The animated shorts program returned to Tribeca this year, which as always was curated and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The shorts varied from the sweet to the devastating, from thought-provoking to utterly bizarre. The Mayfly was by Sue Perroto (an alum of several Cartoon Network shows) and featured a mayfly who, in her short day of life, breaks off from her family to pursue her own path in music. The animation is adorable and the film is sweet and sad, but I can’t say too much aside from that. Nate & John is about the long form friendship between a barber and his customer over decades. It’s a beautiful and touching story that ends on a note that will melt your heart. In LUKi and the Lights, LUKi is a robot whose joints are powered by lightbulbs. Don’t be fooled by the cute art style—this is easily the most devastating short of the set. One day, LUKi’s lights start shorting out, and a trip to the doctor reveals he has ALS. What brought me to tears more than the premise was the reveal that the creator of this short has ALS and made it so that his kids could understand what their father was going through. It was easily one of my favorite shorts of the set.

Another short that rose above the rest was In the Shadow of the Cypress. Made in Iran, it’s about a father with PTSD who is struggling to be a good parent to his daughter in their house by the sea. The use of animation in this film is utterly superb, with a lot of surrealist elements to complement the grounded storyline. I felt like it may have been a bit too abstract in execution, but it was still one of the better selections. It also won the award for Best Animated Short at the festival, which puts it on track for the Oscar race. Scrubby tried to evoke the feelings of a children’s book, and it accomplished that, but not much else. It’s about an adorable furry creature who wants to live in his mother’s fur forever, but it starts to fall out. There’s not much here, to be honest, and was one of the weakest shorts for me. In Budō, a widow finds a pair of shoes given to her by her husband, and while going for a walk, takes home a hungry stray cat. I thought this would be another sweet story, but I was wrong. This is actually the most bonkers short film of the bunch, and ended up being a total laugh riot by the end. I honestly don’t wanna say too much about this one, as it’s that good. Finally, Ruthless Blade is an action short about a white tiger fighting its archenemy…or is it? This one had the best animation of the bunch (it was created for a Chinese streaming series), and ends on an unexpectedly amusing plot twist.

Finally, here are some of the other things I saw at the festival this year. The restaurant renovation documentary gets a stranger-than-fiction twist in ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! Casa Bonita is the Mexican restaurant famous in Denver, Colorado for its massive scale, wealth of attractions, and comparatively lackluster food, but when the pandemic closes its doors, the establishment ends up on the verge of bankruptcy. Enter some unlikely investors: Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, who famously featured the restaurant on the show. Purchasing Casa Bonita allows Trey and Matt to realize a childhood dream, but those dreams turn into nightmares fast when they discover the restaurant is in far, far, far more dire need of repair than originally thought. As the renovations costs balloon, and the community becomes more and more eager to return to Casa Bonita, Trey, Matt, and the team are determined to see things through and, yes, serve some food that’s actually good. The documentary is a must-see for South Park fans (Trey admitted that Casa Bonita is responsible for the lack of output for the show recently), and Trey and Matt’s sense of humor brings an edge to the proceedings. At the same time, the idea of a television celebrity going headfirst into the restaurant business creates tension that carries the project, especially as conflicts within the employees begin to rise. Funny and heartfelt, it should be a welcome watch for fans of the show. This movie also won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Sacramento is the feature debut of Michael Angarano, and it ended up being a pleasant surprise. Michael plays Ricky, who suddenly re-enters the life of his former friend and father-to-be Glenn (Michael Cera) for an impromptu road trip from LA to Sacramento. There’s a lot of laughs in this movie, mostly coming from Ricky’s often reprehensible behavior. It’s not a great movie, but it was better than I expected, and near the end takes a turn that I legitimately not anticipate. Sacramento also has theatrical distribution and should be hitting the big screen soon. I also attended a screening of an untitled docuseries about Tim Burton. Coming from the angle of Burton’s outsider nature, it delves deep into his rise to fame with plentiful examples of his art and even a few revelatory details (such as Tom Cruise being considered for the lead in Edward Scissorhands). With 3 more episodes yet to be seen, I hope this gets picked up by somebody. So far, as a Burton fan, this was a real treat. Well, I hope you enjoyed my coverage of this year’s Tribeca Festival. Here’s hoping you’ll get to see all that I talked about soon.

My look at the under-the-radar Oscar nominees continues with the documentary shorts. I felt like this was the weakest set of shorts for me, but it also has more than one frontrunner (at least I hope so).

