Does anybody outside of the Academy actually see the short features they give Oscars for? I haven’t seen a short subject in a theater for at least 30 years. If nobody but Academy members sees them, why bother giving awards?
I guess that’s two questions, but they can be answered together if anyone knows.
The awards are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to award advances in film artistry and technology. Shorts are the perfect laboratory for experimenting with new forms of artistic expression and technological innovations. It ain’t all about marketing.
Once in a while you see one of the animation greats place a short in it but the glory days ot wb mgm and disney ect duking it out are long gone…
Now days there too classy to have something like tom and jerry in the oscars…
Didnt mgm have the most or was that warners for oscars ?
Every Film Festival I’ve ever been to shows shorts. The casual moviegoer might never get a “chance” to see them, but access to these films certainly is not limited to Academy members.
Here in Los Angeles some of the “art house” movie theatres will run a program of shorts once in a while. Last year for the month leading up to the Academy Awards one local theatre gathered up all of the live-action and animated shorts that had been nominated for the Oscars and played them back-to-back for a single admission price. I went to a screening and absolutely LOVED it. I’m sure some theatre did it this year too, but I’ve been too busy this past month to keep up.
Also some of the Cable movie channels (IFC and some others) show Shorts programs.
Well actually Aussie Adam Elliot who won best Animated Short announced in his acceptance speech that Harvie Krumpet is on SBS television next Monday. Lucky he did because SBS is the foreign language channel and rates bottom of the heap.
As to the major studios competing for this prize the nominees he beat were:
Bud Luckey for Boundin’ using the resources of Pixar
Carlos Saldanha and John C. Donkin for Gone Nutty bankrolled by 20th Century Fox
Roy Edward Disney and Dominique Monfery Destino backed by surprise, surprise Disney
Canada’s Chris Hinton for Nibbles from tiny Acme Filmworks.
That makes sense, though I still wonder why they present to such relatively obscure filmmakers on the awards show.
I haven’t been to an “art house” in many years, and back then, short subjects were not the kind of “art” I was interested in. 
Basically the “obscure” filmmakers deserve just as much recognition for their outstanding achievement as the “mainstream” filmmakers. The nominations and awards are voted on by their peers, not the general public.
In case you didn’t know, William Zabka was nominated for an Oscar for best live-action short. He is best known as the bad guy in Karate Kid and Back To School. He didn’t win dammit.
From the official rules for the short films awards:
I knew somebody in the SDMB would know. Thanks, everybody, for the replies. Now I know that at least some paying customers see the short films, and that they do have a place at the Oscars. I’m personally frustrated by the fact that I don’t have access to them, living as I do in the boondocks and having no cable access. When I win the Lottery, I’ll move back to civilization.
If it makes you feel any better, I do live in Southern California, have cable, have access to the theaters where they are shown, but I rarely ever see them.
You really have to want to see them and actively seek them out.
Just amongst the Short Film (Animated) winners since 1990, Creature Comforts, The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave have all (deservedly) been major hits on TV, VHS and DVD in Britain. Indeed, Nick Park is arguably the most popular native film maker in the country over this period. His success with these directly led to Chicken Run. The 1994 winner Bob’s Birthday was less successful, but also received a high profile TV screening here.
Going only slightly further back, the 1988 winner was Tin Toy by Lasseter and Reeves. Promising stuff, perhaps?
I see a ton of shorts every year at my city’s film festival. Halter tops, too. 
Seriously: Your profile says you’re in the “California high desert.” What’s the closest city of, say, greater than 20,000 people? It’s a rare town these days that doesn’t take even a vague stab at scheduling a film festival of some kind.
Often these short films are made by students in film school. I know that the University of Southern California’s film school requires Cinema Majors to make their own short film.
When these “obscure filmmakers” are nominated for a frickin’ Academy Award, this is a gigantic springboard to their careers. It puts them “on the map”, so to speak. Don’t forget, part of the mission of Academy of Motion Picture is to promote and nurture the art of filmmaking.
I live “near” (a relative term) Apple Valley, Victorville and Hesperia, all of which have populations of more than 50,000. I’ve only been here for six years, but I never heard of any kind of film festival. Victorville has a couple of multi-plex theaters, Hesparia, which I visit seldom, may have one or more, and Apple Valley has no theater at all. I wouldn’t know about Batrstow. I haven’t been able to figure out why there is a Barstow, except as a place to get both automobile and intestinal gas on the way to Las Vegas. Where I live there is no cable, because it isn’t worth the cable company’s investment to string it out here. I have a dish, but I don’t pay for any of the premium channels. I’ve never even seen The Sopranos fer chrissake!
But when I lived in a more “civilized” area, I still never saw one. Wouldn’t mind a few of those halter tops, though!
Seriously,
I think the closest film festival for you would be the one in Palm Springs.
But it’s in January.
http://www.psfilmfest.org/
Think I’ll go in June instead. . .and check out those halter tops! 
A member of the Academy has told me that although they get some complaints and questions, neither the Academy or the network that broadcasts the Oscar show has an incentive to remove the “obscure” awards from the telecast. The longer the show, the more ads, and the more money they make.
That said, I’m in favor of keeping the awards for shorts and documentaries. If you ever have a chance to see the The Old Man and the Sea, the only Oscar-winning IMAX film, DO NOT MISS IT! It’s an absolutely incredible film.