Best Animated Short - 2025: The Shortlist

I'm going to be completely honest, for the past several years every time the Oscars wrap up and I write the post looking back at the winner, I don't think about the upcoming Best Animated Short category until the shortlist drops. It's not like in the early days of this blog when I made a post about all of the qualifying films. So even when outlets like Cartoon Brew are profiling as many of the films that have earned qualification status, I don't really pay attention and rigorously look up the films, at least not until the shortlist drops and I'll only have 15 films to write about, instead of the 113 that Cartoon Brew reported had qualified.

And of course for the past several years the shortlist just happened to drop right before I have to make the drive from Texas to Virginia where I would be spending the holidays with my family. And I don't have time to make this post until after I arrive, which is usually a day or two after the shortlist is announced. And so by the time I make this post, there are other outlets that preview the shortlisted films much better than I ever could, such as Animation Magazine. But this is the Best Animated Short blog darn it so I'm going to write about these films anyways.

Anyways, because I don't go to film festivals to watch animated short, nor do I work in the animation industry so I don't feel that I would qualify for the Animation Showcase that has most of these films on streaming. This means the only way I have to watch these films in full is if I can find them online, or if I can go to one of the screenings of nominees when they happen. Right now there appears to be four that are on YouTube, and one more that is available Vimeo on Demand. I don't feel like paying for the Vimeo on Demand film yet, so that means there are four I've seen. In the following profiles I'll keep from writing my full thoughts on the four I've seen, saving them for a full review if they are nominated.

Anyways, this intro has gone on for long enough, so here we go, the 15 shortlisted films:

Autokar

A young girl writes a letter as she travels by bus from Poland to Belgium in 1994, but when she loses her pencil she is forced to confront some of the other passengers that are also riding the bus. Autokar appears to be a whimsical short film about the anxieties faced by a young girl during a mysterious journey, but it also appears to be a film about the wave of immigration into Belgium in the 1990s. After all, this is a film made in Belgium by a Polish animator. The depiction of a journey reminds me of the nominated Madame Tutli-Putli (not the last time that film is going to get brought up in this post), but the depiction of the other passengers as anthropomorphic animals certainly gives the impression that Autokar won't be as dreadfully opaque as the earlier film was (although it can certainly be another When the Day Breaks). 

Trailer

Les Bottes de la Nuit (The Night Boots)

A young boy sneaks out of his house one night wearing his favorite pair of boots to play around in the woods behind his house. He meets a mysterious dog-like creature who takes him deeper into the woods and together they go on quite an adventure. At least that's the impression that I got from watching the trailer for this French film, which unfortunately does not have subtitles. The animation has a dark appearance as though it was drawn by charcoal (which it very well could have been), which gives the film a surreal and mysterious quality, but the simple yet warm character design lets viewers know that this wouldn't be a journey of fear. Don't worry for all you horror fans, there will be some terrifying entries later on in this list.

Trailer

Cardboard

A pair of young piglets travel with their single pig father to move into their new home, which to the father's horror is a beat-up old trailer home in a run-down trailer park. However, his two young piglets find an empty cardboard box. Can that one cardboard box change the family and their dreary lives? Cardboard is the first animated short film made by Locksmith Animation, an animation studio based in Britain to produce films that are distributed by larger studios. Their first film was Ron's Gone Wrong, which was distributed by 20th Century Fox and opened to generally solid reviews in 2021. J.P. Vine, one of Ron's co-director and a former animator at Aardman and Pixar, led the efforts to make Cardboard. According to Animation Magazine it earned Oscar eligibility from screening exhibitions instead of winning awards at qualifying festivals, but it's made it onto the shortlist, why can't it move on?

Trailer

Éiru

A young girl living in a village during the Iron Age in what is now modern day Ireland is forced to accept her destiny when the water in the village well goes missing. Her journey is going to have a profound effect on her, her village, and the land on which she calls home. Éiru is the latest short film from the renowned Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, who had burst onto the scene with its surprise nomination for Best Animated Feature in 2009 for The Secret of Kells. Since then they had picked up three more nods in Best Animated Feature and one in Best Animated Short (for Late Afternoon), but is still without a win. Can this epic adventure short, directed by Cartoon Saloon veteran animator Giovanna Ferrari in her directorial debut, change all of that? I wouldn't know, I haven't seen the entire film. The trailer looks amazing, though.

