had a tough start and then was static after a while, and a bit longer than it needed to be, and could be clearer over all, but it is powerful  I'd give it 4.5.  

"CHILDREN NO MORE...WERE AND ARE GONE"    (theater)2025  36 min   amazon prime

In Tel Aviv, activists gather weekly to demonstrate their opposition to the war in Gaza with a silent vigil for the children killed in Israeli attacks.

Director:  Hilla Medalia

Movie #3597 ........................"All the Empty Rooms" (theater)

 Movie #3597 "All the Empty Rooms" (theater)  I had seen this oscar-nominated short doc 2026 on CBS Sunday Morning, and seeing it on the big screen made it even more powerful.  This film came about when Steve Hartman had to cover all the school shootings and at the end of the week, he was supposed to put a positive turn on the event --- and he found it more and more difficult to do, and he felt he and the viewing public  was becoming numb to all the school shootings .  So he set out to film the rooms these parents were leaving untouched in homage to their kids.  In this short film, he covers 4 of them, but never forgets to let us know of the many others that still exist.  The film shows the expert photographer he gets to do this ---- how in respect he takes his shoes off before he enters, he and Steve listen to the stories about the kids, and he goes around and takes pictures of the little valuables in each of the rooms -- when done, they give a photo book  to the family.  One moment I remember out of the film was the little notes this one girl wrote to herself in the future.  Crushing image.  What a way to prove these kids were loved and they were real and now they are gone.  So sad and so well done --- I am thinking this is the winner of this batch.  I'd give this one a 5 and a high recommendation - you need to see it if you haven't already.  

"ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS"    34 mins     PG13     34 mins   I think this is on netflix

Follows correspondent Steve Hartman and ph0tographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.

Director;  Joshua Seftel