Road to the Oscars, 2024. This movie is nominated for one award, and it's documentary short.

Island In between is an interesting look at a conflict that still to this day need some more attention. The problem with this documentary is that it doesn't dig deep enough or tell the necessary story to really impact me. It is more a calm before the storm documentary, but understanding the storm to begin with is to me very important, and the doc doesn't go into detail about the conflict but just tells a small story about how life is on the other side.

We hear about the small island of Taiwan, close to the Chinese border. About life and problems and the constant fear.

I think the biggest problem with the documentary is the lack of understanding of everything I had. While I know about the conflict, it would have been interesting to have been introduced more to the total story. This is just a small glimpse into the life and fear of being in Taiwan, never really knowing when things are going to escalate and.

That's why I loved the idea and tone of the doc. It's almost relaxing and calm with some really well shot footage. It's about showing how quiet it is for better and worse. Nothing is going on, but they are at the same time cut off from China and never know when it's all over, it's so scary but the doc presents it in a really relaxed way. It's interesting to hear about, I just wanted more.

I wish it had a bit more focus, telling either more about the Taiwanese experience, or the covid restrictions or the story. It just lacked a bit of a red thread in my opinion.

But overall, it's nice to have a documentary addressing an ongoing conflict that is often forgotten and overlooked. It's interesting to hear, but never really got me too invested in it. The digestible runtime also makes it easy to watch, but also a surfaced, leveled one.

Oscar predictions: I don't really know if this has a chance to win, but it has a topic that would speak to the academy and the world at the moment, so I also see it having a chance. I have heard others of the documentary shorts have a better chance, but I have only seen one, and I thought The Barber of Little Rock was a better documentary short.