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Nordic (a.k.a. Scandinavian) Cinema – films made in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – is known for its stark and foreboding landscapes, slow pacing, and strange humor that seems to toggle between absurdism, surrealism and just plain silly. Those are, admittedly, some over-arching stereotypes; but, personally, I most enjoy Nordic films that match those stereotypes to a tee. In fact, many of my favorite directors are from Nordic nations (Ingmar Bergman, Aki Kaurismäki, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Lasse Hallström, Lars von Trier, Lukas Moodysson, Susanne Bier, Risto Jarva, Erik Skjoldbjærg, Tomas Alfredson, Bent Hamer, Baltasar Kormákur, Dagur Kári, and Olaf de Fleur). I’m not sure what that says about me as a person? To the best of my knowledge, I am not of Nordic ancestry – so I cannot explain where I gained this strange affinity for Nordic cinema. In which case, I’ll just lay all of the blame...

This year's five Oscar nominees for best live-action short film are available to buy on Apple's iTunes Music Store. Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures, which recently partnered to bring all 10 live-action and animated short film nominees to theaters before Sunday's ceremony, have teamed again to bring the live shorts to the Internet. The five available films are Ulrike Grote's Ausreisser (The Runaway), Sean Ellis' Cashback, Runar Runarsson's The Last Farm, Rob Pearlstein's Our Time Is Up and Martin McDonagh's Six Shooter.