Oscars 2026: How to Watch All the Oscar-Nominated Shorts and Which Will Win

On this week’s Little Gold Men podcast, I joined hosts Rebecca Ford and John Ross to discuss the Oscar-nominated shorts, which ask viewers to consider big topics—from conflict in the Middle East to abortion access in post-Dobbs America—each in under 40 minutes. You can listen below for the complete conversation, as well as a look at how surprising PGA and Actor Awards outcomes have shaken up the final week before Oscars. But for more on the shorts—and where to watch many of them totally for free—read on.

Best Documentary Short

All the Empty Rooms: Director Joshua Seftel follows CBS News reporter Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they document the untouched rooms of school-shooting victims and speak with their parents.

Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud: The first American journalist to be killed while reporting on the Ukraine war is not only subject of his posthumous doc, but one of its directors and editors alongside brother Craig Renaud, who memorializes his late sibling’s work while transporting Brent’s body back from the war zone.

Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”: Director-producer Hilla Medalia and producers Sheila Nevins and Yael Melamede follow activists in Tel Aviv who stage weekly silent protests with the printed-out images of children killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. (The film is not currently streaming in the US, but is still playing in theaters.)

The Devil Is Busy: Directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir (whose feature-length documentary The Perfect Neighbor is also Oscar-nominated), the film captures delicate daily life at an Atlanta abortion clinic through its quietly steely head of security, Tracii.

Perfectly a Strangeness: Three donkeys travel across the Chilean desert, where filmmaker Alison McAlpine follows them to an unnamed, abandoned, yet still operational, space telescope. Watch on Kanopy or the Criterion Channel

Which Will Win? All the Empty Rooms

In addition to its lasting imagery, the film has had a regular platform for exposure with CBS’s Hartman, who has promoted the project on his regular CBS Sunday Morning gig, as well as some of the network’s affiliates. And one shouldn’t underestimate the power of a revolving place on the Netflix home page: The streamer has won this category four times since 2014.

Best Animated Short

Butterfly: Inside the life of Alfred Nakache, a French Algerian Olympic swimmer who competed at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, survived being separated from his family at Auschwitz, and went on to compete in the Olympics once again, this time in London in 1948.

Forevergreen: Zootopia animators return to the wild for the story of an abandoned bear club who is raised by an evergreen tree until their unlikely bond is inevitably broken.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls: An old man tells his granddaughter how he received his most prized possession, a single pearl, from a mysterious woman in this twisty, stop-motion animated tale.

Retirement Plan: This one hails from The New Yorker and features the voice of Domhnall Gleeson as a man musing about what his retirement might look like, which reveals less of a bucket list for the years left to live, but a trail of regrets about the time already lost.

The Three Sisters: A trio of siblings living in adjoining cottages compete for the affections of their new tenant on an isolated island in a dialogue-free short that ends with a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers–esque twist. (The film is not currently streaming in the US, but still available in theaters.)

Which Will Win? Butterfly

This category can be notoriously tricky to predict, so I’m going with an animated short that soared highest during my recent sold-out screening at Brooklyn’s Nitehawk Cinema. Director Florence Miailhe’s use of animated oil paintings that mimic French painters like Monet and Matisse treat viewers to rich, evocative visuals. And the filmmaker’s footnote, in which we learn Miailhe was taught to swim by Nakache’s brother, lingers long after leaving the movie theater.

Best Live-Action Short

Butcher’s Stain: A Palestinian butcher’s job at an Israeli supermarket is threatened when he is falsely accused of desecrating posters of political hostages.

A Friend of Dorothy: Led by beloved British character actor Miriam Margolyes as an octogenarian who befriends a young teen with an interest in theater.

Jane Austen’s Period Drama: This Pride & Prejudice spoof stars a Regency-era woman named Estrogenia who, despite her pride and his potential prejudice, educates her gentleman caller on a woman’s menstrual cycle.

The Singers: Patrons in a blue-collar dive bar find unexpected solace with one another during an impromptu singing contest.

Two People Exchanging Saliva: In a futuristic black-and-white dystopia where kissing is outlawed and slaps are currency, a wealthy woman and the shopgirl who sells her clothing tempt the status quo.

Which Will Win? Two People Exchanging Saliva