2026 Oscar Nominated Shorts – Documentary at Real Art Ways

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2026 Oscar Nominated Shorts – Documentary
 
For the 21st consecutive year, ShortsTV presents the Oscar-Nominated Short Films! This year, we will be showing the full program at Cinestudio in Hartford.

With all three categories – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – this is your chance to predict the winners and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! An annual hit with audiences around the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 15, 7-10 pm. Mark your calendar to watch and see who wins! 

2026 DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM

Shorts and details will be announced soon!

2026 Oscar Nominated Shorts – Animated
 
For the 21st consecutive year, ShortsTV presents the Oscar-Nominated Short Films! This year, we will be showing the full program at Cinestudio in Hartford.

With all three categories – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – this is your chance to predict the winners and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! An annual hit with audiences around the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 15, 7-10 pm. Mark your calendar to watch and see who wins! 

2026 ANIMATED PROGRAM

Shorts and details will be announced soon!

2026 Oscar Nominated Shorts – Live Action
 
For the 21st consecutive year, ShortsTV presents the Oscar-Nominated Short Films! This year, we will be showing the full program at Cinestudio in Hartford.

With all three categories – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – this is your chance to predict the winners and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! An annual hit with audiences around the world, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 15, 7-10 pm. Mark your calendar to watch and see who wins! 

2026 LIVE ACTION PROGRAM

Shorts and details will be announced soon!

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (Screening & Audience Discussion)

 

Please join us for a special screening on Friday, January 2nd, at 7 pm, and stay for an audience activation and discussion facilitated by Rodneyna Hart, Deputy Director of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture. 

For advance tickets, please click here.

If you’ve watched the film, you’re welcome to join the audience discussion post-screening (without a ticket). We’ll host the discussion in our Real Room gallery starting at 9pm. All are welcome.

Rodneyna M. O. Hart is a community-centered cultural leader with nearly 20 years of experience advancing museums and arts organizations as platforms for education, equity, and public engagement. As Deputy Director of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture in Hartford, Connecticut, she plays a central role in developing mission-driven programs, exhibitions, and partnerships that expand access to Black art, history, and cultural expression for diverse and intergenerational audiences.

Hart works closely with artists, educators, civic leaders, and community organizations to create programming rooted in collaboration, cultural accountability, and shared stewardship. Her leadership focuses on strengthening institutional sustainability while ensuring museums remain responsive, welcoming, and relevant to the communities they serve.

Previously, Hart served as Museum Division Director for the Louisiana State Museum system, overseeing four museums statewide. In that role, she expanded public programming, increased attendance, strengthened earned revenue, and advanced equitable access to cultural resources across urban and rural communities. Across her career, she has consistently centered community relevance, operational excellence, and public trust.

Hart holds a BFA in Studio Art and an MBA from Louisiana State University, bringing a rare blend of creative vision and fiscal acumen to her work. Appointed by the Governor to the Louisiana State Arts Council and Folklife Commission, she has helped shape cultural policy while advocating for artists, cultural workers, and community-based institutions.

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“Khalil Joseph radically reimagines the world through a Black lens, while self-reflexively observing the difficulties of doing so. The film is a pulsing, essayistic docu-fiction piece that defies categorization.” – Variety

100% on Rotten Tomatoes

Adapted from Kahlil Joseph’s renowned video art installation, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is a distinctive cinematic experience that mirrors the sonic textures of a record album, weaving fiction and history in an immersive journey where the fictionalized figures of W. E. B Du Bois and Marcus Garvey join artists, musicians, Joseph’s family, and even Twitter chats, in a vision for black consciousness.

 

The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (2015)

“Strangers” offers an inspiring look at creative people from very different walks of life who nonetheless communicate beautifully with one another. They don’t need to speak a common language: Their dazzling music says it all.” – Washington Post

“What drives the narrative is the musicians’ mutual desire to forge meaningful connections across cultures, an affirmative answer to Leonard Bernstein’s question of whether music can truly serve as a “universal language.” – Chicago Reader

“An irresistible kaleidoscope of music and good fellowship…” – Seattle Times

“A highly-polished, musically delightful portrait” – The Hollywood Reporter

From filmmaker Morgan Neville, the director of the Oscar-winning documentary “20 Feet from Stardom,” comes the extraordinary story of the renowned international musical collective, The Silk Road Ensemble, created by legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The Wild Robot (2024)

 

Tickets for this animated film screening include a cereal buffet. Come get your fix of nostalgic favorites…cut fruit and milk will be available. Coffee and tea (for exhausted parents) will be sold separately.

