With all three categories offered – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – this is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts.

The Academy Awards take place Sunday, March 15th.

2026 Nominated Films

All The Empty Rooms

dir. Joshua Seftel/USA/34 mins./in English

A journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

dir. Brent Renaud, Craig Renaud/USA/39 mins./in English

On March 13, 2022, filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed by Russian soldiers, the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine. His younger brother and collaborator, Craig Renaud, recovered Brent’s body and his final recordings from Ukraine and brought them back to their childhood home in Arkansas. As Brent’s journey to his final resting place unfolds, the film chronicles the years he and his brother spent covering some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts.

Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”

dir. Hilla Medalia/Israel/30 mins./in Hebrew with English Subtitles

In Tel Aviv, activists gather weekly to “scream” their opposition to the genocidal war in Gaza with a silent vigil for the children killed by Israel. Their protest, consider a betrayal by many, is an act of defiance that calls to confront a reality we must not ignore.

The Devil is Busy

dir. Christalyn Hampton, Geeta Gandbhir/USA/32 mins./in English

At an Atlanta abortion clinic besieged by protesters, the director of operations, Tracy, takes necessary risks to safeguard staff and patients.

Perfectly a Strangeness

dir. Alison McAlpine/Canada/15 mins./No Spoken Language

In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.