We’re looking at each individual category for the Oscars and what our thoughts are going into the final stretch. Below are our predictions in Best Documentary Short Subject.

Best Documentary Short Subject

Winner Predictions

• All the Empty Rooms (WL) (TL)
• Armed with Only a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (PP) [New]
• Children No More: Were and Are Gone
• The Devil Is Busy
• Perfectly a Strangeness

Runner-Up Predictions

• Children No More: Were and Are Gone (WL) (PP) [New]
• The Devil Is Busy (TL)

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Wesley Lovell: There’s a lot of difficult and sad topics in this year’s list. It could be any one of the four. However, my suspicion is that it will be either The Devil Is Busy, which is the most traditional style of documentary in the list, or either All the Empty Rooms or Children No More being their subjects are children. This will probably be the toughest of the short film categories to predict because it depends on which voters watch the nominees and vote for them. In the end, I’m settling on All the Empty Rooms because it’s effective even if a little self-centered. Any of the other three, including Armed with Only a Camera, could win as well. That said, only Perfectly a Strangeness has no chance of winning.
Pete Patrick: Should be difficult one to decide between the bio of murdered photojournalist Brent Renaud by his brother and the silent Israeli protestors of their government’s killing of Palestinians children in Gaza, both of which are heartbreakers.
Thomas La Tourrette: In one of the strongest years for documentary shorts that I can remember, I expect All the Empty Rooms to win. It looked at a reporter trying to come up with a new way to honor students killed in school shootings and it was effective. It probably made most everyone tear up on viewing it. If it does not win, then almost any of the others could as it was that strong a field. Armed with Only a Camera followed the life and death of a journalist killed in Ukraine. The Devil Is Busy showed the day of an abortion providing clinic. Children No More: Were and Are Gone showed Israelis protesting the Gaza war with pictures of Palestinian children killed in the conflict. The only one I think would have no chance of winning was Perfectly a Strangeness, a beautifully shot film showing three donkeys wandering around two astronomical observatories. The cinematography was gorgeous, but I am not sure that I consider it a documentary. All the Empty Rooms remains the likely winner.

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