James R | On 21, Feb 2015

The 2015 Oscar-nominated short films are now available to watch online in the UK.

Shorts are usually a sadly overlooked part of the awards race. While feature films are wheeled out in front of UK cinema audiences earlier every year, primed to capitalise on the buzz in January and February, their pint-sized counterparts are shown in limited compendium screenings – hopefully before the ceremony itself. This year, in the US, those screenings started in January. In the UK, meanwhile, the 2015 BAFTA-nominated short films are not released theatrically until next month.

It puts short film-makers in a tough situation, as was evident in 2013, when Paperman was released on YouTube for free in January – followed by a wave of similar releases from the other nominees – only to be taken down. But Shorts International have now released the 2015 Oscar short film contenders online, not just in America but in the UK too, giving audiences the chance to catch the nominees before the Sunday night ceremony.

The films are divided into two separate bundles: the animated shorts and the live-action shorts. These have always been available on iTunes every year, albeit at varying release dates – in fact, the company was one of iTunes’ earliest movie partners – but you can now download or stream the Academy Award nominated shorts on other VOD platforms too.

Vimeo announced a new deal with Shorts International at the end of this week, offering the live action and animated anthologies worldwide. While the iTunes line-up is restricted to those categories, though, Vimeo has also released three Oscar-nominated documentary shorts too: The Reaper/La Parka, White Earth, and Joanna. Both The Reaper/La Parka and White Earth are exclusive to Vimeo until 25th March.

The only film missing on VOD is one of the animated contenders: Disney’s Feast, which is currently being shown in cinemas with Big Hero 6 and will be released alongside the movie when it reaches home entertainment platforms.

As well as increasing the range of titles available and the devices they can be watched on, Vimeo’s release also means that you can also rent the short films for 72 hours – as opposed to purchasing and downloading them – for a smaller fee. On iTunes, meanwhile, you can also purchase the films individually. (Amazon Instant Video – with whom Shorts International has a distribution deal in the US – currently offers the 2012 animated nominees and the 2013 live-action nominees in the UK, but no other Oscar-nominated shorts.)

All of which is good news for people wanting to watch this year’s nominees legally online – and good news for the film-makers who want their work to be seen. Digital remains a platform that can give much-needed exposure to talented and creative film-makers through their shorts, with the BFI Player also offering many short films, either for free or available for £1 each.

On VODzilla.co, we try to support short films on VOD as much as possible, be it Little Favour on iTunes, Toy Story That Time Forgot via Sky (also on iTunes), or BAFTA nominee The Karman Line starring Olivia Colman on other independent platforms, such as We Are Colony. We are always looking to expand our coverage, so if you have a short that you would like us to review or news of an upcoming release that you would like to share, please get in touch with us at shorts[at]vodzilla.co.

In the meantime, here’s a full list of this year’s Oscar nominated short films and where you can watch them online.

Live Action: 2015 Oscar nominated short films

Watch on Vimeo
Watch on iTunes

 
Aya (France, Israel)
Directed by: Oded Binnun and Mihal Brezis

A young woman waiting at an airport has an unexpected encounter with an arriving passenger.

Boogaloo and Graham (UK)
Directed by: Michael Lennox and Ronan Blaney

Jamesy and Malachy are presented with two baby chicks to raise by their soft-hearted father.

Butter Lamp / La Lampe au Beurre de Yak (France, China)
Directed by: Hu Wei and Julien Féret

A photographer and his assistant photograph the inhabitants of a remote Tibetan village.

Parvaneh (Switzerland)
Directed by: Talkhon Hamzavi and Stefan Eichenberger