\n<\/p>\n
The young protagonist in the French, 2-D animation \u201cYuck!\u201d also struggles to bare his desires. While on a family camping trip, he falls in with a group of kids who think kissing is gross. They jeer whenever they stumble upon an affectionate couple, whose lips light up in glittery, glowing pink. Directed by Lo\u00efc Espuche, this deceptively simple coming-of-age film is about adolescent groupthink, shame, and physical affection \u2014 though the flat, intentionally primitive animation style also makes it the least visually impressive among the nominees.<\/p>\n
By contrast, \u201cMagic Candies,\u201d by the director Daisuke Nishio (of \u201cDragon Ball Z\u201d fame), is perhaps the most aesthetically spectacular. This fantastical computer-animated short places intricate, clay-like characters against fluttering, realistic backdrops. It\u2019s a feast for the eyes, even if the story \u2014 about a lonely boy who eats mysterious candies that empower him to communicate with others (including pets and inanimate objects) \u2014 isn\u2019t all that compelling or original.<\/p>\n
\u201cWander to Wonder\u201d is, for my money, the wild-card pick \u2014 though best not to show the kids. Directed by Nina Gantz, this nightmare fairy tale mixes stop-motion animation, puppetry and bits of live action to tell the story of three miniature people, the stars of an \u201980s kids series that vaguely resembles \u201cMister Rogers\u2019 Neighborhood.\u201d Though the creator of the series has died, these aging, troll-like humans \u2014 whom we see, unsettlingly, in the nude or in decrepit costumes \u2014 live on, seemingly trapped on the set of their show. Sunny flashbacks to their glory days create an eerie contrast that questions the value of nostalgia.<\/p>\n
Finally, the worst-behaved man appears in \u201cIn the Shadow of the Cypress,\u201d by the Iranian directors Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani. With elegantly minimalistic 2-D animation in sandy, warm tones, the short follows a former sea captain who lives alone with his daughter. A symbolic fable about the noxious ripple effects of war and trauma, the movie features unexpected bursts of jazzlike abstraction and a surprisingly moving payoff \u2014 making it perhaps the most balanced contender in a field of films with distinct virtues. \u2014 BEATRICE LOAYZA<\/p>\n
If the academy is looking to reward the documentary short that makes the most audacious use of form, the winner should be \u201cIncident,\u201d<\/a> from the experimental nonfiction filmmaker Bill Morrison (\u201cDawson City: Frozen Time\u201d<\/a>). Working from footage captured by surveillance and body cameras, Morrison reconstructs the scene of the fatal shooting of a barber, Harith Augustus, by a Chicago police officer in 2018<\/a>.<\/p>\n This half-hour short lasts roughly the time of the events it covers, and although Morrison doesn\u2019t present each step in strict chronological order, he uses split screen to show simultaneity: After the shooting, while Augustus\u2019s body lies eerily still in the street and protesters gather, some of the officers involved frenziedly race elsewhere and speak about the shooting as if they had no choice. Who are you going to believe: them, or the images you just saw? \u201cIncident\u201d is an outside-the-box use of public material that demonstrates cinema\u2019s capacity to be a forensic tool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n