Oscar-nominated shorts

One of the Oscar season’s great pleasures can be found in the nominated shorts, both animated and live action, that have quietly slipped into selected theaters. I wish they had a sexier name so that more people would check them out. This year’s are terrific, but then, the shorts are famously long on creativity, innovation and heart. My favorite among the live-action entries is “Kavi,” a remarkably incisive and moving 19-minute look at modern-day slavery at an Indian brick kiln through the eyes of a young boy whose family dreams of freedom while he dreams of merely being a child.

-- Betsy Sharkey