There’s a lot of talk at the end of the year about Oscar-baiting. Epic films with dark themes and scenery-chewing performances abound; it’s a time for “serious” films about fresh concepts like the mentally challenged and the Holocaust, or the odd deifying biopic about a drug-addled, recently deceased musical icon.

Well, now there’s Sundance-baiting. The “quirky” films featuring no-name actors aside Hollywood giants moonlighting in miscast sagas about oddball misfit characters engaging in topsy-turvy meditations on life, relationships and art. Shit happens, indie songwriters jangle in the background, and everything ends on a quizzically upbeat, if not offbeat note. A great example? Little Miss Sunshine.

“Nazi porn?”

That’s a term writer Ron Rosenbaum used in his Slate critique of this year’s film The Reader — “Don’t give an Oscar to The Reader.” Guess Rosenbaum was less than pleased to see a glowing Kate Winslet carry away a gold statue last Sunday for her starring role in the film.

In his scathing column, Rosenbaum summarized the film. While in prison for participating in the murder of 300 Jews, the protagonist, Hanna, taught herself to read. “What a heartwarming fable about the wonders of literacy and its ability to improve the life of an Auschwitz mass murderer!” he pronounced. “Get a load of those pages turning! Reading is fun!”

As someone who hasn’t even gotten around to seeing Slumdog Millionaire, Milk or The Curious Case of it Benjamin Button — no, not even one of its 165 minutes — I can say that I was very wary of taking time to watch the 80th Academy Award nominees for Best Live Action Short Film (you probably know them as the part of the ceremony during which you flip through the channels).

However, after viewing the nominated shorts, I can now say that these films are phenomenal — not perfect, but definitely worth anyone’s time (plus all five of them take up 65 less minutes of your time than Benjamin Button does, not to mention one of them is not even half the time of an episode of Gossip Girl!).