This is a family-friendly event – feel free to come in your pajamas. All ages are welcome!

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“The lessons of The Wild Robot are simple, but the artistry it uses to get there is anything but. It’s the kind of kids movie that feels all too rare with its painterly backdrops and genuine earnestness. The whole family is likely to fall in love.” – The Daily Beast

“Family audiences rejoice! The Oscar for Best Animated Film belongs right here in this enchanting tale of a robot, voiced by the amazing Lupita Nyong’o, who finds herself playing mother to a baby goose. The result is spectacular in every sense of the word.” – ABC News (2024)

“It’s a breathtakingly human film — about a bird and a bot.” – New York Post

97% on Rotten Tomatoes

The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot–ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short – that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.

Old Forest or Young Meadow – The Marvel of Seeds

 

A New England Forests film, directed by naturalist, local nature documentary filmmaker, and friend of Real Art Ways, Ray Asselin.

 

This will be the theater premiere of Old Forest or Young Meadow – The Marvel of Seeds, and will kick off a series of Ray’s screenings for America 250 in the region. Ray has screened various projects at RAW over the years, including THE LOST FORESTS OF NEW ENGLAND and the BEAVER POND WILDLIFE series.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Ray Asselin and Trinity College Professor and Hartford County’s Old Growth Forest Network Coordinator, Susan A. Masino.

 

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Have you ever thought about how, almost magically, a brown, bulldozed piece of land turns green with plants again? How do all those plants get there so quickly? Where did they come from? It’s amazing that nature has developed this process of having new plants always ready to go, in tiny embryonic packages. 

Seeds allow us to readily raise crops. They replenish the forests we take down. They make burned habitat or lava-covered ground productive again.

Plants, like all life forms, do not live forever, so they must reproduce. They cast themselves into the future via the seeds they produce, which can wait out poor or impossible growth conditions until such time as conditions become favorable. That could be days, weeks, years, even millennia.

Since the parent plant can’t move around to place seeds here and there, it has to have some other way to get the seeds dispersed. And that’s the subject of the new film, Old Forest or Young Meadow – the Marvel of Seeds.

Plants have evolved over many millions of years. In that time, nature has devised some fascinating methods for them to colonize new sites. Some are rather mundane, but others are intriguing; some are surprising and quite entertaining.

This film describes the evolution of plants on Earth, and features many of the fascinating ways seeds are dispersed. Some are curious, some are downright delightful. Some, we guarantee, you have never witnessed. 

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

“…a hoot with heart.” – Detroit News

“Warmly funny and deeply delightful.” – Screen International

“Director Taika Waititi proves expert in his management of tone, such that the farcical elements, however numerous, don’t detract from the very real friendship the renegades develop as they elude the world’s most dedicated social services officer.” – San Diego Reader

“Hunt for the Wilderpeople has been a huge audience favourite at festivals this year and you can see why, with its brand of dark New Zealand humour, coupled with a boy’s own adventure story that goes not merely off the rails, but off-road and off-grid.” – The Times (UK, 2016)

“There’s brilliant chemistry between Dennison and Neil, the pair quite obviously bouncing off each other; a joy to watch on screen, and as the story progresses you begin to feel like a member of their special pack, gleefully part of the adventure.” – Independent (UK)

97% on Rotten Tomatoes

Raised on hip-hop and foster care, defiant city kid Ricky (Julian Dennison) gets a fresh start in the New Zealand countryside. He quickly finds himself at home with his new foster family: the loving Aunt Bella, the cantankerous Uncle Hec (Sam Neill), and dog Tupac.

When a tragedy strikes that threatens to ship Ricky to another home, both he and Hec go on the run in the bush. As a national manhunt ensues, the newly branded outlaws must face their options: go out in a blaze of glory or overcome their differences and survive as a family.

Equal parts road comedy and coming-of-age drama, director Taika Waititi masterfully weaves lively humor with emotionally honest performances by Sam Neill and Julian Dennison.

Cinema Paradiso (1988)

 

This is the last movie we will show at Real Art Ways before we begin construction in 2026.

You’re invited to enjoy this classic Italian film with our staff and community of movie lovers in our cinema. 

A “farewell” affogato will be available for purchase. 

