Ranking the Oscar Nominated Shorts: 2012 - 2021

Welcome to a very special edition of the Best Animated Short blog. We are still a few weeks away from the Academy Award ceremony, where the Best Animated Short category has been relegated to second class status. Yet it is also the 90th year where the Academy has a category for Best Animated Short. Which means it's time for me to pull out an old favorite from when I was going back in time reviewing the nominated shorts: I'm going to rank the Oscar nominated films from the past 10 years by how much I enjoyed them.

If you've been reading my reviews over the past ten years you'll know that at the end of each review I rank the shorts by quality and by preference. However, both of these metrics are incredibly subjective, and quite frequently how much I enjoy a film goes a long way by how good I think it is. There are certainly times where I can recognize the artistry into a film I didn't really like, but they almost never claim the top spot in rankings by quality. Anyways, when I have to go back over the 50 short films that were nominated in the past ten years, I think it's easier to solely rank them by preference. That is what I did with my eight previous entries, and that is what I'm going to do here.

This edition is going to be different in certain ways from the eight previous rankings that predated this one. For those I had almost all of the films available to me in some fashion, and I was able to make those rankings every ten reviews, which usually took a few weeks. For these 50 films I had to wait for the Academy to announce their new sets of nominees, and to do that for ten years. That means a lot more time for my tastes to change and evolve than with my previous reviews, especially since there are several of these films that I haven't seen since I wrote the review in their respective years. I have watched all of the films again to make these rankings, so yes, there will be some discrepancies between my rankings in the individual reviews and this one. 

And also, just because a film is ranked low doesn't necessary mean I hated it. There are just that many more of the nominees I liked more than it. I think it is a testament to how well the Academy had been doing in formulating these nominees. It's just a shame that they would relegate this category to secondary status. Anyways, as in previous entries, I will be writing small blurbs about each film that will get longer and longer until they become mini-reviews. I hope you're getting all settled because here we go.

RIP Kobe Bryant (1978-2020)

This morning, a lazy, crazy bokura Sunday was interrupted with a tragic news report from the sensationalist internet tabloid TMZ that NBA super-duper-ooperstar and Academy Award winner Kobe Bryant had died in a fiery helicopter crash in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas. The sports world held their breath, hoping that the report was unsubstantiated and that Kobe wasn't actually on board the aircraft. Alas, more reputable news services came out that yes, Kobe Bryant was on the plane, and even more tragically he was accompanied by his 13-year-old daughter Gianna as well as another youth basketball player and their parent. All of them plus the pilot perished in the crash.

It was a devastating report for the tight-knit sports world, especially since the talented and charismatic Kobe had established himself as one of the few players that transcended the sport to make a distinct imprint on the public consciousness at large. I'm sure all Oscar buffs remember his road to the Academy Award in this very category back in 2017 for his short film Dear Basketball, one that made him the only Olympic medalist and NBA superstar to also win an Academy Award. He leaves behind an impressive albeit somewhat controversial legacy.

DEAR BASKETBALL wins Best Animated Short!

Well, tonight was the big night, the 90th Academy Awards. As you can probably tell, I didn't have a Live Blog, because I was watching it at a friend's house and didn't have my computer with me, but it was just as well. I found it somewhat hard to get excited about this one. I've seen maybe only half of the Best Picture nominees, and only one of the Best Animated Feature nominees. But I still care about the Best Animated Short category, so I was pretty excited when Mark Hamill, Kelly Marie Tran, and Oscar Isaac came out to announce that it went to:

Dear Basketball

Best Animated Short - 2017

Well, it's time for my annual review of the Best Animated Short nominees, pretty much the only post I care to write every year. This year I'm writing it much later than I'd like. I've been following the Best Animated Short category since starting to watch all of the nominated films shortly after the 2006 Oscars (or the Oscar ceremony dedicated to honoring the films from 2006, which is my preferred way of classifying ceremonies.) It was before the 2009 Oscars that I found out about the Shortlist, and since then I've been trying to watch as many as I can before the nominations are out. On only two occasions I've seen all five on the day of the nomination. For all the rest I've had to rely on the screenings around the country of the Oscar nominated short films, which have become quite popular. Alas, most of the times there are usually only one or two films that I'm missing, and I have to go to the showing, which I've gone to anyways even on the two occasions where I have seen all the nominees by the day of the nomination. Anyways, this year I saw three of the nominees before the nominations were announced, and was able to find another one online after that. Sadly, I had no luck with the last film, and had to go to the showing, which seemed to happen later this year than in previous years. Nevertheless, I was going to Houston for a card show on February 11 and was able to find a theater showing the films on February 10, so I was able to get the films seen. So here's my review on each of the five films.

Best Animated Short 2017 - The Nominees

Well, today's the big day: the Oscar Nominations! Five new films are going to join the illustrious list that includes legendary films such as The Jaywalker, Small Talk, and A Greek Tragedy. Well, since the announcement happened three hours earlier, I'm sure you know what they are, but here it is again:

Dear Basketball

Garden Party

Lou

Negative Space

Revolting Rhymes