The Best Oscar-Winning Short Films

Voting Rules
Vote up the best short films to have won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film

What is best oscar-winning short film? This list has every film that has won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film including titles such as “The Music Box,” “Visas and Virtue,” “The Accountant,” and “Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life.” The award has officially been called this since 1974, but this list includes all previous live action short film winners, stretching back to 1932 when the first short films were honored.

Movies have the ability to make us feel. They make us want to believe, be inspired, and live vicariously through the stories we see on screen. The best of these movies each year are bestowed with an Academy Award nomination, and those that are truly the best take home the Oscar. Short films are often the most thought provoking as they tell a story so succinctly, and can spend what time they have focusing on one main theme.

These best Oscar-winning short films provide the kind of emotional connection that filmmakers hope people seek in entertainment. They are moving, saddening, or comical. They provide the type of entertainment that is groundbreaking in their amazing yet short Vote up the best Academy Award-winning short films below.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY
Ranked by
  • Curfew
    1

    Curfew

    Fátima Ptacek, Shawn Christensen, Kim Allen
    98 votes
    • Released: 2012
    • Directed by: Shawn Christensen
    At a low point in his life, a man gets the call to take care of his estranged sister's child.
  • Visas and Virtue
    2
    Chris Tashima, Diana Georger
    66 votes
    • Released: 1997
    • Directed by: Chris Tashima
    Visas and Virtue is a 1997 narrative short film inspired by the true story of Holocaust rescuer Chiune "Sempo" Sugihara, who is known as "The Japanese Schindler". Sugihara issued over 2,000 transit ...more
  • The Accountant
    3
    Walton Goggins, Ray McKinnon
    24 votes
    • Released: 2001
    • Directed by: Ray McKinnon
    The Accountant is a 2001 American short comedy film directed by Ray McKinnon. It won an Academy Award at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002 for McKinnon and his wife Lisa Blount for Best Short ...more
  • Six Shooter
    4
    Brendan Gleeson, Rúaidhrí Conroy
    24 votes
    • Released: 2004
    • Directed by: Martin McDonagh
    Six Shooter is an Irish 2004 live action short film starring Brendan Gleeson and Rúaidhrí Conroy. The film earned several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
  • The Face of Lincoln
    5
    11 votes
    • Released: 1956
    • Directed by: Edward Freed
    Presents Professor Merrell Gage of USC, describing the life and career of Abraham Lincoln as he sculpts a lifelike bust of the 16th president, making physical changes in the subject's hair, beard and ...more
  • Violet
    6
    Didi Conn, Tom McGowan, Rodney Saulsberry
    18 votes
    • Released: 1981
    • Directed by: Shelley Levinson
    Violet is a 1981 short film directed by Shelley Levinson. It won an Academy Award in 1982 for Best Short Subject.