The ABCs of Book Banning tackles the issue of books that have been challenged or banned in schools by talking to the children who want to read them and the authors who write them. Passages from the books are also intertwined with charming animated sequences illustrating the content. Not only is this a significantly hot-button issue right now, with a lot of urgent aspects, but it’s the directorial debut of Shelia Nevins, a longtime documentary producer for HBO and MTV (the latter of which produced this film). This film had the makings of a surefire Oscar contender. Instead, it’s a massive disappointment. There’s really not a lot here, to be honest, and what is there isn’t as fully formed as I would’ve liked it to be. First of all, the documentary is one-sided to the point where there aren’t even archival perspectives on why these books have been challenged or banned. This limits the discussion in my opinion, and also gives an incomplete picture as to the reasons for some of the bannings. (The documentary doesn’t actually explain why the books were removed or challenged, and while it’s sometimes clear, other times it really isn’t.) Other times, the director’s thesis, that children should and want to see these perspectives, doesn’t go far enough. In one case, the author of what is said to be the most challenged book in schools, the graphic novel Gender Queer, discusses eir work, but no students are shown as adding to the discussion. There may have been outside reasons for this, but I think it’s worth noting. Now, the documentary does have some great moments, like when an African-American girl piercingly questions why she shouldn’t be allowed to read a book about Rosa Parks, an important part of her own history in this country. If that attitude reflected the entire short, I may have argued harder for this to win. There’s a lot going on here, but not enough in the short itself. I respect the idea of The ABCs of Book Banning and really wish I could say that Nevins will get an Oscar for her first directorial work (and to be honest, it’s likely that she will from what I’ve heard), but I can’t call this a contender. I wanted a lot more.

The Last Repair Shop is a major frontrunner for me, and my pick for the award (although another film came very close). It follows the employees of Los Angeles’ school district who provide free and freely repaired instruments for students, one of the last in America to do so. Not only are the perspectives of the children this impacts included, but also the adults who repair the instruments themselves, and why what they do means so much to them. It’s probably not for the reasons you think. Everyone interviewed has a different story, from the heartwarming, to the devastating, to the utterly stranger-than-fiction. This is a top-notch documentary short, using an intriguing topic to tackle several themes in one package. It was easily one of my favorites of the five, and I definitely invite you to experience it for yourself.

Island in Between was directed by filmmaker S. Leo Chang, who reflects on his relationship with Taiwan, the U.S., and China from the islands of Kinmen, a few kilometers away from Mainland China. I felt that the topic was certainly urgent, but overall, I don’t have too much to say about this one. I felt it was just okay.

Nai Nai & Wài Pó is directed by Sean Wang and is easily one of the best shorts in the running this year. (In addition, Wang’s new feature Dídi comes out later this Summer. I didn’t get to see it at Sundance, but I’ve heard very good things.) This simple yet effective short follows Wang’s two grandmothers, and does what I think documentaries do best: make engaging film stars out of ordinary people (the subjects even joke about becoming movie stars). Considering how downbeat and/or urgent a lot of the Oscar documentary shorts I’ve seen can be, it felt nice to see one that made me laugh as hard as I did watching this. Honestly, the two grandmas are so endearing that I’d even spend a feature film with them. Yet, it’s also an incredibly heartfelt look at growing old with dignity, and getting over past traumas. It’s a clearly personal work that absolutely deserves its nomination, and I definitely hope the Academy considers it a contender.

Finally, The Barber of Little Rock was an okay short, but the subject matter was definitely eye-opening. In Little Rock, Arkansas, African-American barber Arlo Washington has decided to challenge his hometown’s wealth inequality and structural racism by having his community take their financial stability into their own hands. In addition to providing career paths with his barber college, he has founded People’s Trust, a non-profit community bank that gives loans to underserved residents. Because Little Rock’s African-American community mistrusts financial institutions that have historically excluded them, People’s Trust creates a path for economic justice that I found incredibly inspiring. While I felt the short as a whole could’ve been more engaging, I am glad that the nomination raised some awareness about this topic. I wouldn’t consider it a contender, but I do think you should check this film out.

I’m really hoping either The Last Repair Shop or Nai Nai & Wài Pó win, but don’t be surprised if The ABCs of Book Banning takes it. I’ve seen a lot of people predict that one. Stay tuned for more of my coverage of the Oscars.