For many years, the Academy Awards' short-film categories seemed like mysterious interruptions in Oscar-night programming, brief moments of exposure for directors and films the viewing audience had never heard of and would never see. Producers, studio executives and agents perused the nominees closely in search of uncorrupted new talent (as they still do). Beyond that, the principal audience for shorts -- defined by the Academy as motion pictures less than 40 minutes long -- largely comprised film-festival programmers, educational-film buyers and the producers of earnest, low-rated public-TV programs.

When I look at the list of Oscar-winning live-action short films, in fact, I'm shocked at how few of them I've seen, and how few of the directors' names I recognize, at least when they're not named Walt Disney. (Yes, he made live-action films as well, and won at least six Oscars for them.) There are a couple of exceptions in recent years: Scottish director Andrea Arnold won for "Wasp" in 2004, and went on to make the terrific thriller "Red Road," while the Irish-British playwright Martin McDonagh copped a statuette two years ago for "Six Shooter," before making his current indie hit "In Bruges." (If you haven't seen Peter Capaldi's 1994 short-Oscar winner, "Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life," seek it out immediately.)

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