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“Still rapturous after all these years, Cinema Paradiso stands as one of the great films about movie love.” – Washington Post

“A cinema-lover’s delight.” – Metro (UK)

“Where the original release was an essay in childish delight and adolescent longing, topped off by a muted coda implying that you really can go home again, the reissue is a fully realized epic of the heart.” – Boston Globe

“In the director’s cut, the film is not only a love song to the movies but it also is more fully an example of the kind of lush, all-enveloping movie experience it rhapsodizes.” – Houston Chronicle

Won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards in 1990.

90% on Rotten Tomatoes

Young Salvatore Di Vita (Salvatore Cascio) discovers the perfect escape from life in his war-torn Sicilian village: the Cinema Paradiso movie house, where projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) instills in the boy a deep love of films. When Salvatore grows up, falls in love with a beautiful local girl (Agnese Nano) and takes over as the Paradiso’s projectionist, Alfredo must convince Salvatore to leave his small town and pursue his passion for filmmaking.

Charade

“Few thrillers create as much sheer joy and happiness as Charade, in which Cary Grant spoofs his Alfred Hitchcock persona, Audrey Hepburn exudes her usual magnetic charm, and Paris is as scenic as ever.” – San Francisco Chronicle

“A terrifically entertaining comedy-thriller.” – Chicago Reader

“Firsttime teaming of Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn, a natural, gives the sophisticated romantic caper an international appeal, plus the selling points of adventure, suspense and suberb comedy.” – Variety

“Charade still feels fresh, quick-witted…” – Salon.com

95% on Rotten Tomatoes

After Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) falls for the dashing Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered. Soon, she and Peter are giving chase to three of her late husband’s World War II cronies, Tex (James Coburn), Scobie (George Kennedy) and Gideon (Ned Glass), who are after a quarter of a million dollars the quartet stole while behind enemy lines. But why does Peter keep changing his name?

Mississippi Masala

“Mississippi Masala appears to have been produced on a modest (by Hollywood standards) budget, but it is a big movie in terms of talent, geography and concerns.” – NYT

“It moves in fits and starts and it isn’t obsessively tidy about each and every loose end, but in its sweet, slightly melancholy, gently humorous way, it fills the screen with the freshest, most winning love story we’ve seen in ages.” – Boston Globe

“…amazingly fresh and lively.” – Chicago Tribune

“The movie is both wonderfully tender and wryly funny. Nair perfectly captures the contrasting lifestyles… She treats all her characters with such playful affection and obvious sensitivity that they are hard to resist.” – NY Daily News

92% on Rotten Tomatoes

The vibrant cultures of India, Uganda, and the American South are blended and simmered into a rich and fragrant fusion feast in Mira Nair’s luminous look at the complexities of love in the modern melting pot. Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their home in Uganda by the dictatorship of Idi Amin, twentysomething Mina (Sarita Choudhury) finds herself helping to run a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. It’s there that a passionate romance with the charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius (Denzel Washington) challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region’s Indian and African American communities. Tackling thorny issues of racism, colorism, culture clash, and displacement with big-hearted humor and keen insight, Nair serves up a sweet, sexy, and radical celebration of love’s power to break down the barriers between us.

Exhibition on Screen: Caravaggio

“Articulate & intelligent… Beautifully crisp and detailed closeups of the work, well-informed and articulate talking-heads, and a nicely judged overall approach that is intelligent but not indigestible.” – The Guardian

 

“The documentary succeeds on all fronts: creativity blended with insight that progresses our understanding of the artist. Exhibition on Screen has another hit on its hands.” – The Reviews Hub

 

“Probably the greatest film I’ve ever seen on Caravaggio. There’s no better way to learn about this artist and his work – besides a university degree – than this documentary.” – Walter Francisco, Director, Chichester International Film Festival

 

Mystery, intrigue, beauty, passion, murder – shine a new light on Caravaggio in this dramatic biography…

Five years in production, this is the most extensive film ever made about one of the greatest artists of all time – Caravaggio. Featuring masterpiece after masterpiece and with first-hand testimony from the artist himself on the eve of his mysterious disappearance, this beautiful new film reveals Caravaggio as never before.

Multi-award-winning filmmakers David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky delve into the hidden narratives of Caravaggio’s life, piecing together clues embedded within his incredible art. The intriguing self-depictions within his works — sometimes disguised, sometimes in plain sight — offer a rare window into his psyche and personal struggles. Join us as we unravel the story of one of history’s most brilliant, complex and controversial figures.

Caravaggio’s masterpieces are some of art’s most instantly recognisable. No one else uses his signature blend of dramatic light, intense naturalism and bold, striking figures. His incredible paintings have captivated audiences for centuries. But there lies a deeper mystery — one that still beckons us to explore. What do these masterpieces reveal about the man behind the brush? Join us as we explore the intriguing clues that help us to finally understand the life – and death – of this remarkable man.

