Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts (2026) review
Of the three Short categories that the Academy has each year, the Documentary Shorts is typically the best. This is where we’ll see the most compelling stories, not just because they’re real-life stories, but because of the combination of the subject matter and how they’re told. That’s definitely the situation this year. All five nominees are compelling in their own way. One stands out as the clear frontrunner, but they’re all worth your time.
Like so many other documentaries, each of these nominees had their world premieres within the past year at the following festivals: South by Southwest (“Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”), Telluride Film Festival (“All the Empty Rooms”), DOC NYC (“The Devil is Busy” & “Children No More: Were and Are Gone”), and Cannes Film Festival (“Perfectly a Stranger”). They are now collected and presented in a limited theatrical run here in the States, leading up to the March 15th Oscar telecast.
Below are my thoughts on each of them, ranked from best to “least best” (I refuse to use “worst”)…
ARMED WITH ONLY A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD
This 37-minute short was directed by Craig Renaud and his older brother Brent Renaud, and as the title clearly states, only one of them is still alive to see the results of their labor. Brent was an American journalist, documentary filmmaker, and photojournalist who was killed by Russian fire on March 13, 2022, while covering the war in Irpin, a city near Kyiv in Ukraine. He was shot in the neck while filming civilians evacuating over one of the bridges, according to two other journalists who were injured, one of whom, Juan Arredondo, can be seen telling Craig about his brother’s final moments. Craig takes video footage of Brent’s dead body as it lies in a coffin, stating this is what Brent would’ve wanted him to do. As he works his way to the memorial service, the documentary reflects back on Brent’s multi-decade spanning career covering global events. As Craig returns to the U.S. with his brother’s body, they are greeted on the tarmac by their mother and sister, and we segue to their past. We see footage of a younger Brent, covering a Honduran teen crossing a river into the States to avoid gang violence, and then fast-forward to Ukrainians sifting through rubble where their homes stood prior to a Russian missile strike. The brothers grew up in Arkansas and eventually joined the Arkansas National Guard as they interacted with civilians in Iraq. Through vérité footage, we see Hondurans recycling trash from a massive garbage dump, a Haitian woman caring for her two orphaned boys in a tent in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, as well as the aftermath of the largest car bombing in Somalia. They even covered the violent streets of Chicago in 2017. Brent and Craig were there during all of these tragic moments, photographing and videographing everything they saw so others could eventually see it. Obviously, witnessing and living through such tragic and dangerous situations brought the two brothers closer. The more we learn about Brent, the more we realize what a touching tribute this is from his brother. We learned that Brent had autism, which didn’t appear to hold him back from capturing the human cost of war and crisis. “Armed Only with a Camera” shows the risks Brent faced and the compassion he brought to his work. It’s a documentary that honors Brent’s life, presents the grief Craig is working through, and emphasizes the sacrifices journalists make every day in a profession that is becoming increasingly dangerous.
RATING: ****
ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS
You may know journalist correspondent Steve Hartman for his human interest segments on CBS Evening News, “On the Road”, and “Everybody has a Story”, which often highlight acts of service, kindness, and forgiveness. The tables are turned for the Netflix documentary “All The Empty Rooms”, in which Hartman is followed by director Joshua Seftel as they tour the U. S. to memorialize the childhood bedrooms of those lost to school shootings. The idea came to Hartman after he found himself saying the same thing over and over with each shooting. He wanted to do something different, something meaningful that would remind others, and himself, that the victims aren’t just numbers that briefly pop up in the 24/7 news cycle. Hartman is accompanied by a friend and photographer, Lou Bopp, who zooms in on the minutiae of each room, taking pictures of scuffed gym shoes, journals, and colorful hair ties wrapped around a doorknob, etc. In each of the four families Hartman visits, the situation is the same: their child’s bedroom remains frozen in time. To do anything else would be akin to erasing them altogether. Hartman visits the family of 8-year-old Hailee Scruggs, who was killed at the Covenant School in Nashville, her older brothers, still awfully young, remembering how she tried to keep up with them. Jackie Cazares was 9 years-old when she was shot at Robb Elementary, a girl who loved teddy bears and the pink lights adorning her ceiling. 15-year-old Gracie Muelberger left for her school in Saugus one day, planning to buy a ticket to the school dance and get a dress for it the next day. She would do neither. Even more heartbreaking are the notes she left behind for her ‘future self,’ a woman who would never be. While this is a tough, devastating watch, it’s also important. Seftel and Hartman keep the focus on the families, which is preferable to the typical coverage we see of these shootings. In the 33-minute short, we see the toll this project takes on Hartman and Bopp, but what’s painful and frustrating is that this is only four families, while countless others are affected. What’s worse is that there will be more school shootings.
