Ranking the Oscar Nominated Shorts: 2012 - 2021

Welcome to a very special edition of the Best Animated Short blog. We are still a few weeks away from the Academy Award ceremony, where the Best Animated Short category has been relegated to second class status. Yet it is also the 90th year where the Academy has a category for Best Animated Short. Which means it's time for me to pull out an old favorite from when I was going back in time reviewing the nominated shorts: I'm going to rank the Oscar nominated films from the past 10 years by how much I enjoyed them.

If you've been reading my reviews over the past ten years you'll know that at the end of each review I rank the shorts by quality and by preference. However, both of these metrics are incredibly subjective, and quite frequently how much I enjoy a film goes a long way by how good I think it is. There are certainly times where I can recognize the artistry into a film I didn't really like, but they almost never claim the top spot in rankings by quality. Anyways, when I have to go back over the 50 short films that were nominated in the past ten years, I think it's easier to solely rank them by preference. That is what I did with my eight previous entries, and that is what I'm going to do here.

This edition is going to be different in certain ways from the eight previous rankings that predated this one. For those I had almost all of the films available to me in some fashion, and I was able to make those rankings every ten reviews, which usually took a few weeks. For these 50 films I had to wait for the Academy to announce their new sets of nominees, and to do that for ten years. That means a lot more time for my tastes to change and evolve than with my previous reviews, especially since there are several of these films that I haven't seen since I wrote the review in their respective years. I have watched all of the films again to make these rankings, so yes, there will be some discrepancies between my rankings in the individual reviews and this one. 

And also, just because a film is ranked low doesn't necessary mean I hated it. There are just that many more of the nominees I liked more than it. I think it is a testament to how well the Academy had been doing in formulating these nominees. It's just a shame that they would relegate this category to secondary status. Anyways, as in previous entries, I will be writing small blurbs about each film that will get longer and longer until they become mini-reviews. I hope you're getting all settled because here we go.

Best Animated Short - 2020

Doesn't it seem like forever since I wrote one of these reviews? Thanks to the delay in the Oscar ceremony, it's been 15 months since I wrote the review for the 2019 nominees. And of course there's the entire issue of 2020 being the longest year in people's lives given the problem with COVID and quarantine. But now the upcoming Oscar ceremony is finally upon us. While at times it seemed doubtful that I'd be able to get this review written, largely due to the fact that I was unable to get myself to a showing of the Best Animated Short nominees. (It always sucks to have to miss those showings, I like going even if I've seen all the nominees.) Yet one of the loyal readers of the blog (I'm surprised that those exist, considering my lack of a background in animation means my opinions are largely through a layman's eyes) came through with an assist, and I am finally able to present to you a review of the Best Animated Short nominees from the most difficult year in human history.

Best Animated Short - 2019

Well, it has been a week since the Oscar nominations were announced, and as I had wrote, I saw three of the nominated films just from scouring the internet for the shortlisted films. For the first five days I checked frequently for the last two without much success. However, everything changed over the weekend. First, Daughter got posted onto Vimeo. It was posted by somebody whose name doesn't appear at all in the credits. Given the fact that it's been removed I have a feeling it was an unauthorized leak. And then I stumbled across a Vimeo post of Memorable, one that was posted almost ten months ago by the production company Vivement Lundi. I could have sworn it was not there every time I looked, which suggests that it was set on private for a while, but it had been made available for public view. So yippee, I've now seen every nominee in this category this year, and 368 of the 369 nominees in the category's history. 

*shakes fist at Rippling Romance*

But now that I have seen all the nominees, I must drop all of the plans that I had for tonight to bring you...my review. And then I can go back into hibernation with the exception of posting which of these five films had won the Oscar. 

Best Animated Short - 2018 - BAO

I'll confess that I was less enthused about the Oscars this year than the years past. I'm not entirely sure why, but it may be because I'm focusing more on other interests such as baseball, My Little Pony, and video games? I had considered skipping the Oscars entirely and just watching who won Best Animated Short online, especially as the Academy was considering presenting some categories during commercial breaks, but in the end I decided to tune in for the whole thing. That still meant that Best Animated Short was the category I'm most anticipating. And of course presenters Aquafina and John Mulaney called it a big one. And of course I have to present the winner? And the winner this year?