One Battle After Another

“Anderson elicits memorable inflections of dialogue, intent glances, brazen thrashes of energy and outbursts of fury from his charismatic cast, making “One Battle After Another” a feast of inspired and dedicated acting.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“…one of the most thrilling cinema events of the year.” – Wendy Ide, Observer (UK)

“Not only does [Paul Thomas Anderson] push himself and really try different things, both visually and narratively, it just feels like everything works together so precisely. Very entertaining. Completely riveted.” – Monica Castillo, Pop Culture Happy Hour (NPR)

“One Battle After Another, as great an American movie as I’ve seen this year, doesn’t simply meet the moment; with extraordinary tenderness, fury, and imagination, it forges a moment all its own, and insists that better ones could still lie ahead.” – Justin Chang, The New Yorker

95% on Rotten Tomatoes

Bob is a washed-up revolutionary who lives in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited and self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces, and Willa goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her as both father and daughter battle the consequences of their pasts.

Eternity

“It’s not just the thought-through ingenuity of the set-up but also the gloss and grandness of the filmmaking, an A24 production that feels like it should have the Touchstone Pictures logo at the start.” – Benjamin Lee, Guardian

In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) is faced with the impossible choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) and her first love (Callum Turner), who died young and has waited decades for her to arrive.

 

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions

“Its most affecting moments are the essayistic montages of archival footage, which stitch together a clear-eyed mediation on memory, lineage, and the meaning of freedom.” – NPR

“Joseph’s quick tour through African-American culture over the last few centuries felt radical and mindblowing in the best possible way.” – Rolling Stone

“Khalil Joseph radically reimagines the world through a Black lens, while self-reflexively observing the difficulties of doing so. The film is a pulsing, essayistic docu-fiction piece that defies categorization.” – Variety

“To this fan of Davis and his work at the Underground Museum, BLKNWS feels as much like a tribute to Black culture as it does to Joseph and his brother’s experimental spirits.” – The Hollywood Reporter

100% on Rotten Tomatoes

Adapted from Kahlil Joseph’s renowned video art installation, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is a distinctive cinematic experience that mirrors the sonic textures of a record album, weaving fiction and history in an immersive journey where the fictionalized figures of W. E. B Du Bois and Marcus Garvey join artists, musicians, Joseph’s family, and even Twitter chats, in a vision for black consciousness.

 

You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine

“Prine’s songs are full of wisdom, drama, laughs and heartache — his immortal addiction song “Sam Stone” gets two terrifically affecting workouts here, one by the songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff and the other by the great soul singer Swamp Dogg — and as such they’re the real show.” – The New York Times

You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine captures a star-studded tribute to the legendary songwriter, filmed in October 2022 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The event brought together acclaimed artists, friends, and family to share behind-the-scenes stories and perform classic songs, honoring Prine’s enduring legacy. Prine, widely celebrated as one of history’s greatest songwriters, captivated millions of fans and earned the admiration of icons such as Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Tyler Childers, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Jason Isbell, and Bob Weir, amongst many others, are featured in the film performing on the Ryman stage for this special celebration of his life and music.

 

Nuremberg

“The very epitome of traditional awards season material, Nuremberg is intelligent, serious-minded, impeccably honourable stuff…” – Financial Times

“You can feel archival poring that went into the research. It lends authenticity and intellectual rigour to this extraordinary, century-defining event. Crowe and co do the rest.” – Time Out

“It wants to educate and inspire as well as entertain, and isn’t shy about those ambitions.” – RogerEbert.com

As the Nuremberg trials are set to begin, a U.S. Army psychiatrist gets locked in a dramatic psychological showdown with accused Nazi war criminal Hermann Göring.

 

 

 
Rental Family

“thanks to Hikari’s elegant direction, a nimble and melancholic script by Hikari and Stephen Blahut, and the tenderhearted and attuned performances by an ensemble led by Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Mari Yamamoto, and Akira Emoto, this is a beautiful and contemplative film, with lovely messaging and a couple of sly twists.” – RogerEbert.com

“It’s a testament to the cast, the screenwriting and Hikari that all these narrative threads weave together for an uplifting message about our need to connect with others and be part of a community.” – San Jose Mercury News

“The arc of the film seems clear; we’re about to witness people rediscovering the importance of human connection. Grab the tissues!” – Washington Post

Set in modern-day Tokyo, RENTAL FAMILY follows an American actor (Brendan Fraser) who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. Confronting the moral complexities of his work, he rediscovers purpose, belonging, and the quiet beauty of human connection.