Trailer

Forevergreen

A young bear cup that had lost its family wanders around the forest looking for a family. It finally finds one in an old evergreen tree. Together they form an unconventional yet happy family, until something threatens their peaceful existence. Forevergreen is another entry in a long line of short films directed by veteran animators for large studios on their own time, with the directors being a pair of story artists for Disney. The description on the trailer touts "never before seen animation techniques," which looking to see what the techniques are leads me into a bunch of technical jargon that I can't comprehend, but I presume that is what gives the film its look of being like wood carvings despite being clearly CGI. It's a cute film, but it's not the only film on the shortlist involving a bear.

Trailer

The Girl Who Cried Pearls

A young boy in Montreal makes a stunning discovery that will completely change his life forever: a young girl living in the same flat as him cries tears that turn into genuine pearls. The pearls help rescue him from poverty, but the situation becomes much more complicated when he develops feelings for the girl. The Girl Who Cried Pearls is the latest film from the filmmaking team that made Madame Tutli-Putli. It features the same tremendous stop-motion animation that made the earlier film such a beloved classic, and perhaps with its gripping tale of morality it is much more thematically accessible as well. It was produced by the National Film Board of Canada, hoping for its first win in this category since The Danish Poet (a year before Madame Tutli-Putli), so here's hoping it will be made available in the United States soon.

Trailer

Hurikán

A young bartender at a beer stand prepares to serve her most loyal customer, an anthropomorphic pig. When the news arrives that the beer stand is under threat of closing due to running out of beer, Hurikán must do whatever it takes to keep the place running. When I first saw the trailer for this quirky Czech animation I thought Hurikán was the name of the bartender since she drew so much of the viewer's attention. However, as it turned out Hurikán was the name of the pig, whose identity as a pig is never explained but it sure reminds me of Miyazaki's Porco Rosso. The stark black and white animation reminds me of films like Happy End, which is incidentally from the same director Jan Saska. The entire film is available for purchase at Vimeo on Demand, but I'll wait to see if it gets nominated before deciding if I want to spend the money.

Trailer

I Died in Irpin

A young lady travels with her boyfriend from the city of Kyiv to see his parents in the nearby city of Irpin. What happened in Irpin would change her life irrevocably. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been raging for almost four years. There had been a couple of films that addressed the invasion, such as 20 Days in Mariupol which won the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, but the lengthy production cycle of animated films meant we're only just now getting animated short films about the conflict. I Died in Irpin was made by a Ukrainian animator and financed by studios in Czechia and Slovakia. The trailer doesn't show much, but with the crude charcoal animation style (despite director Anastasila Falileieva originally being a stop motion animator) and the haunting vocals of a voice reciting Psalm 91 it's become clear the trip to Irpin won't be a fun time.
Trailer

Papillon (Butterfly)

An old man goes swimming in the sea. As he takes strokes in the butterfly style, he thinks back across his life, from his childhood in French Algeria where he overcame a fear of the water to become a powerful swimmer to his triumphant appearances in international competition to some dark memories in between. At last, we come to the first of the four films that are readily available online, having been posted in its entirety by the Jewish Film Institute. Papillon tells the story of Alfred Nakache, a French swimmer who swam in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin before getting deported to the concentration camps during World War II. Yes, this is a film that deals with the Holocaust, normally a subject matter that is irresistible to the Academy. But two years ago, the critically acclaimed Holocaust-themed Humo was snubbed in favor of the similarly themed Letter to a Pig. With only one film about the Holocaust among this year's shortlisted films, is it enough to get Papillon a nomination?
Where Can I Watch It?

