When the Academy Awards are broadcast on March 15, lives will be changed when the winners are announced.

Nowhere is that impact felt so vividly as with the 15 nominated pictures in the three Oscar Shorts categories: Animated Short, Documentary Short and Live Action Short.

Because these films lack nationwide rollouts, they can be difficult to see. That’s why for those who take their Oscar ballots seriously, this week’s “98th Oscar Nominated Shorts” program is a chance to get insider’s access, as presented by director-screenwriter and actor Taika Waititi, an Oscar winner for the Best Adapted Screenplay for his international hit “Jojo Rabbit” (where he comically played Hitler).

As in any competition, there are immediate standouts where the winner seems obvious. And then there are what looks like a neck and neck race with no clear champ.

Occasionally the most lighthearted of the three divisions, Animated Shorts, as expected, also has the most distinctive visuals.

“Forevergreen” is an ecological tale about a bear cub raised by an evergreen tree, while “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” from the legendary National Film Board of Canada, is an elaborate if bittersweet reminiscence told by an elderly man remembering the lost girl of his youth in Montreal. “Retirement Plan,” voiced by Domhnall Gleeson, is a monologue of all the things you might dream of doing — until you’re dead, gone and a ghost.

That makes the winner here a toss-up between “Butterfly,” which refers to the swimming stroke, and “The Three Sisters.”

The French “Butterfly” tells the story of Germany’s 1930s Jewish Olympic qualifying swimmer who wasn’t allowed to compete and was ultimately murdered at Auschwitz.

The lighthearted “The Three Sisters,” told without dialogue, is an imaginative deadpan story of three very different siblings whose lives on a tiny deserted island are forever changed by a visiting sailor.

The Live-Action Shorts looks like a three-way race. “Butcher’s Stain,” set in Tel Aviv, sees an Arab butcher accused of tearing down hostage posters by the owners of the supermarket in which he works. “A Friend of Dorothy,” bubbling with gay undertones, has a young actor befriend Miriam Margoyles’ wealthy widow named Dorothy. And in the raucously outrageous send-up, “Jane Austen’s Period Drama,” the “period” refers to menstruation.

This year’s Documentary Shorts are serious — and seriously depressing. “All the Empty Rooms” salutes child victims of America’s school shootings — and their forever grieving families. “The Devil Is Busy” charts the daily threats and security of an abortion clinic. “Children No More: Were and Are Gone” chronicles the silent Tel Aviv vigils for the children of Gaza killed in the Israeli-Hamas war.

The standout however is “Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud,” a heart tugging, riveting salute to the veteran American photojournalist, killed in Ukraine by Russian soldiers.

The “98th Oscar Nominated Shorts” is in theaters Friday