 

 

 
VISUAL AIDS: Meet Us Where We’re At

 

Real Art Ways is proud to partner with Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2025 by presenting Meet Us Where We’re At, a program of six videos that forefront the experiences of drug users and harm reduction practices as they intersect with the ongoing HIV crisis.

This is screening for one day only, on Monday, December 1, in our video gallery. The videos will loop between 1-9 pm. 

Meet Us Where We’re At features newly commissioned videos by Kenneth Idongesit Usoro (Nigeria), Hoàng Thái Anh (Vietnam), Gustavo Vinagre & Vinicius Couto (Brazil/Portugal), Camilo Tapia Flores (Chile/Brazil), Camila Flores-Fernández (Peru/Germany), and José Luis Cortés (Puerto Rico).

These videos journey across a range of spaces, revealing the complexity of drug use. Several videos document the visible world of drugs—a harm reduction program in a Berlin park, a night out during Rio’s Carnival—while others reveal private, often hidden spaces where safety is found: bedrooms, underground clinics, and moments of connection between lovers.

Meet Us Where We’re At speaks not only to the variety of physical locations where contemporary harm reduction is practiced, but also to a broader shift: centering drug users as authors of their own experiences. Rooted in the philosophy of meeting people at their personal reality without judgment, the program affirms the full context of drug use—its pleasures, its risks, and its role in how people survive, care, and connect.

Harm reduction has long been central to the AIDS movement through practices like needle exchange and safe injection sites, and people who use drugs have been affected by HIV since the earliest days of the epidemic. This program brings their perspectives to the forefront, amplifying the voices of drug users as storytellers, cultural producers, and essential participants in the global response to HIV.

As this is a program centering harm reduction, it will contain depictions of sexual activity and drug use.

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Kenneth Idongesit Usoro, Voices of Resilience

Voices of Resilience follows the lives of queer individuals and drug users living with HIV in Nigeria. Through personal interviews and experimental visual storytelling, the film shows the protagonists’ worlds as they seek out underground harm reduction services.

Hoàng Thái Anh, The Sisters’ Journey

Through a documentary style, The Sisters’ Journey explores the daily life of a transgender woman in Vietnam using drugs. The film delves into her fear of stigma, struggles she faces, and the vital role of harm reduction services and healthcare available to her.

Gustavo Vinagre and Vinicius Couto, chempassion

In the magical realist film, chempassion, a gay man reminisces about his orgy days and chem sex, contemplating what the future holds for himself and his close relationships.

Camilo Tapia Flores, Realce (Highlight)

Realce is a documentary short following two HIV-positive friends, DJ Deseo and porn actor Fernando Brutto, during one of their performances at Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival. The duo move through the streets of Rio and Carnival “blocos,” sharing their reflections on friendship, undetectability, their relationship with sex, and drug use within their own community.

Camila Flores-Fernández, Ghost in the Park

Ghost in the Park traces the narratives of the community of Görlitzer Park, an area in Berlin known for public drug use and trade. Highlighting “drug consumption buses” that promote safer use and aim to reduce HIV transmission among drug users, the space of the bus is taken as an axis through which the experiences and feelings of the community around the park are amplified.

José Luis Cortés, ¿Por qué tanto dolor? (Why so much pain?)

Instead of asking, “Why so much meth in the gay community?,” Cortés’s experimental film provokes the deeper question, “Why so much pain?” The film delves into the emotional and social wounds that fuel addiction and risk-taking behaviors.

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Visual AIDS is a New York-based non-profit that utilizes art to fight AIDS by provoking dialogue, supporting HIV+ artists, and preserving a legacy, because AIDS is not over.

 

 

Trifole

“This is a gorgeous, touching film that transports you in swelling operatic fashion, per Fabbro’s tradition.” – San Jose Mercury News

“An emotional tale…with a fairytale and nolstagic touch.” – Rolling Stone

“…a feast for the senses!” – Forbes

A modern fable about truffles, sustainability, and family. Trifole, set in the Alba White Truffle region of Italy, tells the adventure of a young woman looking for her own path who reconnects with her ailing, truffle-hunting grandfather and nature. Eventually, she bonds with her grandfather and learns to value tradition, the territory, and a more sustainable way of life.

Italian with English subtitles