Standalone short films rarely take wide North American release the way features do. Through the awards cycle, FilmBase covers the routes shorts actually travel—Academy qualifying runs, festival packages, anthology series, and streamer specials.
Cross-genre titles appear on more than one FilmBase page when that helps readers browsing mood—for example a heist comedy under both Action and Comedy—without changing the studio listing or distributor.
Movies
Academy short film qualifying paths
Upcoming · AMPAS
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences publishes special rules and FAQs for Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film each season, including qualifying windows and exhibition requirements. Filmmakers and publicists announce individual shorts as they qualify; those announcements appear first on festival and studio short-film pages rather than wide theatrical calendars.
V/H/S/MIXTAPE (anthology feature of short segments)
Upcoming · Shudder · Film
Metacritic lists V/H/S/MIXTAPE for Shudder. Like prior V/H/S entries, it packages multiple short horror segments into a feature-length anthology for streaming.
Anthology features are one of the few short-form routes that receive firm consumer listings on mainstream calendars.
Festival short programs rolling into theaters
Upcoming · Rolling windows · Specialty / Fathom-style events
Specialty distributors and event bookers periodically announce Oscar Shorts theatrical programs after nominations. Those packages usually announce city lists weeks before play.
Until an Oscar Shorts touring program publishes listings, treat it as expected seasonal programming rather than a locked FilmBase title card.
Streamer short-form and specials
Netflix / Prime Video / others
Individual short films without a public announcement are omitted here on purpose.
TV Series / New Seasons
Adventure Time: Side Quests
Hulu / Disney+
Den of Geek lists Adventure Time: Side Quests on Hulu and Disney+. Short-quest formatting sits closer to short-form anthology TV than to a theatrical short.
Helluva Boss Season 3
Prime Video · Series
Helluva Boss Season 3 on Prime Video per Amazon's upcoming-originals list. Episodes are short-form adult animation relative to hour-long dramas.
Listed as adjacent short-form series programming, not as an Oscar short.
Shorts travel differently
If you are looking for a Friday-night wide release of a single live-action short, you will rarely find one on Metacritic's feature calendar. Shorts reach audiences through Academy qualifying runs, festival programs, Oscar Shorts theatrical packages after nominations, anthology features, and streamer short-form series.
V/H/S/MIXTAPE (Shudder) is the practical example of short segments packaged as a consumer feature listing. Adventure Time: Side Quests and Helluva Boss Season 3 show how short-form animation seasons receive ordinary premiere listings on TV calendars.
The Academy's published short-film rules and FAQs remain the authoritative qualifying map for filmmakers. FilmBase cites oscars.org for that path and sticks to titles with public release announcements. When a Oscar Shorts touring program publishes city listings, that program card can land here.
Not a ticket desk. FilmBase.org is a reading guide to announced films and TV seasons. Release dates, windows, casts, and platforms change. Use the studio and streamer pages in Sources before you plan around a title.
Affiliate disclosure: FilmBase.org participates in the Amazon Associates program and may earn a commission if you buy or subscribe through Amazon links on this site. The price you pay does not change. Notes in the right-hand column are written to get you watching on Prime Video. An Associates tracking tag is not printed in this text.