Review: Peace Center hosts a terrifically diverse lineup of Oscar-nominated short films

The Oscar-nominated short films return to the Peace Center on March 2-4. Fans will not be disappointed by this year’s richly rewarding lineup.

As in years past, the 2023 film nominees are international in scope and vary widely in subject matter and emotional tone.

Five nominated films will be presented in each of the three categories: animation, live action and documentaries. Tickets are $12 for each group of films.

Filmgoers should note: The films are rated PG-13 or R.

Here are some highlights:

Animation

‘An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It’ is an Oscar-nominated short film in the animation category.

This year’s animated films are wonderfully imaginative.

The top contender for the Oscar in animation is likely “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” (U.K.). Directors Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud enlist a top-notch voice cast (Tom Hollander, Idris Elba and Gabriel Byrne) to tell a story of four unlikely friends coming together in search of a young boy’s home.

“An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It” (Australia) is a stop-motion film about an office worker who discovers, much to his horror, that he’s living in an animated world.

“Ice Merchants” (Portugal, France, U.K.) follows a father and son who sell ice to a local village by dramatically parachuting every day from the mountain where they live. In this touching and sweet-natured film, life is easy until calamity strikes.

Live action

“Le Pupille” (Italy) is set in a strict boarding school for girls, with troublesome students trying to steal a holiday cake, presumably as sweet as this film.

“An Irish Goodbye” (Ireland), a pleasingly quirky short, follows two estranged brothers in rural Northern Ireland. They reunite to complete their late mother’s bucket list.

In the riveting “The Red Suitcase” (Luxembourg), an Iranian girl arrives in a European city to meet the older man to whom she’s been promised in an arranged marriage. But she has other plans for her life.

Documentary

“The Elephant Whisperers” (India) follows an Indian couple as they fall in love with Raghu, an orphaned elephant. For cuteness overload, the film can’t be beat. There’s a broader message too about the intelligence and natural affection of elephants.

In “How Do You Measure a Year” (USA), filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt filmed his daughter Ella on her birthday in the same spot for 17 years. He’d ask her similar questions: What do you dream about? What scares you? What do you think about our relationship? The film’s conclusion will leave you in tears.

“The Martha Mitchell Effect” (USA) is an archival portrait of the unlikeliest of heroes: Martha Mitchell, a socialite married to Richard Nixon’s Attorney General John N. Mitchell. Without the outspoken and blunt Martha Mitchell, there may not have been a Watergate. The Nixon administration tried to silence her. She resisted. Her courageous story is told in her own words.