2025 Oscar Nominated Shorts – Documentary

The 2025 Oscar nominated documentary shorts all feature subjects we've seen in this category before, three involving social justice issues and two based on making music.

Laura's Review: B+

When Sam Fuentes survived the Parkland shooting, she faced an unusual situation - the shooter who left her with a bullet wound and two classmates dead on the floor beside her was still alive. Director Kim A. Snyder documents Fuentes's journals in "Death by Numbers" in which Fuentes incorporates school shooting statistics to illustrate the horrific nature of her experience and an escalating, lethal issue. The whole builds up to Sam's confrontation with her shooter in court and the surprising Florida jury verdict which spared him the death penalty. "Death by Numbers" is an affecting, personal work, but Fuentes words sometimes feel like she's trying to hard to turn them into poetry. B

Director Smriti Mundhra isn't the first to take on America's controversial use of the death penalty, but his "I Am Ready, Warden" is admirable for its even-handedness. When convenience store clerk Pablo Castro was brutally stabbed over twenty times, he left a son behind, a son who now grapples with the upcoming execution of his father's killer. John Henry Ramirez was the teenager who fled the scene until he was extradited back to Texas from Mexico five years later, a fact that convinces the victim's son he had no intention of atoning for his crime. Ramirez refuses to use his rough upbringing as an excuse for murder and has a champion in Jan Trujillo, an older woman surprised by how this man's transformation has changed her opinion of the death penalty. But Ramirez contacts the younger Castro with a heartfelt message of remorse, telling him that his father made him a better person. When the day of execution passes without a stay, there is little cause for celebration. Castro's son cries for another life lost. B+

Director Bill Morrison ("Dawson City: Frozen Time") is known for taken pre-existing footage to tell a new story, usually degraded silent film. His documentary short, "Incident," is something a bit new in that he uses security and police body-cam footage from a 2018 Chicago police shooting with a split screen effect to show us how an 'official' narrative is built around events which, when seen with our own eyes, say something quite different.  He builds his narrative from a long shot security capture of the incident, then backtracks to earlier events involving the suspect, Augustus, a local black barber called Snoop by the locals, and a group of cops standing on the street, then begins to tile images on the screen giving us a later perspective of the scene around Snoop's fallen body, the locals proclaiming him a good citizen ('He cuts hair, he don't gang bang!') just outside the crime scene tape and of the shooter and his female partner being driven away from the scene, she proclaiming that 'he pulled a gun,' and that her partner saved her life, a story she continues to build and add to, a rationalization that does not match the facts. Morrison wraps with a closer image of the incident to once again let us judge for ourselves before damning closing credits note every misdemeanor these two police officers were charged with from the unlawful stop which began everything (Snoop was suspected of carry a concealed weapon, something which is entirely legal in Illinois with a license, which the man had). "Incident" is the best and most affecting of the five nominees. A-

Almost a toss-up contender is director Molly O’Brien's "The Only Girl in the Orchestra," a loving tribute to her aunt, Orin O'Brien, who was the first woman to join the New York Philharmonic when Leonard Bernstein hired her in 1966 as a double bassist. Molly remembers visiting her aunt in New York City as a child and being thoroughly captivated by this artistic, joyful, independent woman. Molly digs into the roots of how her aunt chose her life path, something which began as the child of 1930's Hollywood stars George O'Brien ("Sunrise" and many John Ford films) and Marguerite Churchill ("The Big Trail," "Dracula's Daughter"). After witnessing her parents' divorce and their dwindling careers, Orin decisively decided to become a supporting player, shunning the spotlight. Ironically, that spotlight found her anyway. Molly shows us her aunt performing, teaching her students and sharing conversation and coffee with the filmmaker herself. The film ends with the parallel events of Orin's retirement and move into a new apartment, one door closing while another opens. A-

Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki's "Instruments of a Beating Heart" chronicles a class of Japanese first graders tasked with performing 'Ode to Joy' to welcome the new incoming class as they progress to the second grade. This is a charming entry, largely focusing on young Ayemi, who is disappointed time and time again when she loses auditions to fellow classmates (the students are not pushed too hard, shown here performing on percussive instruments like drums, the triangle and cymbals). When Ayemi loses the beat and begins to cry, she is chastised by her teacher for failing to practice and if his criticisms at first seem harsh, combined with his subsequent encouragement, his methods prove successful. Ayemi is not only eventually triumphant, but encouraging of her classmates (although it must be said their final performance sounds more dirge-like than joyful). B

Robin's Review: B

“Death By Numbers” takes us to one of the survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, Samantha Fuentes, and her courtroom confrontation with the young man, Nikolas Cruz, who cause so much pain and suffering for so many.  B-

“I Am Ready, Warden” gives us both sides of the death penalty with convicted murderer, John Henry Ramirez, days away from his execution, and Aaron Castro, the son of the man Ramirez killed. There is genuine remorse from Ramirez and a very mixed reaction by Castro.  B

“Incident” is the most gripping of the documentary shorts as it shows the police shooting of a man who “pulled a gun” on a rookie cop on probation and died because of it. Street surveillance camers, police body cams and footage from bystanders tells a horrific story of police abuse and cover up. My selection for best documentary.  A-

“The Only Girl in the Orchestra” is the story of Orin O’Brien, the woman who broke the glass ceiling as the first femme musician hired by Leonard Bernstein as double bassist for the New York Philharmonic in 1966. Orin’s niece, Molly, highlights the life of a ground-breaking woman musician in a man’s world.
B+

“Instrument of a Beating Heart” documents the first graders of a Tokyo elementary school tasked with performing Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” to welcome the new, incoming class. It is filled with the excitement and drama of six year olds vying for the prestigious assignment of bass drum or cymbals. It is an angst filled challenge.   B

ShortsTV releases the 2025 Oscar nominated short documentaries in theaters on 2/21/25.