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Eirik Tveiten’s Oscar nominated short Night Ride (Nattrikken) implores us to stand up for others, to say something when we are faced with difficult and confrontational situations and not just to ignore behaviour we know is wrong. Tveiten, knowing he wanted to centre his short around an important societal issue, took inspiration from an old friend’s misguided youth for the film’s inciting incident which propels us into its central conceit. Night Ride opens with a woman standing in a freezing festive Norwegian night, just looking to get home. What immediately follows is an absurd situation which has all the makings of a fun caper, yet the film abruptly takes a dark and menacing turn as a young trans woman is subjected to bigoted, small-minded hatred. Tveiten’s film forces us to look inward and face the same debate as that of Ebba, our tram thief. Do you...

Of the 10 films up for best picture, no fewer than six run 199 minutes or more. On one extreme, James Cameron’s punishing “Avatar” sequel is long enough to require bathroom breaks. At the other, Daniels’ Adhd-styled “Everything Everywhere All at Once” proves equally exhausting, dedicating every hyperkinetic second to stimulating easily distracted audiences. It’s enough to make folks grateful for the lower-profile but still engaging live-action shorts category, where nominees are bound by a strict 40-minute time limit. This year’s crop — the so-so “2023 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action” program — clocks in at under two hours. Available in theaters and on myriad streaming platforms, the international assembly may be a hit-and-miss affair, but never outstays its welcome.

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The opening part of Eirik Tveiten’s Oscar-nominated short film, “Night Ride,” was actually inspired by a real instance that happened to a friend of his in Oslo. “He came into the same situation as the main character does. He takes off with a tram and he sees there are passengers waiting for the tram freezing, so he stops and picks them up,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above). What happens in the second half of the short came from Tveiten’s own hypothetical of what he or other people might do if they saw someone being harassed. “They let things happen because the don’t feel that this applies to them and we tend to not speak up.”

“Night Ride” is a short film from Norway that can currently be viewed on YouTube and through The New Yorker website. It centers...

Sigrid Kandal Husjord in Night Ride

Often when it comes to the Oscars, it’s the films which are most aggressive in forcing big emotions out of viewers which are the most successful, so it’s always nice to see a film succeed it a different way, with nuance and wit. Although Norwegian short film Night Ride (aka Nattrikken) deals with some serious issues around harassment and the need for people to stand up for each other, it’s just as much its humour and warm-heartedness that will stay with you. Beautifully shot and set on a crisp winter evening, it follows a lone woman, Ebba (played by Sigrid Kandal Hushord) who accidentally steals a tram and doesn’t know how to extricate herself from the situation. When a young trans woman on the tram is subjected to harassment, she feels even more stressed and uncertain, but ultimately plucks up...

There’s a sense of magic and possibility present from the start in Eirik Tveiten’s Oscar-shortlisted Night Ride. Vergard Landsverk’s chocolate box cinematography presents us with a snowy landscape limned with dark pines, where a pool of light reveals a solitary tram stop. There, Ebba (Sigrid Kandal Husjord) is waiting, feeling less than enchanted, huddled up in a thick coat but still feeling the cold. The tram driver doesn’t care. He tells her that it’s half an hour until the tram is due to depart, and no, she can’t wait inside it. So when he goes for a piss, she forces the doors open. The trouble is, she can’t get them closed again. Going over to the driver’s seat, she looks for a button which might do it – and you can guess what happens next.

The tale of a runaway tram is a natural charmer,...