Join Fresno Filmworks for our annual Oscar Shorts showcase on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Fresno City College in the Old Administration Building. This two-day event brings all of the year’s Academy Award–nominated short films to Fresno, giving you the rare chance to see every nominee on the big screen before the Oscars.
The festival includes all three Oscar Shorts categories, each presented as its own program where each program screens all the nominated films in that category, played straight through like a feature-length show.
Click this link to buy day passes or single program tickets.
Early Bird Pricing! All-Access Pass – $35: See all five programs across both days.
Whether you’re a longtime film fan or attending for the first time, Oscar Shorts is your chance to discover emerging filmmakers, enjoy powerful storytelling from around the world, and celebrate cinema right here in Fresno.
Films are listed below by program and in alphabetical order. The programs are recommended for persons 17 and older due to adult language, themes, and sensual images.
Animated Short Films
Start times: 5:30 PM Friday, March 6, and 4:30 PM Saturday, March 7
BUTTERFLY
Director: Florence Miailhe | France | 15min
Synopsis: In the sea, a man swims. As he does, memories come to the surface. From his early childhood to his life
as a man, all his memories are linked to water. Some are happy, some glorious, some traumatic. This
story will be that of his last swim. It will take us from the source to the river – from the waters of childhood
pools to those of swimming pools – from a North African country to the shores of the Mediterranean – from
Olympic stadiums to water retention basins – from concentration camps to the dream beaches of Reunion.
ÉIRU **Shortlisted
Director: Giovanna Ferrari | Ireland | 13min
Synopsis: When the water mysteriously disappears from the well in a warrior clan’s village, an intrepid child descends into the belly of the earth to retrieve it. Éiru is the story of a child in search of a challenge, and a goddess in search of a champion.
FOREVERGREEN
Directors: Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears | United States | 13min
Synopsis: A joyful adventure featuring an orphaned bear cub and a fatherly tree turns serious when the cub is tempted by the allure of easy food. Fire and deadly danger ensue as the cub is left bereft of hope and on the verge of a ruinous end, until the sacrificial love of the tree falls into place.
THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS
Directors: Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski | Canada | 17min
Synopsis: In Montreal, at the dawn of the 20th century, a poor boy falls in love with a girl whose sorrow turns into pearls. He sells them to a ruthless pawnbroker, who hungers for more. Tempted by greed, the boy must choose between love and fortune. The choice could damn his soul. From the Oscar-nominated team of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli-Putli), this meticulously crafted film is a testament to
the magic of stop-motion animation. With handmade puppets, mesmerizing narration by Colm Feore and a haunting score by Patrick Watson, The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a timeless parable of desire, deception and the price of innocence.
RETIREMENT PLAN
Director: John Kelly | Ireland | 7min
Synopsis: Ray (Domhnall Gleeson) lays out a beautiful life for himself in his retirement plan. He will pursue his curiosities, challenge his limiting beliefs, embrace fear, beauty, even the complexities of wine culture. Ray will check off every box on every list for every interest he ever even half-thought about. He will discover what he loves (Italian red wine), what he hates (camping). He will grow and learn and change rapidly. It’s
beautiful and it’s messy and achingly relatable. But Ray is forgetting something. The one thing he treats as flippantly disposable will be the single most rapidly depleting resource of his future self. His healthy-ish, agile enough 40-something-year-old body. Also, actual retirement time is not endless, but guaranteed to be finite.
THE THREE SISTERS
Director: Konstantin Bronzit | Israel, Cyprus | 14min
Synopsis: Three sisters live a lonely life on an isolated island, each in their own small house. One day, circumstances develop in such a way that they are forced to rent out one of the houses.
Live Action Short Films
Start times: 7:30 PM Friday, March 6, and 7:30 PM Saturday, March 7
BUTCHER’S STAIN
Director: Meyer Levinson-Blount | Israel | 26min
Synopsis: Samir, a Palestinian butcher working at an Israeli supermarket, is accused of tearing down the Israeli hostage posters in the break room. Samir sets out to prove his innocence in order to keep the job he desperately needs.
