It's almost Academy Awards® time and whether or not the writers will still be on strike, it seems that each year the movies are less and less relevant to the show itself. Between the Valentino dresses, Armani suits and pregger rumors, we feel Oscar® (or at least media coverage) has lost its focus.

Enter Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International and their Indie Movie-loving glory: they're teaming to showcase this year's Academy Award nominated short films (animated and live action) that are rarely seen. They will be presenting the showcase at the Embarcadero Center Cinema and Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley for your viewing pleasure, starting February 15. This is a great idea, since every year we watch the live telecast, we're teased (teased!) with short 15 second clips of (what look like) very good films.

But whereto do we go to watch them? We never seem to know. While Wholphin has done a good job of gaining more exposure for lesser-seen shorts, they can't cover everything. So this year, for bragging rights amongst the film nerds, we're talking up all the nominees and hope that you'll support them when they're shown at theaters.

Picture courtesy of Oscar.com.