Oscars 101: Best Documentary - Short Subject

In which I run down on the nominees (and likely winners) of the Academy Awards.

Now we get to the really obscure stuff.  At least Best Animated Short and Best Live Action Short nominees got screenings at AMC.  Who here has seriously seen even one of these nominees?  They're not showing anywhere and are seemingly unavailable everywhere.  This is the closest I'll come to straight-up blindly guessing this year, since I only have the films' meager reputations and summaries to go off of.  But this year's nominees are:

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth

It's always been my opinion that the documentary winners (both feature length and short subject) are largely selected based on the subject matter and message that they profess.  A timely, resonant film will gain much more attention than one about a more obscure, more ancient subject matter.  So keep an eye out for Academy friendly subjects rather than Academy friendly reviews.

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 - This short film addresses the lingering traumas and very real troubles facing veterans attempting to reintegrate into society.  It follows the phone operators of a 24-hour crisis hotline specializing in working with troubled veterans and documents their attempts at offering assistance to those who gave everything to their country.

The subject matter is certainly timely enough.  The wars in Iraq are largely put behind us and the media narrative has shifted to those veterans who have come home (although not always in one piece).  This could also ride the wave of support currently generated by American Sniper and, to a far lesser degree, Unbroken.  This alone makes it as likely as any of the nominees to win (and likelier than most).

Joanna - When a loving mother is diagnosed with cancer and told that she has three months to live, she refuses to go down without a fight.  She begins blogging about her daily life - a document that she hopes to leave to her five-year-old son and husband Piotr to remember her by.  She writes poignantly about life, death and the meaning of existence through simple observations of everyday life.

For voters who willfully choose to not become embroiled in Academy politics, this is the safe choice.  It's not tackling veterans affairs, big oil or any number of social injustices in the world.  Instead, it focuses on the trials of a single woman in a single family with elegance and grace.  I wouldn't call it a front runner at all, but I wouldn't count it out of the running either.

Our Curse - Describe by its director and his wife as a personal statement, it documents life with their infant son after he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called "Ondine's Curse."  The disorder cripples the boy's lungs, forcing him to sleep with a respirator and to undergo a number of increasingly risky surgeries to survive.

While this doesn't have the political "oomph" that the Academy seems to love, it does pack an emotional wallop, with a number of audience members supposedly fainting during the surgical scenes.  This seems to tap the same emotional well as Joanna, however, so it might not end up with enough votes to win the day.

The Reaper - Following the life of Efrain, a Mexican butcher, The Reaper is the most brutally intense of the nominees: essentially the Whiplash of its category.  While the subject is well enough, the gruesome editing and scenery create the illusion of a veteran going through PTSD.

Whether or not The Reaper has much of a chance of winning is up to debate, given that it's emotionally overshadowed by one segment of nominees and politically overshadowed by the other.  That being said, it's a fascinatingly told story of a man coming to grips with the lives he's taken and a compelling take on our very humanity.  As long as it can find a body of support within the Academy, it stands a very real chance of upstaging the other nominees.

White Earth - White Earth's central focus is in the frigid landscape of North Dakota, where families leave behind everything in the hopes of making it in the booming domestic oil business.  Unlike the other nominees, which focus on very adult narratives with very adult concerns, White Earth is most concerned with the children of the families, rather than their parental figures.

White Earth provides the perfect balance of timely subject matter and a sustained emotional sucker punch.  Its unique focus on the migrancy of desperate families and the ageless appeal of oil give it a leg up on most of its competition.  Pair that with being the only economically focused narrative of the bunch, and it has a real chance of finding a large body of loyal voters within the Academy.

Safe Bet:  Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1

Long Shot:  White Earth

Longer Shot: The Reaper

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