Oscar Shorts Out The Wazoo And The Rest Of This Week S Screenings

• Mr. Hublot (see “The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2014: Animated”)

When I was a kid parked in front of the TV set, my father would say things to me like, “Too bad you can’t get a job watching cartoons.” Well, I guess I showed him: in this week’s long review I consider the five animated shorts, screening at Landmark’s Century Centre, that made the cut for the 2014 Academy Awards. We’ve also reviewed the nominated live-action shorts, screening at Landmark on a separate bill, and the nominated documentary shorts, showing at Music Box in two installments. Speaking of Music Box, this week it presents the first Chicago run of Hirokazu Kore-edu’s Like Father, Like Son, which Ben Sachs counted among the best films of 2013 after it screened at the Chicago International Film Festival.