2025 Oscar Shorts Festival

CURRENT EVENT

2026 TFS Oscar Shorts Festival

Dates: Friday and Saturday, March 13-14, 2026
VENUE: Passage Theatre at Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 E. Front Street, Trenton, NJ

It’s almost Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, and we’re all looking forward to seeing who takes home the Oscars!

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Purchase Tickets

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• DOCUMENTARY SHORTS 6:30 p.m. Friday, Mar. 13, $20 + fees
• LIVE ACTION SHORTS 1 p.m. Saturday, March 14, $12 + fees
• ANIMATED SHORTS 3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14, $12 + fees
• LIVE ACTION SHORTS 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 14, $12 + fees

• DOUBLE FEATURE #1: Live Action & Animated Shorts 1 p.m. Saturday, March 1, $20 + fees
• DOUBLE FEATURE #2: Animated & Live Action Shorts 3:30 p.m. Saturday, March 1, $20 + fees

Tickets will be available online until 2 hours before the screenings. You can buy tickets at the box office starting an hour before the event. Snacks and drinks will be available at the concession stand.

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FILM DETAILS

Documentary Shorts

Duration: 157 min. plus intermission.

• Perfectly A Strangeness Three donkeys come upon an astronomical observatory in the middle of the desert. It is a cinematic exploration of what a story can be.
• The Devil Is Busy Tracii, the head of security at a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, works to protect patients seeking abortions and other medical services.
• Armed Only With A Camera: The Life And Death Of Brent Renaud The filmmaker pays tribute to  to his brother and collaborator Brent, a war correspondent killed in Ukraine in 2022.
• All The Empty Rooms This film grew out of a CBS News assignment to interview the families of children killed in school shootings. It became a 7-year project to document their empty bedrooms, which reveal truths more powerful than any statistics
• Children No More: “Were And Are Gone” This Israeli film documents the silent vigils by peace activists bringing attention to the deaths of children in Gaza.

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Live Action Shorts

Duration: 119 mins.

• The Singers A film that’s based on a short story by Ivan Turgenev, “The Singers,” portrays a lowly pub full of downtrodden patrons who connect unexpectedly through an impromptu sing-off.
• A Friend Of Dorothy Veteran actress Miriam Margulyes (Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter series) plays an elderly widow whose routine is unexpectedly disrupted when 17-year-old JJ sends a football into her garden, leading to an unexpected connection between them.
• Butcher’s Stain In a fictional take on tensions in Israel since the October 7th attacks, Samir, an Arab Israeli working in a Tel Aviv supermarket, is accused of tearing down hostage posters in the break room. He sets out to prove his innocence to keep this job that he desperately needs.
• Two People Exchanging Saliva This film depicts a future world where kissing is punishable by death. Angine becomes fascinated by a playful salesgirl in a department store, despite the prohibition of kissing and a suspicious colleague.
• Jane Austin’s Period Drama This comedy set in 1813 England centers on Ms. Estrogenia, who experiences menstruation during a long-anticipated marriage proposal. Her suitor, Mr. Dickley, misinterprets the visible blood as a serious injury, triggering a sequence of humorous misunderstandings. 

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Animated Shorts

Duration: 83 mins.

• The Three Sisters Three sisters live a lonely life on an isolated island, each in her own small house. One day, circumstances develop in such a way that they are forced to rent out one of the houses.
• Forevergreen An orphaned bear cub finds a happy home with a fatherly evergreen tree, until his hunger for trash leads him to danger.
• The Girl Who Cried Pearls A poor young man falls in love with a girl whose tears turn into pearls. After he trades the pearls to a merciless pawnbroker, the young man is forced to choose between the girl he loves and the pursuit of money.
• Butterfly A poignant retelling of Olympic swimmer Alfred Nakache's life, from his rise to fame to surviving Auschwitz, presented as memories flashing back during his final swim.
• Retirement Plan In the throes of his overstimulated, energy-poor midlife, Ray fantasizes about everything he’d love to do in retirement, once he finally has the “time.”
• Eiru (shortlisted extra short) When the water mysteriously disappears from the well in a warrior clan’s village, an intrepid child descends into the belly of the earth to retrieve it. “Éiru” is the story of a child in search of a challenge, and a goddess in search of a champion.