RATING: ***1/2
THE DEVIL IS BUSY
When we meet Tracii, she arrives before 6 a.m. for her job as head of security at Feminist Women’s Health in Atlanta, Georgia. She inspects the exterior and interior of the building, checking cameras and turning on lights to ensure no one is lurking from the night before, with the intent to do harm. She has a friend on speaker phone, and together they pray to God as she goes from room to room. She sets out water and snacks in the waiting room and greets her supporting security staff, who begin to arrive. Directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir (who also helmed the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Perfect Neighbor”), “The Devil is Busy” is a look at a workday in just one women’s healthcare clinic in a post-Roe v. Wade America. Protestors arrive around the same time Tracii does with their bullhorns, Bibles, and signs, posting themselves at the entrance of the clinic’s parking lot. As clients start to arrive (some driving across several states), Tracii gives them numbered bracelets to protect their identity and asks them to remain in their vehicles for their own safety until the doors open. She shows concern for the clients and frustration with the men who protest (one of whom is a former convict), who use scripture to support their agenda. She’s a Christian as well, but doesn’t feel she’s in any position to cast judgment on any woman seeking healthcare. We’ll learn a little bit about Tracii’s past and also get to know the others who work there, like the call center manager who regrets how many scared women she has to direct to other states, and the sonogram tech who laments how she had more rights 25 years ago than her daughter does today. There’s no getting around that this 31-minute HBO Documentary has built-in controversy, but Hampton and Gandbhir clearly lean into compassion over condemnation, as the tricky dichotomy of religion looms large.
RATING: ***
CHILDREN NO MORE: WERE AND ARE GONE
Prolific producer/writer/director Hilla Medalia was busy last year, involved in producing two documentaries, “Adaptation to Darkness” and “Holding Liat”, as well as the 36-minute documentary short, “Children No More: Were and Are Gone”, which focuses on protestors in Tel Aviv who are specifcally focusing on the thousands of children who’ve been killed in Gaza. Started by a small group of women in March 2025, who stood in a public square, each holding an enlarged photograph of a murdered child that lists their name, age, and the phrase, “was and is no more”. Gradually, more volunteers join the protest, which inevitably leads the organizers to discuss where they can make the greatest impact. Organizers learn there’s a fine line between provocation and preaching to the converted, not to mention inflaming the police. Cinematographer Avner Shahaf often slows his camera’s movement, allowing those honoring the dead to appear to float down a sidewalk. On the flipside, other Israelis can be seen shouting verbal abuse, as if killing tens of thousands of children can ever be justified. The importance of Medalia’s efforts is always front and center, but the documentary does get a little repetitive, though, and would benefit from a shorter runtime.
RATING: ***
PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS
Canadian filmmaker Alison McAlpine’s aptly titled documentary is the most offbeat and unique of the nominees. It essentially explores the La Silla Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert (some shots were filmed further north at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory) through the perspective of three donkeys. That’s right. There are no humans present, just Palaye (the white one), Ruperto (the brown one), and Palomo (the black one) as they clip-clop through the terrain and eventually explore the location with its white observation domes. Whether the camera captures the star-filled sky or a glorious sunrise, it doesn’t take long during the 15-minute short to think about how fleeting our existence is and that movement is always happening. McAlpine’s approach is the standout here, with cinematographer Nicolas Canniccioni frequently using a POV shot from behind a donkey’s upraised ears, while editor Carolina Siraqyan juxtaposes a closeup of a donkey’s eye with a round, silver radio telescope. A fox is captured wandering, but appears uncomfortable with the filmmakers’ presence, backing up as the camera moves in. All the while, the low hum of Ben Grossman’s score turns bell-like as the filmmakers enter the facility to observe the machinery that gazes at the stars. The short serves as a rumination on three creatures existing amid the vastness of the universe.
RATING: ***
