I am going to say something rather radical. Over the last several years, I've gone to the showings of both the animated and live-action short films that were Oscar nominated. For the first time ever, I went to a showing and didn't particularly like any of the films--as was the case with the live-action ones for 2010. I didn't think any of them were bad but i also didn't think any were Oscar-worthy--and most of them were amazingly unpleasant--like the Academy deliberately tried to pick the most unpleasant films they could this year. Perhaps 2008-9 was a poor year for live-action films or perhaps this just shows a bias of the people picking them. However, I can't see the public in general enjoying most of the films or wanting to see them.
Of the five nominees for 2010, this is my favorite film and the one that seems to be the favorite for the award. It has something the other shorts don't have in its favor--it is a message film that is about a serious international problem--slavery. While technically, some might argue this isn't slavery, per se, in the film, practically speaking that is exactly what it is and the film is heartbreaking.
Kavi is the young boy who, along with his parents, lives a hellish life. The three of them work from sunrise to sundown at a slave labor camp in India where they make bricks. In contrast to this backbreaking work, Kavi sees other kids his age nearby going to school and playing. It's obvious he longs for a normal life. However, the folks who run this place are cruel and brutal. Eventually, government officials come to the place and it looks as if the scum that run the place will be able to hide the slaves and get away with their actions. See the film to see what will happen next.
There is a lot to admire about this message film. First, although it's an unpleasant film, there is a reason for the unpleasantness--slavery is evil and cannot be sanitized. Second, the film was made by a students as his masters thesis--which is amazing. Such a high quality film from an amateur is amazing. The only negative is that the camera work was, occasionally, rather jerky--which is relatively common these days but which is very hard on the eyes when you see this on a big screen. Still, this is my only misgiving and I look forward to seeing the Oscar results on March 7th.
UPDATE--3/7/10. Well, I got another one wrong. "The New Tenants" won the award. Oh well, at least I picked the best animated short correctly this time!