The New York Times does this every year, during awards season, in celebration of the year’s best performances – at least those actors whose names you’ll find on many an Oscar prognosticator’s short list of contenders.
Each year, it’s a different kind of homage, if you will. Recent years have featured, as it did in 2011, what the Times called a video gallery of cinematic villainy, inspired by nefarious on-screen icons, starring that year’s expected contenders, like Viola Davis (for The Help) and Adepero Oduye (Pariah).
This year, 2013, the year’s best performers star in 11 original short films (very short) directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski.
The stars of this year’s short films include Forest Whitaker (The Butler), Oprah Winfrey (The Butler), Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station), and Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave).
Watch them all below.
First, Forest Whitaker:
