We are only two days away from the 83rd Academy Awards, so it’s high time to focus on the nominees of the best short films. Shorts compete in three categories: live action, animation and documentary. We have already presented the five nominees of the live action section. Check them out by clicking here!

This post is dedicated to animation and documentaries. Unfortunately these types of films usually get less attention from the broad audience and from the media as well. On the other hand there are some serious film lovers who would die to see these. Here at Daazo.com we personally believe that that these usually neglected or treated as secondary films are definitely worth watching. So here is a glimpse of them for everybody interested.

The five animation film directors nominated for the Oscar in 2011 are:
- Teddy Newton (Day&Night)
- Max Lang, Jakob Schuh (The Gruffalo)
- Geefwee Boedoe (Let’s Pollute)
- Andrew Ruhemann, Shaun Tan (The Lost Thing)
- Bastien Dubois (Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage)

Day&Night by Teddy Newton is a story about Day, a sunny fellow and Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods and their encounter. Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other’s unique qualities – and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world – the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.

The Gruffalo by Max Lang, Jakob Schuh tells the magical tale of a mouse who takes a walk through the woods in search of a nut. Encountering three predators who all wish to eat him – a fox, an owl and a snake – the plucky mouse has to use his wits to survive, creating an imaginary monster who then turns out to be only too real.

Let’s Pollute by Geefwee Boedoe using the style of of 50’s & 60’s educational films is a modern satire on how pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy growing strong, while instructing us how to be better polluters for a better blighted tomorrow.

The Lost Thing by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan is about  a boy who finds a strange creature on a beach, and decides to find a home for it in a world where everyone believes there are far more important things to pay attention to.

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage by Bastien Dubois is a visual travel journal demonstrating the importance of dance, death, and traditional customs present and vibrant in the Malagasy society.

The five documentary filmmakers nominated for the Oscar in 2011 are:
- Jed Rothstein (Killing in the name)
- Sara Nesson (Poster Girl)
- Karen Goodman, Kirk Simon (Strangers No More)
- Jennifer Redfearn (Sun Come Up)
- Ruby Yang (The Warriors of Qiugang)

Killing in the name by Jed Rothstein is talkes about the case when in 2005, a suicide bomber walked into Ashraf’s wedding, killing 27 people. Now Ashraf is on a quest to confront terrorism around the globe.

Poster Girl by Sara Nesson is about an Apple pie cheerleader turned tough-as-nails machine gunner in the Iraq War, Sgt. Robynn Murray who comes home to face a new kind of battle she never anticipated.

Strangers No More by Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon talks about an exceptional school in the heart of Tel Aviv where children from forty-eight different countries and diverse backgrounds come together to learn. Many of the students arrive at Bialik-Rogozin School fleeing poverty, political adversity and even genocide. Here, no child is a stranger.

Sun Come Up by Jennifer Redfearn tells the story of some of the world’s first environmental refugees, the Carteret Islanders. The film follows relocation leader Ursula Rakova and a group of young families as they search for new homes in war torn Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea.

The Warriors of Qiugang by the Oscar winner Ruby Yang presents villagers in a remote district of central China taking on a chemical company that is poisoning their water and air. For five years they fight to transform their environment and as they do, they find themselves transformed as well.