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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Oscar-nominated shorts programs open today at AMC

Dan Webster

Above: The animated short "Hair Love" is among the Oscar-nominated animated program.

As is obvious by the theater's own schedule, AMC River Park Square is holding a virtual Oscar festival beginning today.

Along with the Oscar Best Picture nominees that will screen on Saturday, today the theater will show two of the Oscar-nominated shorts programs: Live Action and Animation

According to Hollywood Reporter critic John DeFore, the Live Action program offers "a diverse bunch of films, spanning the globe, offering a wide range of emotional experience and just enough topical relevance to feel nutritious. It's the category most worth debating this year, but one for which arguments are unlikely to grow ugly."

And New York Post critic Sara Stewart writes of the Animation program, "Don’t sit down to watch this year’s batch of animated shorts without a handful of Kleenex. The five Oscar-nominated films, featuring a remarkable range of style and dazzling artistry, are a uniformly heart-wrenching bunch."

All of which is good news. These days we could do with a bit of non-ugly arguments and maybe even a bit of public grief.