Two People Exchanging Saliva (2025)

The newest winner here, and the strangest. In a society where people pay for things by being slapped across the face and kissing is outlawed, a compulsive shopper named Angine grows fascinated by a playful young saleswoman in a department store. Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata shot it in black and white and in French, and Zar Amir Ebrahimi leads a cast that plays the absurd rules completely straight, which is where both the comedy and the dread come from. At 36 minutes it is the longest film on the list. It tied for Best Live Action Short at the March 2026 ceremony, sharing the award with The Singers, and it streams free on The New Yorker's YouTube channel.