A FRIEND OF DOROTHY
Director: Lee Knight | United Kingdom | 21min
Synopsis: Dorothy (BAFTA winner Miriam Margolyes) is a lonely widow whose body is failing, but her mind remains as bright as ever. When 17-year-old JJ (Alistair Nwachukwu) accidentally kicks his football into her garden, he upends Dorothy’s daily routine of pills, prunes and crosswords, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. Despite being worlds apart in every way, the two come to find they have more in common than they could ever imagine.
JANE AUSTEN’S PERIOD DRAMA
Directors: Julia Aks and Steve Pinder | United States | 12min
Synopsis: England, 1813. Miss Estrogenia “Essy” Talbot gets her period during a long-awaited marriage proposal. Mr. Dickley mistakes the blood for an injury and rushes off to fetch a doctor. While he’s gone, Essy’s sisters plead with her not to imperil her engagement by telling Mr. Dickley the truth. But when he returns, Essy barrels ahead, sharing every little bloody detail.
THE SINGERS
Director: Sam A. Davis | United States | 18min
Synopsis: The Singers is a short film adaptation of a 19th-century short story written by Ivan Turgenev, in which a lowly pub full of downtrodden patrons connect unexpectedly through an impromptu sing-off. With a cast comprised of viral video singing talents and other one-of-a-kind personalities from the unlikeliest corners of the internet, the film is an experimental docu-musical hybrid crafted like an improvisational play.
TWO PEOPLE EXCHANGING SALIVA
Directors: Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata | France, United States | 36min
Synopsis: In a society where kissing is punishable by death, and people pay for things by receiving slaps to the face, Angine, an unhappy woman, shops compulsively in a department store. There, she becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl. Despite the prohibition of kissing, the two become close, raising the suspicions of a jealous colleague.
Documentary Short Films
Start time: 1 PM Saturday, March 7
ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS
Director: Joshua Seftel | United States | 33min
Synopsis: All the Empty Rooms follows veteran CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. Hartman steps away from his heartwarming human-interest stories and unbeknownst to his network’s bosses, pursues a piece on absence, memory, and the unseen ripples of America’s gun violence epidemic. As these senseless incidents claim more young lives than any other cause in America, these quiet bedrooms reveal truths more powerful than statistics ever could.
ARMED ONLY WITH A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD
Director: Craig Renaud and Brent Renaud | United States | 38min
Synopsis: On March 13, 2022, filmmaker Brent Renaud was killed by Russian soldiers – the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine. His younger brother and collaborator, Craig Renaud, recovered Brent’s body and his final recordings from Ukraine and brought them back to their childhood home in Arkansas. As Brent’s journey to his final resting place unfolds, the film chronicles the years he and his brother spent covering some of the world’s most dangerous conflicts. As journalism becomes one of the most dangerous professions in the world, Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud is dedicated to Brent and all the devoted journalists who use their cameras to work for truth and understanding.
CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE”
Director: Hilla Medalia | Israel | 36min
Synopsis: Children No More: “Were and are Gone” is an observational documentary short about a vigil that began in March 2025, when a handful of women stood silently in a public square in Tel Aviv, each holding a photograph of a child killed in Gaza. On every image: the child’s
name, age, date of death, and the words “WAS AND IS NO MORE.” Their stillness is heavy, pressing against the rhythm of ordinary life. Some passersby look away; others respond with denial, sorrow, or rage. Yet week after week, new names are added, new photographs are printed and lifted high. And each week, more people step forward to join this quiet act of protest.
THE DEVIL IS BUSY
Directors: Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir | United States | 31min
Synopsis: The Devil is Busy takes viewers on a daylong journey with Tracii, the determined head of security at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, Georgia as she works to ensure the safety of women seeking abortions in the face of new restrictions and persistent protests. The film is a clear-eyed portrayal of the shifting landscape for patients and abortion providers in America today, and depicts the complex, day-to-day realities facing those working to provide safe reproductive healthcare to women. The film captures a unique snapshot of reproductive healthcare in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a shift that has led to abortion bans and significant restrictions in many states.
PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS
Director: Alison McAlpine | Canada | 15min
Synopsis: In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.