Bao

Best Animated Short - 2018

Well today's the big day! It's the day of the Oscar announcement, and the day we find out what five films will join in the annals of Oscar history of Best Animated Short nominees. Well, it's been three hours since the nominations were announced, so that isn't that much of a surprise anymore. However, this was an unprecedented year and all ten of the shortlisted films were made available for public consumption. Some of the films have been taken down by now, but as a result for the third time since I've been following this category, I have seen all five nominees on the day of the nomination announcement, and I can go ahead and post my review. I may try to make a showing, just because I do really like this particular crop of nominees.

As far as the rest of the nominations go, I'm afraid I haven't kept up with life action films as much. I do know that the Academy dropped their plans for a Best Popular Film category and just went ahead and nominated Black Panther for the award. The only other Best Picture nominee I saw was Bohemian Rhapsody and was somewhat underwhelmed. Yes, I still haven't seen BlackkKlansman, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star is Born, or Vice. I am 5/5 on the Best Animated Feature nominees: Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Mirai, Ralph Breaks the Internet, and Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. I will note that Mirai is the first animated film from Japan not made by Studio Ghibli to get a nomination in this category. Unfortunately, I still think Wolf Children is Mamoru Hosoda's stronger film.

And in case you're wondering, the Studio Ghibli films that got a nomination were Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, The Wind Rises, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, and When Marnie was There.

Anyways, I don't have much else to say about the other films, so let's just go to the reviews.

Best Animated Short - 2017

Well, it's time for my annual review of the Best Animated Short nominees, pretty much the only post I care to write every year. This year I'm writing it much later than I'd like. I've been following the Best Animated Short category since starting to watch all of the nominated films shortly after the 2006 Oscars (or the Oscar ceremony dedicated to honoring the films from 2006, which is my preferred way of classifying ceremonies.) It was before the 2009 Oscars that I found out about the Shortlist, and since then I've been trying to watch as many as I can before the nominations are out. On only two occasions I've seen all five on the day of the nomination. For all the rest I've had to rely on the screenings around the country of the Oscar nominated short films, which have become quite popular. Alas, most of the times there are usually only one or two films that I'm missing, and I have to go to the showing, which I've gone to anyways even on the two occasions where I have seen all the nominees by the day of the nomination. Anyways, this year I saw three of the nominees before the nominations were announced, and was able to find another one online after that. Sadly, I had no luck with the last film, and had to go to the showing, which seemed to happen later this year than in previous years. Nevertheless, I was going to Houston for a card show on February 11 and was able to find a theater showing the films on February 10, so I was able to get the films seen. So here's my review on each of the five films.

Best Animated Short 2017 - The Nominees

Well, today's the big day: the Oscar Nominations! Five new films are going to join the illustrious list that includes legendary films such as The Jaywalker, Small Talk, and A Greek Tragedy. Well, since the announcement happened three hours earlier, I'm sure you know what they are, but here it is again:

Dear Basketball

Garden Party

Lou

Negative Space

Revolting Rhymes

PIPER wins Best Animated Short

 
Well, I didn't have my computer when watching the Oscars so I didn't have any way to make this post, so it's probably a few hours delayed, but being that this is a blog about the Best Animated Short category, I might as well report it. Most of the news tomorrow (or rather later today) will probably be about the fiasco with the Best Picture category, but there's no doubt about what went down in the Best Animated Short film category (which is clearly the most important category anyways). After 13 years of heartbreak and eight previous losses, Pixar finally went back to the winner's circle (at least in this Best Animated Feature category) with their first win since For the Birds in 2001.

That's right, Piper takes home the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

This is only their fourth win in this category, with Tin Toy (1988) and Geri's Game (1997)

Other thoughts after the break

Best Animated Short - 2016

Well, as you might have heard, the Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and five more films entered into the rank of Best Animated Short nominees along with such luminaries as Small Talk, A Greek Tragedy, and The Jaywalker. I had talked a little bit about the nominees earlier today, but for the first time since 2009, I was able to watch all of the nominees not only before the Shorts International theatrical showing, but also on the day of the nomination. After all, four of the five shortlisted films I had seen received nomination, and the National Film Board made the final nominee available for purchase. So, since I have seen all five films I might as well get the review out of the way. I just hope this isn't going to take six hours (although knowing how slow my computer is now it probably will take more than six hours.)

