The young protagonist in the French, 2-D animation “Yuck!” also struggles to bare his desires. While on a family camping trip, he falls in with a group of kids who think kissing is gross. They jeer whenever they stumble upon an affectionate couple, whose lips light up in glittery, glowing pink. Directed by Loïc Espuche, this deceptively simple coming-of-age film is about adolescent groupthink, shame, and physical affection — though the flat, intentionally primitive animation style also makes it the least visually impressive among the nominees.
By contrast, “Magic Candies,” by the director Daisuke Nishio (of “Dragon Ball Z” fame), is perhaps the most aesthetically spectacular. This fantastical computer-animated short places intricate, clay-like characters against fluttering, realistic backdrops. It’s a feast for the eyes, even if the story — about a lonely boy who eats mysterious candies that empower him to communicate with others (including pets and inanimate objects) — isn’t all that compelling or original.
“Wander to Wonder” is, for my money, the wild-card pick — though best not to show the kids. Directed by Nina Gantz, this nightmare fairy tale mixes stop-motion animation, puppetry and bits of live action to tell the story of three miniature people, the stars of an ’80s kids series that vaguely resembles “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Though the creator of the series has died, these aging, troll-like humans — whom we see, unsettlingly, in the nude or in decrepit costumes — live on, seemingly trapped on the set of their show. Sunny flashbacks to their glory days create an eerie contrast that questions the value of nostalgia.
Finally, the worst-behaved man appears in “In the Shadow of the Cypress,” by the Iranian directors Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani. With elegantly minimalistic 2-D animation in sandy, warm tones, the short follows a former sea captain who lives alone with his daughter. A symbolic fable about the noxious ripple effects of war and trauma, the movie features unexpected bursts of jazzlike abstraction and a surprisingly moving payoff — making it perhaps the most balanced contender in a field of films with distinct virtues. — BEATRICE LOAYZA
Documentary
If the academy is looking to reward the documentary short that makes the most audacious use of form, the winner should be “Incident,” from the experimental nonfiction filmmaker Bill Morrison (“Dawson City: Frozen Time”). Working from footage captured by surveillance and body cameras, Morrison reconstructs the scene of the fatal shooting of a barber, Harith Augustus, by a Chicago police officer in 2018.
This half-hour short lasts roughly the time of the events it covers, and although Morrison doesn’t present each step in strict chronological order, he uses split screen to show simultaneity: After the shooting, while Augustus’s body lies eerily still in the street and protesters gather, some of the officers involved frenziedly race elsewhere and speak about the shooting as if they had no choice. Who are you going to believe: them, or the images you just saw? “Incident” is an outside-the-box use of public material that demonstrates cinema’s capacity to be a forensic tool.
