Rock, Paper, Scissors (, ) is a 2024 British short film directed by Franz Böhm and produced by Hayder Rothschild Hoozeer with the lead role was played by Ukrainian actor Oleksandr Rudynskyi. The Ukrainian and Russian-language film explores the human cost of war, focusing on the emotional and psychological impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film won the Best British Short Film category at the 2025 BAFTA Awards The film is currently shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards.
A British production, Rock, Paper, Scissors premiered at the Show Me Shorts Film Festival in New Zealand on 13th October 2024, an Academy Awardî-qualifying festival. It later screened at several prestigious international festivals, including the British Urban Film Festival, Aesthetica Film Festival, Cambridge Film Festival, and Norwich Film Festival in the UK. It also gained recognition at the St. Louis International Film Festival in the United States, where it was nominated for the Audience Award for Best Live Action Short Film, another Oscar-qualifying category.
The filmâÂÂs soundtrack has been nominated for Best Original Score in the Short Film (Live Action) category at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in 2024.
Ivan, a young man living in eastern Ukraine, awaits an evacuation vehicle with his father, a surgeon in a frontline hospital, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine begins. The vehicle is destroyed by Russian aviation, and Ivan receives radioed intelligence from Ukrainian scouts that two Russian soldiers are approaching their bunker, and that dispatching another transport is impossible.
A wounded soldier gives Ivan his sniper rifle. Ivan sees that there are eight, not two, Russian soldiers. Understanding that he cannot neutralize them all, he shoots himself in the leg in order to pose as a pro-Russian local resident and divert the Russians. However, the Russians are already aware of the hospital's location, and Russian aviation destroys the building along with all the civilians inside.
The film's closing credits reveal that after the destruction of the hospital and the death of his father, Ivan joined the military and was killed in combat in 2023.
The film is a National Film and Television School production filmed in the United Kingdom and Wales. Produced by Hayder Rothschild Hoozeer, with the support of production manager Jade Way, and production coordinator Adrianna Saetta. Rock, Paper, Scissors was shot in summer of 2023 with an all Ukrainian cast and completed in late 2024.
The film had its world premiere at the Oscar-qualifying âÂÂShow Me Shortsâ festival in New Zealand and its UK premiere at the British Urban Film Festival, both in October 2024.