"Shorts" have become an everyday fixture of our lives today. Just as Pixar paved the way with unforgettable smaller films (remember story of the Luxo lamp?) preceding their full-length features, so have YouTube and Vimeo put shorts on our daily radar.

Still, when the awards for Best Live Action, Animated, and Documentary Short Film are announced every year at the Oscars, our viewing comes to a screeching halt as few of us have seen—let alone heard of—the films up for these particular prizes. But thanks to ShortsHD and Magnolia Pictures, audiences throughout the US and Canada will have the exciting chance to watch the nominated shorts prior to the Academy Awards ceremony on February 26.

On February 10, New Yorkers can screen all of the nominees for Best Live Action and Animated Short at the IFC Center. With short (live action) tales about an altar boy, Irish love triangles, and time travel—and (animated) stories chronicling the adventures of driving through Austrailia, fending for food in the Amazon, and surviving the Antarctic—who could say no?

Read more about the 2012 nominees for Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short here.

Find out more about the 2012 Oscar Shorts here.

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