Best Animated Short - 2015

Well, it's that time of year again, time for me to stop ignoring my blog and actually write something for once. With all but one of the nominees seen and reviewed, I'm at the point where I'd either have to write some content about topics that are not related to this category or wait around for the nominees every year. So far I've been too lazy to write original content, so I'm just waiting around for the nominees, and now comes the point where I can't delay any longer and write the review, because I finally seen all of the nominees.

Best Animated Short 2015 - Nominees

So yeah, as loyal reader Sean Ramsdell noted, the Oscar nominees were announced today. I actually woke up in time to watch them (not too bad considering they were at 7:30 and I had to be at work by 8:15) after getting back from an interview in Boise at 2:30. However, I missed the actual Best Animated Short announcement by Guillermo del Toro and two-time Oscar winner Ang Lee due to computer issues. However, it didn't take too long for the full set of nominees to make it online. The tricky part was just finding time to write about them. I've only seen three of the five, so the full review won't come up until I see the last two.

Best Animated Short - 1986

We are now at 1986, which was a fairly interesting year, although most of the major events were tragedies. It began with a literal bang with the Challenger disaster, which killed six astronauts and a schoolteacher in their prime. Then in April came the Chernobyl disaster, the worst nuclear accident in history, and one that still resonates in popular culture 26 years later. Thousands were killed in Cameroon in August as Lake Nyos released a large cloud of carbon dioxide. It was an up and down year for Boston sports. Roger Clemens put his stamp in baseball history for the first time with his 20-strikeout game, and then the Celtics won the NBA finals. And then they went on to draft Maryland basketball star Len Bias, seemingly ensuring a Celtics dynasty. Yet it all came crashing down only two days later when Bias died from a fatal cardiac arrhythmia after trying cocaine for the first time. The Red Sox seemed to make up for the tragedy by getting only one out away from their first World Series since 1918, but then Bob Stanley allowed the game-tying run with a wild pitch (or a passed ball depending on who you want to believe), and then the game-winning run scored when an over-eager Bill Buckner rushed to field a grounder so quickly that the intertia closed the glove, letting the ball slip between his legs.

Best Animated Short - 1988

1988 was one of the more significant years in the turbulent decade of my birth. It was the year of the Bush/Dukakis presidential race, the year Soviet Russia begins its perestroika movement that will eventually contribute to the fall of the USSR. Lee Teng-Hui and Benezir Bhutto come into power in Taiwan and Pakistan respectively. US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop releases the groundbreaking report that nicotine is addictive, which may or may not (probably not) have led to tobacco giant Philip Morris buying Kraft Foods. And Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270, all victims of terrorism.

In the sports world, the Summer and Winter Olympics were held in Seoul and Calgary respectively. Kirk Gibson, who was almost essentially lame after injuring both lower extremities, hits a backdoor slider off of Dennis Eckersley blowing the minds of Jack Buck and Vin Scully. In the film world, Rain Man was the surprise box office champ, and was later the Oscar champ, taking home four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman. Dangerous Liaisons and the live action/animation hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit were big winners as well.

Yet the most significant race may have been the with the animated shorts.

Best Animated Short - 1997

Ah, we have now arrived at the year of the very first Oscar ceremony that I had watched, the one transformed me into an Oscar maniac. The ceremony was held on March 23, 1998. At the time I knew the Oscars were the major film awards, and I had watched parts of the ceremony from 1993 (when Deborah Kerr received an Honorary Oscar) and 1995 (when Babe won Best Visual Effects and Anne Frank Remembered won Best Documentary Feature). However, I didn't pay attention to it and didn't even know they were being held that night until I came downstairs and saw it playing on the TV. I came down around just as the show was starting, catching parts of Billy Crystal's opening movie when he inserts himself into the Best Picture nominees. It didn't mean much to me, since the only Best Picture nominee that I knew of was Titanic, which I hadn't seen since I elected to stay home when my family went to watch it. Still, even though I wasn't invested in any of the nominees, I decided to stay and watch the ceremony.

