Winning the office Oscar pool isn’t going to come down to predicting whether Argo can beat out Lincoln, The Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty for Best Picture. It’s going to be decided by the less-celebrated categories, such as Best Animation and Live Action short films. Luckily, there’s no longer a need to blindly guess the victor of these two categories. Since 2006, the Best Animation and Live Action short film nominees have been packaged in their respective categories for theatrical release. This year’s nominees will begin screening Friday at the Alamo Slaughter Lane and Violet Crown Cinema. Two of the Best Animation Short Film nominees have been seen by more people than most of this year’s Best Picture nominees. The Simpsons spin-off The Longest Daycare accompanied Ice Age: Continental Drift while Disney’sPaperman (pictured) played before Wreck-It-Ralph. The former puts Maggie Simpson front and center in an amusing confrontation with her mortal enemy Baby Gerald when both are dropped off at a daycare center The latter is a dreamily animated, hopelessly romantic tale that dares to suggest that penning a love letter isn’t the only way to use paper to win over the object of your affection. Two other films focus on love and the pain it can cause. Head Over Heels offers an imaginatively comical look at how an elderly married couple’s life is literally and figuratively turned upside down when they drift apart. The poignant Garden of Eden tale Adam and Dog proves that nothing can come between man and man’s best friend—except for a woman. Directed by Minkyu Lee, Adam and Dog possesses the look and feel of classic Disney, except for its partial nudity. Finally, Fresh Guacamole is a 1-minute curious delight that finds a chef using the most unusual of ingredients to make dip. Regardless, it will leave you feeling peckish. Two of the entries in the 2013 Academy Award Nominated Live Action Shorts view war-ravaged nations through the eyes of children. Employing humor as a means to take the edge off a chilling tale of life and death, Asad takes us to Somalia, where a young boy who wants to join a band of pirates receives a harsh lesson in the realities of the criminal life. Buzkasi Boys focuses on two Afghani friends who want to grow to up become riders in the national sport of Buzhasi, a game of horse polo that involves the use of a dead goat. This heart-breaking coming-of-age drama makes clear that there’s no easy way out of a life of poverty. The equally haunting French drama Henry, about a musician who believes his wife has been kidnapped, reveals how time can be cruel to an aging mind. Rust and Bone’s Matthias Schoenaerts stars as a different kind of photographer in Death of a Shadow, an eerie Dutch sci-fi tinged drama that asks us how much you would sacrifice for the one you love. Finally, the U.S.-made Curfew is a dark comedy about the importance of the ties that binds us. Written and directed by lead actor Shawn Christensen, Curfew features a witty and curious performance by Fatima Ptacek as a 9-year-old girl who never fully realizes the impact that the evening she spends with her suicidal uncle will have on him and her mother. Jokes aside about your Oscar pool, it’s great that the Academy Award-nominated animated and live action shorts can be seen in theaters before during the race for Oscar gold. These packages offer a chance to enjoy some amazing short films that likely would not be shown outside of a film festival setting.