No, The Short Film "Sorry" Did NOT Win an Oscar for The Best Short Film!

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Social media is often used as a platform to highlight positive human qualities like love, compassion, and selflessness. However, at times, fabricated storylines are used to disseminate these virtues. Let’s look at one such scenario.

Social Media Posts

A video circulating on social media in Sri Lanka claims that an award-winning short film titled "Sorry" allegedly has won an Oscar for Best Short Movie.

The video features a scene in a bustling shopping mall where a large crowd attempts to board an elevator to reach the upper floors. However, as the elevator is overloaded with people, it struggles to ascend, accompanied by a beeping sound indicating the excess weight. Despite the evident problem, nobody is willing to step out of the elevator to reduce the load.

Eventually, a handicapped girl emerges from inside the elevator and voluntarily sacrifices her place so that others can proceed. This emotional three-minute clip portrays a moment of selflessness and compassion amidst a crowd's collective self-interest.

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This emotional clip often makes rounds in WhatsApp, too. But to verify if this short video has indeed been a film titled "Sorry" or if it has won any Oscars, we conducted a fact-check.

Fact Check

Verification of Official Sources: The Academy Awards' official website doesn’t show any record of a short film titled "Sorry" winning an Oscar in recent years. The Academy Awards maintains a comprehensive archive of past winners; any film awarded an Oscar would be listed there. The official website of the Academy Awards can be reached here.

Mainstream Media Confirmation: Major news outlets and reputable media sources have not reported on the existence of a short film named "Sorry" winning an Oscar. In the absence of credible news coverage, the claim lacks substantial evidence.

Investigation on InVID-We-Verify and YouTube: One can often find the source of videos by utilising tools like InVID and conducting relevant searches on YouTube. In this case, the original video was discovered to be a short video produced by Media Village Studio, a creative media hub based in Kerala, India, titled "For You."

Further investigation of the Media Village Studio led us to its affiliation with St. Joseph College of Communication (SJCC). Their website states that SJCC “produces a variety of infotainment and social awareness programmes made by the students themselves under the guidance of experienced professionals.”

SJCC production lists many road awareness videos and other inspirational videos similar to the above Malayalam short film, “For You” Some of such films have also won various local awards too. However, there is no indication that this short film “For You” had won any awards, let alone an Oscar.

Furthermore, our Factcrescendo Malayalam team spoke with the
Mr Sibin, the Public Relations Officer at SJCC. He also clarified that the “For You” short film is getting shared with misleading attribution to Oscars and confirmed that
none of SJCC's videos have yet received an Oscar Nomination and that the local
award details are updated on their official website.

Cross-Referencing with Indian Fact Checks: We discovered several Indian fact-checks addressing a similar claim, albeit centred on a different video. The video in Indian social media posts is actually a short story titled "Sorry," extracted from the short film "The Complete Life."

We even found an instance from 2023 in which the “For You” short film was incorrectly portrayed as an Oscar award-winning film titled “Sorry.”

It is possible that the misinformation circulating in Sri Lanka originated from similar claims made in Indian social media or news platforms. Such practices undermine the message's authenticity, erode trust, and create confusion among users.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, the viral claim that a short film titled "Sorry" won an Oscar for Best Short Movie is false. There is no evidence to support such a claim, and it is likely a misinterpretation or fabrication derived from unrelated Indian misinformation.

Even though the video is misattributed to an Oscar award, the message portrayed by the short film is undeniably strong and heartfelt.