SPOILER ALERT: This column contains potential spoilers about “A Lien,” “Anuja,” “I’m Not a Robot,” “The Last Ranger” and “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent.”
If there’s one thing the 2025 Oscar nominated short live-action films have in common it’s that none of them, at least in the traditional sense of the phrase, are feel-good. All five on the list — “A Lien,” “Anuja,” “I’m Not a Robot,” “The Last Ranger” and “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent” — attempt to impart some sort of social message, and none of them are subtle.
Not that any of them needed to be subtle — they’re no longer than 30 minutes at the most, after all. This is to say, there’s very little chance you might watch any of these projects and walk away unaware of their ideological position.
Let me be clear from the outset: these are all great films and a testament to the creative potential of the medium. They all, in their own ways, present a clear, untarnished vision with little concern for commercial potential. It’s maybe this fact that makes the Oscar nominated short films — all of which, including the documentary and animated films, have screened at IU Cinema the past couple of weeks — so fascinating.
So, without further ado, here are my appropriately concise thoughts for a collection of appropriately concise films.
“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”
This Croatian film, directed by Nebojša Slijepčević, dramatizes the 1993 Štrpci massacre when 19 people, mostly Muslim, were pulled off a train by a Serbian right-wing, ultranationalist paramilitary group and killed. The picture initially focuses on Dragan (Goran Bogdan), who’s riding in a train car with several other passengers — including one, Milan (Silvio Mumelǎs), who has documents to show the soldiers when they request them.
This focus on Dragan is an effective red herring for the true titular character, another one of the passengers who defends Milan from the soldier’s taunts: Tomo Buzov (Dragan Mićanović) was the sole non-Muslim individual to be killed by the Serbian White Eagles in this particular instance. The film ends with the train driving off, Milan saved by the sacrifice of a stranger. There’s no resolution, just a lingering feeling of terror. It’s haunting.
“Anuja”
This Hindi-language short film, distributed by Netflix, was directed by Adam J. Graves — a professor of philosophy at Metropolitan State University of Denver — and follows two girls who work in a sweatshop. One of them, Anuja (Sajda Pathan), is a 9-year-old who is gifted at math and approached by a local schoolteacher (Gulshan Walia) who wants her to take a boarding school exam. However, the exam costs, and Anuja and her sister, Palak (Ananya Shanbhag), have to try and make money by selling bags on the street.
“Anuja” is a bittersweet film, one that explores both the extremes of human nature: the good of people, but also the bad; the security guard who helps a young girl run off, and the factory owner who takes advantage of her. It’s a lovely piece overall, though I wish the ending were a bit more resolved and not so vague.
“I’m Not a Robot”
“I’m Not a Robot” is very fascinating to me because it’s almost the exact same plot as “Companion,” which came out only earlier this year. Victoria Warmerdam’s short film is much older, it was first presented in November 2023, and it’s also much better than that other film despite its vastly shorter runtime.
The project follows Lara (Ellen Parren), who, while trying to update an app on her computer, cannot pass the CAPTCHA test. To make a long story short, she realizes she’s a robot: a fact her husband, Daniël (Henry van Loon), already knows because he was the one who bought her. Lara is understandably upset, and the film is an illustration of what is essentially a prolonged existential crisis.
“I’m Not a Robot” works better than “Companion” because it’s subtler in its messaging: there’s no prolonged monologue from Daniël outlining his motivations because the audience doesn’t need to be aware of them to know the misogyny inherent in his motivations. It shows, doesn’t tell, and is all the better for it.
“A Lien”
David and Sam Cutler-Kreutz’s film about an undocumented immigrant undergoing his green-card interview is my favorite of the bunch and, in my opinion, the most powerful precisely for its relevance. This movie premiered in January 2023, during Joe Biden’s presidency, and it’s intensely harrowing how it’s even more relevant now, one month after Donald Trump took office.
The film depicts the routine practice by ICE — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement — of arresting immigrants during their mandatory appointments to receive a permanent resident card. Sophia Gomez (Victoria Ratermanis) is an American citizen married to Oscar Gomez (William Martinez), who is arrested by authorities for his illegal residence in the U.S. — a country he came to as a child with his parents in the 1990s.
There’s a moment where ICE takes the couple’s daughter, Nina (Koralyn Rivera), and Sophia has to beg them to give her back and prove she was born on American soil. This scene is especially terrifying amid Trump’s efforts to curtail birthright citizenship: a new horror the filmmakers never even considered in their representation of this process.
“The Last Ranger”
The last film of the bunch, and the longest, is “The Last Ranger,” a South African project directed by Cindy Lee. It’s about rhino poaching and the rangers who work night and day on game reserves to protect the beasts from harm. Litha (Liyabona Mroqoza) is a little girl who lives with her father (Makhaola Ndebele) and has a special friendship with Khuselwa (Avumile Qongqo), one of those rangers.
Khuselwa introduces Litha to Thandi, a rhino who, halfway through the film, is shot and maimed for her horn. Thandi is a real rhino, who really was almost killed, but she ended up being one of the very few to survive poaching due to the long, tireless efforts of people who cared. “The Last Ranger” uses real footage of Thandi lying on the ground bleeding from her wound and, at the end, real footage of her recovery. It’s a tough watch at points but a necessary one.
In the past decade, almost 9,000 African rhinos have died from poaching, but “The Last Ranger” is a film of hope. It’s the only short of the lot that has anything resembling a good ending, which makes it the perfect finale.
