Animated Shorts - 5 nominees

LETTER TO A PIG: Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter

Here's an incredibly challenging film about a Holocaust survivor who comes to tell a classroom of young Israeli kids about his harrowing escape from the Nazis, and a pig who functionally saved his life by distracting soldiers searching the sty. While he is talking, some teens can't pay attention, but one girl in particular slips into a dream/nightmare imagining herself in his shoes.  It is hard to compete with anything Holocaust at the Oscars, and so this one is certainly a contender for the win.

NINETY-FIVE SENSES: Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess

95 senses manages to be both light hearted and serious following an inmate on death row who is about to be executed reviewing all the ways that the senses can make an impact on one's life.  It's a sad tale but it has a very light tone.  That's pretty masterful.

OUR UNIFORM: Yegane Moghaddam

Here a filmmaker reflects on what it was like to be raised in Iran and how the clothes the girls wear impact their identity and growth. And when she moves to the United States, her world opens just by being able to express her own style and preferences with her wardrobe.

PACHYDERME:Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius 

This film is an incredibly subtle recounting of her childhood when she visits her grandparents each summer for 10 days. She shares her routines and her peculiar experiences with her grandfather. Over time, we begin to understand that the weight on her heart is related to childhood abuse.

WAR IS OVER! INSPIRED BY THE MUSIC OF JOHN & YOKO: Dave Mullins and Brad Booker

This clever little film shows soldiers on either side of a conflict who play chess by carrier pigeon.  In this fantasy, just playing together develops a sense of humanity of the "other" and creates a friendship where they just saw enemies before. If this one wins and the acceptance speeches call for a ceasefire in Gaza, I'll lose my damn mind. Let's bring the hostages home NOW.