A. O. Scott has an account of the animated and live action shorts that have been nominated for the Oscars this year. These shorts are now running in theaters in the U. S.

Film critic David Thomson is already saying that awards for short films, documentary and all, should be removed from the main night to make the event crisper.

Oscar shorts are making rounds of theaters in the U. S. Live action and animated shorts are screened separately, and judging from the trailers and publicity, they will run at least until the Awards event on Sunday.

David Thomson profiles Danny Boyle in The Guardian this week. Like  Frank Rich in The New York Times (and many others to echo elsewhere), Thomson calls it the film for the times of recession, a story of rags to riches.