Each year on Oscar Nomination Day I find myself lamenting the difficulty of getting hold of the short films that get nods. This year, with all the talk about film downloads (word got out yesterday that Napster is planning to offer video downloads, and that google is to launch video search) I’m left wondering why no-one was poised to announce that they were offering downloads of the ten shorts.

The best I’ve found so far is this teaser of Gopher Broke and this one of Ryan. Walt Disney Pictures aren’t even advertising their Short Film (animated) nominee on their homepage…

Video download could be a great place for short films to re-establish themselves. Bandwidth is less of an issues, people are likely to be more eager to try something new, and the cost of entry is a lot lower. I for one am hoping it won’t be a long wait.