There’s not much humor, or even sense of play, in the 15 films nominated for Oscars in three shorts categories.

The documentary program is at times almost intractably grim. The best of the lot is Yi Seung-Jun’s “In the Absence,” a terse, harrowing, infuriating account of the sinking of the South Korean ferry Sewol that took more than 300 lives in 2014. “Life Overtakes Me,” directed by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson, examines resignation syndrome among children of refugee immigrants in Sweden. The story of children who fall into almost coma-like states in reaction to the prospect of deportation is fascinating and ghastly, but its telling is affected.