Best Animated Short - 2001

So we've come to the ceremony ten years ago. This was the year that Lord of the Rings made a splash onto the scene, leading people to wonder whether or not this would finally overcome the Academy's bias against science fiction or fantasy films that cost Star Wars a Best Picture Oscar. (In the end, it wasn't.) This was also the first year of the Best Animated Feature Oscar, which Shrek pulled off the win over Monsters Inc. But it wasn't a total loss for Monsters Inc., as it helped end Randy Newman's streak of nominations without a first win at 16, when he won for his song "If I Didn't Have You." (The record is now at 20, held by sound mixer Kevin O'Connell). And then there's the Best Animated Short category. This was the first year when I became aware of the nominees of the year. Before then the nominees had always been nameless art-house independent films that I never really cared about, and that the popular stuff never gets nominated (more about that in a later entry). Then a few days before the Oscars, I went to IGN and saw this article showcasing the Oscar nominated animated shorts. They seemed interesting, but I wouldn't watch them for another five years, except for one of the nominees which I saw later that summer.

Best Animated Short - 2002

We have come to 2002. In many ways this was the most memorable Oscar ceremony, even more so than 1997, the first one I saw. It's got Michael Moore blasting the Bush administration while accepting the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for Bowling for Columbine. It's got Eminem winning the Best Original Song Oscar for Lose Yourself in 8 Mile without even performing it. It's got Adrien Brody laying one on Halle Berry after becoming the youngest Best Actor winner for The Pianist. Most importantly, it featured the one award that made me forever loyal to the Academy Awards: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (aka Spirited Away) winning Best Animated Feature.

Best Animated Short - 2003

Welcome to my review of the Oscar nominated animated short films from 2003. So we are in 2003. The big news this year was that The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won all 11 nominations, thus tying it with Ben-Hur and Titanic for the films with the most awards. (West Side Story could have been on the list if only it had won Best Adapted Screenplay over Judgment at Nuremberg . :() I remember posting the results on Nintendo NSider after the awards. I'm pretty certain I included the Animated Short award, but I glossed over it as I didn't care about the award back then. How things have changed.

Best Animated Short - 2005

Here we go...the next part of my long and mostly incoherent ramblings on a category that nobody cares about but me for an award that has proved time and time again that they're not the best judge of quality animation. Anyways now we reach 2005, the year that Brokeback Mountain seemed to be riding high until it crashed and burned in front of the finish line. The main storyline for me was whether or not Hayao Miyazaki could win his second Oscar for Hauru no Ugoku Shiro (unfortunately, he wasn't. He succumbed to the immovable force that is Wallace and Gromit.) Best Animated Short was one of the categories in the background, but not for long. It was shortly after this that I had started trying to watch as many of the winning short films as I can.

Best Animated Short - 2006

We come now to 2006, the first year that I had successfully seen all of the nominees. Unfortunately, it came shortly after the Oscar ceremony. I had became interested in the Best Animated Short category back in late 2005 or early 2006, but those early days were spent trying to watch all of the winners. It wasn't until 2007 that I had started to include the nominees as well. I had known that most of the winners were readily accessible, but I had soon found out that the majority of the nominees are easy to find as well. As I said in my last entry, I got from all the way up to 87% after only a year*.  was pretty much able to find all of the nominees on either YouTube or iTunes. It's just getting to that 100% that is difficult. Anyways, most of the nominees should be available online. I hope that these reviews are getting you interested in looking up these nominees and seeing them yourself.

*Although to be fair, my baseline was not 0%. I had seen most of the winners, and a lot of the earlier Disney/Warner Bros/Tom & Jerry cartoons from growing up. I'd have to estimate I had seen about 95/302 of the nominees, or about 31.4%. Still, 56% of the nominees in one year isn't bad.

Best Animated Short - 2008

 Ah, the memories. This was the first time I reviewed the Oscar-nominated animated shorts, in the second year that I had seen the nominees before the ceremony. That year most people were interested in seeing how many awards Slumdog Millionaire would win. I wasn't too concerned, as I had only seen four (yes, only four) of all the nominated films at that time, so I can't say I'm too excited about the traditional awards. Therefore, my main focal points were seeing if Heath Ledger can shake off the stigma of being dead and win Best Supporting Actor posthumously...and the Best Animated Short category. It's interesting to look back at my progression at watching the nominees. Back then, two years after trying to watch the winners and a year after starting to watch all the nominees I had seen 73/76 (96%) of the winners and 275 / 317 (87%) of the nominees, or 87%. Three years later I had seen 100% of the winners, and 322/332 (97%) of the nominees. Evidently I've kind of hit the bottleneck.