The document discusses the three types of short films that are recognized by the Academy Awards: live-action, documentary, and animation. Live-action shorts are scripted films using actors, documentary shorts are like short documentary features, and animated shorts use animation techniques for their entire runtime.

1. THREE TYPES OF SHORT
FILMS

2. SUMMARY
• The short film is exactly what it sounds like. It’s
a whole movie, but a short one. There are many
categories into which the short films can fall,
whether you want to categorize them by genre
or length. However, the Academy only
distinguishes between these three: live action,
documentary and animation.

3. LIVE-ACTION
• A live-action short film is a scripted short film which is
made with live actors. Sounds simple enough. There are
sometimes impromptu shorts, so the ‘’script’’ is a bit loose.
However, this category is for original and adapted works
that tell a fictional story in which actors play characters that
are not themselves. Many famous filmmakers began their
careers by producing live-action short films. Taika Waititi
was even nominated for Academy Award (Oscar) for his
short film ‘’Two Cars, One Night’’ (2003).

4. DOCUMENTARY
• A documentary short is also exactly what it
sounds like: it’s like documentary feature-length
film but short. Unlike other types of short films
which usually serve as ‘’springboards’’ for
creators before moving on to other projects
which are mostly feature-length films, many
documentarians continue to work in the short
run, as not all documents require the length of a
feature film. Famed documentarian Charles
Guggenheim was nominated for the Academy
Award twelve times and won four of them which
are: ‘’Nine From Little Rock’’ (1964), ‘’Robert
Kennedy Remembered’’ (1968), ‘’The Johnstown
Flood’’ (1989) and ‘’A Time For Justice’’ (1994)

5. ANIMATION
• Animated shorts use animation for the length of
their runtime, whether it be traditional 2D, stop-
motion, computer 3D, or any other technique. It just
has to be animated. And of course it has to be short.
Animated shorts, in particular, are passed around
the animation community and can serve as calling
cards for animators because, unlike live-action films,
animated shorts can sometimes be easier for a
single artist to produce. Festivals like the Animation
Show of Shows are a great way to check out a
variety of animated shorts, even outside of the
Oscar nominees.