Note: controversial subject matter included

For the 14th consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on February 8. This is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country and the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place Sunday, Feb. 24^th.

Madre
Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Maria del Puy Alvarado, Spain, 19 minutes
A single mother receives a call from her seven-year-old son who is on vacation with his father in the French Basque Country. At first the call is a cause for joy, but soon it becomes a nightmare when the child tells her that he is alone, cannot find his father, and a stranger is approaching.

Fauve
Jeremy Comte and Maria Gracia Turgeon, Canada, 17 minutes
Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer. Alone in the wild, the two boys play around. Complicity evolves into a confrontation where one wants power over the other. This game will not prove as harmless as they thought.

Marguerite
Marianne Farley and Marie-Helene Panisset, Canada, 19 minutes
An aging woman and her nurse develop a friendship that inspires her to unearth unacknowledged longing, and helps her make peace with her past.

Detainment
Vincent Lambe and Darren Mahon, Ireland, 30 minutes
Two ten year-old boys are detained by police under suspicion of abducting and murdering a toddler. A true story based on interview transcripts from the James Bulger case which shocked the world in 1993 and continues to incite public outrage across the UK today.

Skin
Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman, USA, 20 minutes
A small supermarket in a blue collar town, a black man smiles at a 10 year old white boy across the checkout aisle. This innocuous moment sends two gangs into a ruthless war that ends with a shocking backlash.