Need help predicting the Shorts tonight?

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I am burdened with glorious purpose
When doing Oscar predictions, there is always those nasty little short films that give us all trouble. If you predict those correctly, it can pump up your score since they are often guesses while in the other categories, you at least have something to go on.

Kris Tapley over at In Contention takes a look at these in detail. I used his website to make my own predictions. He's been around posting on Oscar prediction forums, etc. for many years. He's not an expert or anything, but he does take the time to watch all of these and he's been correct from time to time.

Documentary short: http://incontention.com/?p=23237

I ended up predicting The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant. I feel pretty confident here. Very timely about what is happening here in America.

Animated Short: http://incontention.com/?p=22096

I went with Logorama, but others seem to be going with Wallace & Gromit. W&G has won before, so I decided not to go with that. I'm betting the Academy wants to honor someone else.

Live Action Short: http://incontention.com/?p=22413

Kris went with The Door so I did, too. What the heck.

Hope this a help to someone!




Couldn't agree more; these are the categories that make or break an Oscar picks ballot, particularly this year with so many of the major categories looking like slam dunks.

I ended up choosing China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province for Best Documentary Short, though I think it's the closest of the three categories you mentioned. I went with A Matter of Loaf and Death for Animated Short, but again, tough call there. You make a good point about Wallace & Gromit fatigue, but they just put out great stuff so consistently.

I, like you, chose The Door for Live Action Short.

Anyway, these three categories should be fun to watch, if only because they'll probably separate a lot of the picks we've all made and give us an idea of who might come out on top before the major awards are announced.



I am burdened with glorious purpose
Yea, it's a close call between the GM film and the China film; I only chose the GM film because of the current economic climate here.

I really hope Wallace & Gromit doesn't win; that colored my pic. I want to see a bit of spreading out the wealth.

We'll see how we do! I'll be sure to keep on eye on whether you were right or I was!

(or neither, lol.)



I see your point about the economy, though I think if it were going to be a big consideration among voters they'd be responding more to Up in the Air, which captured the sentiment as well as I can imagine any film doing so. Of course, UITA could win after all, in which case my logic is all thrown off, though the speculative consensus seems to think of it as a long shot.

Very nice to have this resource, though. One of these years I'm gonna track down all these suckers before the ceremony and make a genuinely informed decision. It can be pretty tricky, though.