2020 Oscar Predictions: Best Documentary (Short Subject)
Nominees:In the Absence (Yi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam), Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl) (Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva), Life Overtakes Me (John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson), St. Louis Superman (Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan), Walk Run Cha-Cha (Laura Nix and Colette Sandstedt)
Will Win: Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)(Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva)
Runner-up: St. Louis Superman (Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan), Walk Run Cha-Cha (Laura Nix and Colette Sandstedt)
Should Win: In the Absence (Yi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam)
Runners-up: Life Overtakes Me (John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson), St. Louis Superman (Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan), Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl) (Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva), Walk Run Cha-Cha (Laura Nix and Colette Sandstedt)
My Choice: In the Absence (Yi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam)
My Nominees: Life Overtakes Me (John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson), St. Louis Superman (Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan), Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl) (Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva), Walk Run Cha-Cha (Laura Nix and Colette Sandstedt)
This category is packed with meaningful, emotionally provoking films that encourage hope in face of trauma. All nominees are worthy of winning the top prize, though In the Absence is unique in its intense editing style, which masterfully weaves together a dramatic narrative of found footage from the final hours of the MV Sewol ferry as it sunk off the coast of South Korea in 2014, claiming the lives of over three hundred people.