Oscar-Nominated Shorts 2012

Anyone who has ever filled out a full-sized Oscar-party ballot knows that you have a much better chance of winning the pool if you’re that rare person who has seen the shorts. What with YouTube’s ascendance, this ought to be a boom time for sub-feature-length movies, but even the animated and live-action short films that attract attention from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences don’t typically find commercial audiences. (And documentaries? Forget about it.) That makes Tivoli Cinemas’ annual weeklong engagement of nominated-shorts compilations — one for the cartoons, the other not (and documentaries hit next week) — ideal for bettors. But this year’s nominees are a smart batch, and many of them are better than The Artist, a terrific short overdressed in big-boy pants that seems poised to take home the Best Picture statue. See tivolikc.com for details and times.