#Oscars2018 Documentary Shorts Shortlist

Recently AMPAS announced that the field of Documentary Short Subject contenders for the 90th edition has been narrowed to 10 films, of which five (5) will earn a nomination.

Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s 77 eligible entries and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tabulation.

Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, 2018.

The 10 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title

Alone, Garret Bradley, USA
Edith+Eddie,  Laura Checkoway, USA
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405, Frank Stiefel, USA
Heroin(e), Elaine McMillion Sheldon, USA
Kayayo – The Living Shopping Baskets, Mari Bakke Riise, Norway
Knife Skills, Thomas Lennon, USA
116 Cameras, Davina Pardo,  USA and UK
Ram Dass, Going Home, Derek Peck, USA
Hopptornet (Ten Meter Tower), Axel Danielson and Maximilien van Aertryck, Sweden
Traffic Stop, Gina Kamentsky and Julie Zammarchi, USA

The 90th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.

Alone by Garret Bradley
What would it mean to marry someone behind bars?



Edith+Eddie by Laura Checkoway
Edith and Eddie, ages 96 and 95, are America's oldest interracial newlyweds. Their love story is disrupted by a family feud that threatens to tear the couple apart.



Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 by Frank Stiefel
Mindy Alper is a tortured and brilliant 56 year old artist who is represented by one of Los Angeles' top galleries. Acute anxiety, mental disorder and devastating depression have caused her to be committed to mental institutions undergo electro shock therapy and survive a 10 year period without the ability to speak. Her hyper self awareness has allowed her to produce a lifelong body of work that expresses her emotional state with powerful psychological precision. Through interviews, reenactments, the building of an eight and a half foot papier-mache' bust of her beloved psychiatrist, and examining drawings made from the time she was a child, we learn how she has emerged from darkness and isolation to a life that includes love, trust and support.



Heroin(e) by Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Three women fight to break the cycle one life at a time.



Kayayo, the Living Shopping Baskets by Mari Bakke Riise
In the capital of Ghana, 10,000 girls from the ages of 6 work as real life shopping baskets - called Kayayo, carrying heavy loads on their head (from 130 to 220 pounds), earning very little and some end up in prostitution to make ends meet. This documentary is about Bamunu, an 8-year old girl who hasn’t seen her family since she was sent away from home two years ago to work as a Kayayo to support her family. We follow her incessant longing to get away from the harsh markets, her journey back home and what awaits there.



Knife Skills by Thomas Lennon
What does it take to build a world-class French restaurant? What if the staff is almost entirely men and women just out of prison? What if most have never cooked or served before, and have barely two months to learn their trade? We follow the hectic launch of Edwins restaurant in Cleveland. In this improbable setting, with its mouth-watering dishes and its arcane French vocabulary, we discover the challenges of men and women finding their way after their release. We come to know three trainees intimately, as well as the restaurant's founder, who is himself haunted by his time in jail. These men and women all have something to prove, and all struggle to launch new lives, an endeavor as pressured and perilous as the ambitious restaurant launch of which they are a part.



116 Cameras by Davina Pardo
Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss preserves her story interactively so that she will be able to tell it forever.



Ram Dass, Going Home by Derek Peck
A profound and poetic encounter with cultural and spiritual icon Ram Dass, at his home on Maui toward the end of his life.



Hopptornet (Ten Meter Tower) by Axel Danielson and Maximilien van Aertryck
On a 10-meter high diving tower, fear of taking the jump is pitted against the personal loss that would arise if you didn't dare. What do we look like when we hesitate and when we make a decision? What does it look like when we overcome our fear?



Traffic Stop by Gina Kamentsky and Julie Zammarchi
Alex Landau, an African American man, was raised by his adoptive white parents to believe that skin color didn't matter. But when Alex was pulled over by Denver police officers one night in 2009, he lost his belief in a color-blind world — and nearly lost his life. Alex tells his mother, Patsy Hathaway, what happened that night and how it affects him to this day.