For our fifth Rundown article, we review another short film category. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Live Action Short Film as well as general commentary about the race. Wednesday, we’ll cover a category that changes appearances every year.

Best Sound

Winner Predictions

• An Irish Goodbye (PP O)
• Ivalu
• Night Ride
• Le Pupille (WL O) (TB O) (TL O)
• The Red Suitcase

Runner-Up Predictions

• Night Ride (PP O)
• The Red Suitcase (WL R) [New] (TB R) [New] (TL R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: Personal favorites don’t always turn into winners. While The Red Suitcase is my favorite, it might be too oblique to win. An Irish Goodbye is more straight forward, which could help with Oscar voters. Yet, it’s Le Pupille that seems more likely to win. It’s unique and creative, but doesn’t have much of a plot. This will be one of the closest of the short film competitions.
Peter J. Patrick: All of the nominees are so strong that any one of them can win. I’m going with my favorite, the sly, sardonic comedy, An Irish Goodbye, with the equally sly and sardonic albeit highly suspenseful Night Ride as runner-up.
Tripp Burton: The power of Alfonso Cuaron and Disney Plus, plus a lot of cute kids, seems to make Le Pupille the obvious choice, but the tension of The Red Suitcase might give it a run for its money with voters who watch all the films.
Thomas La Tourrette: The Live Action Shorts were a mixed bag this year, watchable but for the most part not that deep. The longest film often wins here which make Le Pupille the likely winner. Being shown on Disney+, though dubbed into English, and coproduced by Alfonso Cuaron, it has the biggest pedigree and was probably the most seen. The Christmas-set story in an orphanage boasts the largest cast, most set pieces and even singing. It is cute and fun but a little confusing and misguided. It boasts strong competition from The Irish Goodbye about two brothers figuring out what to do with the family farm after their mother dies. Once again it is cute but somewhat predictable. Night Ride will get some support for its characters, one being a short person and one being trans, but in some ways it does not do enough with them. Ivalu boasts some beautiful imagery, but the tale of a missing girl does not grab one as much as it should. The Red Suitcase about a young Irani girl in the Luxembourg airport is a taut thriller. It would be my choice to win, even if the ending is a bit enigmatic. Still, I expect the Academy to go for one of the two feel good films, with Le Pupille probably coming out on top.

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