Catholicism and kids: Narratively speaking, it�s the gift that keeps on giving. Two of the films nominated for this year�s Best Short Film (Live Action) dip into the well � the spooky �The Confession,� about a quiet, well-behaved child stymied due to his lack of bad deeds to take to the confession box, and �Wish 143,� in which a terminally ill teenager enlists a priest in the fulfillment of his last wish, to lose his virginity � while a third, Michael Creagh�s �The Crush,� is set in that seat of Catholicism, Ireland, but skips the religion for a pitchy take on kids doing the darndest things (with guns). Guns also figure strongly in Ivan Goldschmidt�s harrowing Belgian production, �Na Wewe,� which takes place in 1994 Burundi (a border country of Rwanda) during the civil war between the Hutus and Tutsis. When a van of travelers is stopped en route by a band of rebel fighters, men with machine guns demand the passengers sort themselves accordingly: �Hutus to the left, Tutsis to the right.� Subsequent infighting between the rebels tips the film dangerously close to farce, but it does a very fine job of dramatizing the terrifying absurdities of war. The final nominee, �God of Love,� swings the pendulum wide to the absurdities of love. Writer/director Luke Matheny�s black-and-white short looks like a student film; indeed, it was his thesis film for NYU�s Tisch School of the Arts, and it�s already bagged a Student Academy Award � but that�s not the only sense in which it�s winning. Matheny also stars; freakishly tall with a pronounced overbite, he makes a likably unlikely leading man. He plays Raymond Goodfellow, a dart champion cum lounge crooner who, pining for his band�s drummer, prays nightly for some assistance in wooing her. Help arrives, and cosmic chaos ensues, but to say any more would step on the gossamer charms of this romantic comedy.