By: Sarah Chaisson-Warner
Awards Season Is In Full Swing
It’s Oscars® season, and we couldn’t be more excited! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced the films that made the Oscars® Shortlist. Ten categories were published, including several categories for short films—Documentary Short Film, Animated Short Film, and Live Action Short Film. In the Live Action Short Film category, 15 films were selected out of 180 that qualified:
- Anuja
- Clodagh
- The Compatriot
- Crust
- Dovecote
- Edge of Space
- The Ice Cream Man
- I’m Not a Robot
- The Last Ranger
- A Lien
- The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent
- The Masterpiece
- An Orange from Jaffa
- Paris 70
- Room Taken
Voting begins for the nominees on Wednesday, January 8th and concludes on Sunday, January 12th, 2025. From there, five live action short films will become official Academy Award Nominees with the winner chosen live at the Oscars® ceremony on Sunday, March 2nd!
Spotlight on “A Lien”
We were thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with David and Sam Cutler-Kreutz, the filmmakers behind the live-action shortlisted film A LIEN. The brothers, who specialize in writing, directing, and cinematography, are no strangers to making award-winning films and have a litany of credits under their belt including FLOUNDER and TRAPPED, which won the Special Jury Prize at SXSW last year and was named Best U.S. Short at Palm Springs International ShortsFest.
A LIEN tells the story of a young couple confronted with a dangerous immigration process on the day of their green card interview. A Vimeo staff pick, the film has been an official selection at numerous film festivals, including the Austin Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and more.
Let’s explore what makes this film so compelling!
First, a timely and poignant premise.
The premise strikes at the heart of an important issue in American politics and society. While immigration has historically served as fodder for political engagement and intensity, this year the fate of several different segments of the American immigrant population hangs in the balance as the new administration takes office. The film takes this issue to the micro level, allowing the audience to witness one couple’s experience navigating a system that is—at its best—challenging, and at its worst, terrifying.
Sam and David felt compelled to call attention to the real impacts that the immigration system has upon the very people it is intended to serve when they came across the use of “marriage entrapment” years ago. Marriage entrapment occurs when ICE agents apprehend immigrants while they are in the process of applying for a green card after marrying a U.S. citizen. “The idea that this twisting of immigration rules happens right now, in states across the U.S., massively damaging the lives of families, sparked our desire to advocate against this practice,” they said.
“We strongly believe that art is political in nature. For us, it’s about trying to engage with the cultural themes around us, finding ways as directors to soak up the zeitgeist, crystalize it, and give it back to the viewer in a form they can engage with. Oftentimes that comes down to trying to bring large and convoluted themes down to the individual level—looking at the impact on families or single people. Strangely, the most hyper-specific is often the most universal.”
Second, stakes and suspense.
The stakes from the beginning are clear and unmistakably high. The tension is introduced immediately when we see the couple running late for their appointment, and it continues to build as Oscar attends his immigration interview while Sophie fears the worst as ICE arrives on site looking for him.
The filmmakers also build suspense through the expert use of sound—everything from the chaos the ICE agents create in the lobby while detaining several people to the sound of Sophie’s fingers tapping impatiently while she waits for the staff to retrieve her daughter’s passport. “We really wanted to have the building feel like a place where you are surrounded by conversations and lives being lived, aside from the characters you are following. Sophie, Oscar, and Nina are just one of many families going through this bureaucratic hell.”
Every sound builds upon the previous—an auditory scaffolding—complete with the crescendo as Sophie screams for her daughter, followed by a noticeably quieter denouement in the final scene as Sophie contends with what just happened.
The film also creates tension through the use of cinematography. Many camera angles are wide shots that “created a super claustrophobic atmosphere for the characters, which really helped enhance the tension of the movie.” While some of the camera choices were due to practical challenges (including finding a location that looked like a U.S. Customs and Immigration building), they largely shot on longer lenses, favoring 50mm and 85mm Zeiss B-Speeds.
“In the end, while we got pretty close, we still found ourselves having to hide many parts of the building that didn’t look right…Some parts of the film were just impossible to keep in focus and while technically an imperfection, again it really helps add to the urgent documentary feel to the piece.”
Third, stellar performances.
