Oh, Johnny! (1918)

The 92nd Academy Awards had many strong contenders for best animated short. But which Oscar nominated short wins for diversity and inclusion?

This film is a splendid mix of mediums, but its strength lies in its simplicity and beautiful message of closeness.

These confines won’t really encourage you to read the film as a metaphor for the nerve-inducing experience we’ve all been through over the last year, however — and in the interest of maintaining your dignity, you probably shouldn’t. While the sociopolitical commentary may have worked for the similarly-themed Buried (2010), in which we find Ryan Reynolds on his own buried alive in the Middle East, but this futuristic take on the premise is best left as a piece of distracting entertainment. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is no less suffocating, literally and dramatically.

While prioritizing production value over substance, Flood depicts an emotionally taut family drama set during the farmland flooding of the Franco-Dutch war.

The most impressive aspect of this film is the honest and natural performances given by the on-screen duo.

It’s 2021 and what few LGBTQ+ films that are produced by major film studios continue to star cisgender heterosexual actors, rather than actual LGBTQ+ people.