On Feb. 19-20, Albuquerque’s Guild Cinema showed the five short films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 97th Academy Awards.
A diverse array of films are nominated in 2025. Out of the five nominees, only one film is primarily in English.
The Croatian film “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” is a dramatized account of the Štrpci massacre — the abduction from a train and subsequent murder of 18 Bosniak Muslims and one Croat by members of the Serbian military at the height of the Bosnian War. The film focuses on Tomo Buzov, a retired Yugoslav military captain and the one Croat victim of the massacre, who spoke up in defense of the train’s Bosniak passengers.
Directed by Nebojša Slijepčević, “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” has strong cinematography and is well-acted, but interestingly, the film chooses to frame the story through the eyes of another one of the train’s passengers, who simply witnesses the abductions. Due to this, the audience knows next to nothing about who the titular man is, and it’s not revealed until the credits that he was a real person.
There’s no resolution to the film. Buzov is taken off of the train and the film ends. The abrupt ending could work as a stark reminder of the suddenness of violence, but to American audiences — the vast majority of whom know little about this event — the film is woefully unprepared to tell this story.
“Anuja,” directed by Adam J. Graves and co-produced by Mindy Kaling, is an Indian/American co-production centering around the lives of two sisters who work as seamstresses in a factory. The titular girl, Anuja, is 9, but the factory owner forces her to pretend to be 14 so she can work legally.
Anuja is visited by a former teacher, who informs her of an upcoming test that will allow her to return to school if she passes. Anuja and her older sister, Palak, have to sell bags that the latter secretly made with scraps from the factory to afford the exam’s entrance fee.
The film ends with a montage of scenes between the two sisters while Anuja stands outside the exam room, deciding whether she wants to make this major leap in an uncertain direction. While it’s implied that she takes the exam, it’s not shown. For the second time in a row, a film fails to provide an actual resolution to the plot.
“Anuja” is one of the strongest of the five films, but its unsatisfying ending majorly derails what could be an excellent short film.
On the other hand, the Dutch film “I’m Not a Robot” is absolutely abysmal. Directed by Victoria Warmerdam, the film is a science-fiction satire about a woman who fails a CAPTCHA test and finds out from her boyfriend that she is, in fact, a robot.
“I’m Not a Robot” attempts to comment on the genuine horrors of modern technology, but both its humor and its observations fall flat. The dialogue is corny and unrealistic and its social commentary is one-note and surface level.
On the surface, “A Lien” — the sole English-language nominee — is timely and important. The film tells the story of a Salvadoran American man who tries to obtain his Green Card. At his appointment, he is arrested in front of his American wife and their daughter.
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Directed by brothers David Cutler-Kreutz and Sam Cutler-Kreutz, the film feels exploitative and unnecessarily brutal, especially considering it was directed by two white filmmakers. The man is arrested and the film ends; again, there’s no resolution or catharsis. There’s a clear misunderstanding of the immigrant experience on the part of the directors that would be solved if the film came from a Hispanic/Latinx filmmaker.
“The Last Ranger” is a South African film about a young girl living near a wildlife preserve who witnesses poachers carve off a rhino’s horn and murder one of the park rangers. The girl grows up to become a park ranger herself.
Directed by Cindy Lee and based on a true story, the film features the real video footage of Thandi the rhino when she was found after she was poached in 2012. It’s incredibly graphic footage that is necessary in terms of highlighting the evils of poaching, but its inclusion in the film doesn’t feel needed.
Like the film preceding it, “The Last Ranger” revels in the brutality of its subject matter, then offers up a cloyingly hopeful ending that isn’t earned.
The five films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film are a mediocre group, in which “Anuja” emerges as the clear frontrunner in terms of quality.
Elijah Ritch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