The performances by the lead actors, Victoria Ratermantis (Sophie) and William Martinez (Oscar), are intense and raw, and demonstrate vividly the emotion behind the chaos and fear generated by ICE’s arrival at their interview.
To support the actors and their process, David and Sam worked at length to create a rich and detailed backstory for each of the characters. “For us, it was about giving them a sense of their entire lives up until this moment, where they were born, when they attended high school, who their parents and siblings are, how they met each other, everything from the mundane to the dramatic,” they said. They also wrote out timelines of each character’s life and together created the family photos and other evidence the government would require for an actual green card.
The Road to the Short List
Landing on the Oscars® Shortlist is an extraordinary feat. To be considered for the Academy Awards, a live-action short film must be 40 minutes or less (including the credits) and must have screened in a commercial theater in one of the six qualifying metro areas for at least seven days. Qualifying metro areas for 2025 are Los Angeles County, New York City, The Bay Area, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas-Fort Worth. A film can also qualify if it wins an eligible award at a qualifying film festival.
To submit a short film for consideration, filmmakers must use the Academy’s online platform (see this past year’s platform here). Submissions for short films are free, but you must include several documents including the submission form, a copy of the cast and crew credits, and documentation of winning a qualifying film festival or completion of a weeklong run in a qualifying metro area. In addition to submitting a digital upload of your film, the Academy also requires an English caption file, and display artwork (typically your film’s movie poster). The Academy requires certain specifications for the film’s screener—both for online viewing and for its DCP used for theatrical screenings presented for voting members.
David & Sam Cutler-Kreutz.
A LIEN qualified by winning Salute Your Shorts Film Festival’s top prize. While some filmmakers might enlist a public relations firm to plan and execute a campaign to highlight their film to voters, Sam and David did not, opting instead to simply submit their film through the platform.
“We did no campaign, no press, nothing, so when we arrived on the shortlist we were quite surprised,” they said. “But it’s a pleasure to be included amongst so many great films, and we are rapidly coming up to speed on the realities of what an Oscar campaign looks like – so far it’s been an incredible learning experience.”
Advice for Filmmakers
What advice do Sam and David have for other filmmakers of short films, particularly filmmakers who might just be starting out?
First, always keep going. “Keep writing beyond when you think it’s done, keep shooting after everyone has told you it’s time to go home, and keep editing long after your editor has quit in frustration,” they said. “You are the only person who can say when your film is finished, and don’t stop till it’s good—a bad film done quickly is useless, a good film that takes more time is worth gold.”
Second, make more than one short. Sam and David suggest that if you have a decent budget for one high-quality short film, cut it into thirds to make three shorts.
“The first one won’t be your best, neither will the second, probably neither will your third. But you will learn and you will get better—and if you stick at it long enough you can do very well.”
Third, don’t overestimate the need to be “connected.” David and Sam didn’t have any connections in the festival scene or with programmers when they started making shorts, but they were able to make their way into the festival circuit. “It’s easy to be frustrated, but you will receive a lot more rejections than acceptances, and that’s just how it goes, but it doesn’t mean you can’t continue.”
Last, be patient. “The only thing we believe in is that there is no overnight success, and if you look back at the dark and murky early history of every filmmaker, even the ones who seem to come out of nowhere, you will find some place where they got to practice their craft, whether it was commercials, tons of shorts that no one saw, many tossed scripts… whatever. It takes real time and practice to be a good filmmaker—and we are just at the beginning of this journey ourselves.”
Watch the Film
The full film is available on David and Sam’s Vimeo page or simply click below to watch. You can also learn more about Sam and David’s other work on their website, Facebook, and Instagram.
Want to watch the other short films that made the Oscar Short List this year? Click here to view trailers and full videos.
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The Spring Season of the 2025 Short Film Fund opens on January 15th! This season we are awarding a $15,000 cash production grant and $4,000 cash in finishing funds. Learn more here!
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After 15 years of working in state and national politics, Sarah Chaisson-Warner is moving into the entertainment industry. As the former Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Athena Magazine for Girls, Sarah is now focusing her passion for creative arts through screenwriting. Many of her feature-length scripts focus on the often unseen experiences of gay women throughout American History, and she is also currently writing a sci-fi TV series and a family Christmas script.
