When it comes to checking off Oscar-nominated movies on your must-watch list, it’s easy to cross off the Best Picture nominees or even nominated international movies (though check out the sidebar for how to watch some of the harder-to-find movies). The more difficult nominees to find are the Oscar-nominated shorts. Difficult, but not impossible.
If you've done an Oscar pool with friends or your office before, you know the difference between winning and losing could come down to nailing one or all of the short categories (Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, Best Live Action Short). Rather than guess blindly, many of the Oscar-nominated shorts are available online already, while for a limited time, you can watch all 15 nominated shorts in movie theaters, possibly giving you the edge in your pool.
Read on to find out which Oscar-nominated shorts you can watch online or when and where you can find the Oscar-nominated shorts in movie theaters to check them off your list before the 2024 Oscars on March 10.
How to stream the Oscar-nominated shorts
Of the 15 Oscar-nominated shorts, 13 are available to watch online, with some available for free, some featured on popular streaming services, and others you will have to pay to watch. Here are the details on all of the 2024 Oscar-nominated shorts you can watch online.
The two that are not easily available online are Letter to a Pig and WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko, but you can watch some making of videos for Letter to a Pig and WAR IS OVER to get a sense of them.
The ABCs of Book Banning
The banning of books in schools has become an all too common practice these days, but The ABCs of Book Banning showcases those impacted by these decisions, including authors (among them acclaimed poet Amanda Gorman) and the children of schools where books have been banned.
Stream The ABCs of Book Banning on Paramount Plus.
The After
Emmy-nominee David Oyelowo stars in the Oscar-nominated short The After. He plays a grieving rideshare driver who picks up a passenger who helps him confront the past. The short also features The Girl Before's Jessica Plummer and Mike Leigh regular, Ruth Sheen.
Stream The After on Netflix.
The Barber of Little Rock
Telling the story of Arlo Washington, a barber who founded a nonprofit community bank, People Trust, The Barber of Little Rock is a short doc that explores America's widening racial wealth gap.
Watch The Barber of Little Rock for free on YouTube.
Invincible
Hailing from Canada (and in French, FYI), Invincible is inspired by a true story of the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old desperately searching for freedom.
Watch Invincible for free on Vimeo.
Island in Between
Island in Between is one of the nominated short docs. It focuses on S. Leo Chiang (who also directed the movie) and his relationship with Taiwan (where he was born), the US (where he grew up) and China (where he worked) and the complicated relationship between the three countries.
Watch Island in Between for free on YouTube.
Knight of Fortune
Knight of Fortune is from Denmark and is about Karl (Leif Andrée), whose encounter with a stranger helps him open up about his grief.
Watch Knight of Fortune for free on YouTube.
The Last Repair Shop
In a nondescript Los Angeles warehouse, a team of devoted craftspeople help maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments and are dedicated to offering more than just music to LA schoolchildren in the short doc The Last Repair Shop.
Watch The Last Repair Shop for free on YouTube and is streaming on Disney Plus.
Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó
Director Sean Wang (who was behind the 2024 Sundance movie Didi) filmed a love letter to his two grandmothers, Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó, who spend their twilight years dancing, stretching and farting their sorrows away.
Stream Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó on Disney Plus or Hulu.
Ninety-Five Senses
Featuring the voice work of Tim Blake Nelson, Ninety-Five Senses is an ode to the body's five senses from a character who has only a little time left to enjoy them. This is one of only two of the Best Animated Short nominees available to watch online.
Available to watch on Documentary Plus (subscription required).
Our Uniform
Using a unique animation style that employs clothes in telling its story, Our Uniform has a young woman who grew up in Iran recount what it was like with the imposed dress code when they went to school.
Rent Our Uniform on Vimeo.
Pachyderme
The other nominated animated short available online is Pachyderme, which centers on Louise as she spends a few days of her summer holiday at her grandparents' in the countryside. But something is different this year, as snow falls and a monster will die.
Rent Pachyderme via Vimeo.
Red, White and Blue
Fear the Walking Dead writer Nazrin Choudhury penned and directed this dramatic live-action short, which stars Brittany Snow as a young mother from Arkansas forced to travel across state lines for an urgent and necessary abortion.
Rent Red, White and Blue via Vimeo.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Benedict Cumberbatch and Wes Anderson teamed up for this adaptation of a Roald Dahl story, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, about a man who trains himself to see through objects and predict the future.
Stream The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar on Netflix.
How to watch Oscar-nominated shorts in movie theaters
While you can watch 12 of the 15 Oscar-nominated shorts online, you can see the full slate of nominees in select movie theaters right now in the US and Canada.
As it has for many years, Shorts TV is putting together this special presentation of the Oscar-nominated movies. This year, it is breaking up the movies by their Oscar categories, with the Animated Shorts, Documentary Shorts and Live Action shorts all getting their own showing. The Animated Shorts showing is 80 minutes long and features two other short films that made the Oscars shortlist for the category; Documentary Shorts is two hours 21 minutes; and Live Action shorts is two hours 20 minutes.
You can find showtimes and purchase tickets directly through Shorts TV.
UK and other international audiences are also going to be able to watch the Oscar-nominated shorts, but when and in how many theaters differs by country. In the case of the UK, currently, only one theater is scheduled to show the shorts and it is after the Oscars.
All the Oscar-nominated short movies
Here are all of the Oscar-nominated short movies for 2024:
Best Animated Short
- Letter to a Pig
- Ninety-Five Senses
- Our Uniform
- Pachyderme
- WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko
Best Documentary Short
- The ABCs of Book Banning
- The Barber of Little Rock
- Island in Between
- The Last Repair Shop
- Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó
Best Live Action Short
- The After
- Invincible
- Knight of Fortune
- Red, White and Blue
- The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