Playing God

A clay figure wakes up in a dark workshop, surrounded by other clay figures that look kind of like it. As it tries to make sense of what is going on, it comes face to face with its creator, who holds in his hands mysterious tome. Who knows what horrors will be unleashed next? Playing God is a film that combines multiple forms of stop-motion animation, such as claymation and pixilation, which is stop motion using still images. I still don't know exactly what to expect from the film and its story, but the trailer (both the one being embedded and one that came later), show that whatever is going to happen is going to be incredibly grotesque and horrible. You know, something that balances with the kiddy fare from earlier.
Trailer

The Quinta's Ghost

An elderly painter, hardened by years of socio-political turmoil in his native Spain, moves into a country estate outside of Madrid. Yet any hopes for a tranquil life ends when he is haunted by ghosts within the walls. Francisco Goya is one of the most celebrated painters in the history of Spain. Yet almost 200 years after his death some of his most famous paintings are the so-called Black Paintings, 14 paintings painted directly onto the walls of his country estate Quinta del Sorda between 1819 and 1823. The haunting and often grotesque nature of these Black Paintings leave a mark on viewers. The Quinta's Ghost is a film that depicts the intense environment that produced such stunning pieces of art, including ghosts that may or may not be real.
Trailer

Retirement Plan

An old man finally retires from his profession after years of work. As he comes up with a list of things he's always wanted to do, he comes to the realization that there is still so much left that he could do yet not nearly enough time to do it. Retirement Plan is the second of the four films that is readily available online, having been posted onto YouTube by The New Yorker as part of their Screening Room series of films. I won't spoil anything about it or anything, but I will say that I turned 40 years old this past year, and I've gotten to the age where I've been thinking a lot about death and mortality. I'm still years away from retirement but even then I'm still consumed by the idea that there may be regrets in my life. This film drives it all home.

Where Can I Watch It?

The Shyness of Trees

A middle-aged woman goes to visit her elderly mother in the French countryside, but she is a little unnerved to find that her mother's home has become overrun by plants, and that her mother had formed a strong bond with a large oak tree in the yard. The Shyness of Trees is the third of the four films that is currently readily available, and it is the sole shortlisted film that earned its qualification through the third avenue towards eligibility: earning a medial at the Student Academy Awards. Every year since the shortlist field was expanded to 15 there are one or two of these Student Academy Award winners that make it on. This year it just so happens that the film that advanced took home the bronze medal. It was made at Gobelins Paris, the art school that had previously produced a film that went all the way to the nominations circle in Oktapodi. 

Where Can I Watch It?

Snow Bear

A lonely polar bear wanders the Arctic wilderness, hoping to find a companion that can help alleviate the stifling solitude that permeates its very existence. When efforts to befriend a snow fox and an orca end in failure, the bear decides to take matters into its own paws. It is effective, but the changing climates threaten to destroy this newfound friendship. Snow Bear is the final of the four films that is readily available, having been posted onto YouTube by its director, the veteran former Disney animator Aaron Blaise, whose credit include directing Brother Bear which helped him earn an Oscar nomination. He's hoping a bear can help get him back to the Oscars, but if it's worth anything, this lovingly crafted hand-drawn animated film may be the most viewed of this year's shortlisted films, with 1.2 million views on YouTube after only two weeks.
Where Can I Watch It?

The Three Sisters

Three elderly sisters live together on a small isolated island, each in one of three houses. Yet circumstances change in a way that led to one of them having to rent out her house. The Three Houses is a film  made in Cyprus nominally directed by Timur Kognov, a filmmaker from Georgia (the country, not the state). However, in a stunning twist it turns out that Timur Kognov doesn't actually exist, and that the real director of The Three Sisters was Konstantin Bronzit, the animator that had been nominated twice in the Best Animated Short category, for Lavatory Lovestory and We Can't Live Without Cosmos. Apparently Bronzit wanted to find out if he can find success on a film without a famous name attached. Well it's gotten The Three Sisters to the shortlist, but now that his secret is out does it have enough to take the next step?

Trailer

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Well there you go, the 15 films that made up the shortlist. Sure, this post is late and probably more poorly written than any other post about these films, but at least it's done. I have no idea what five films will get nominated. It was tough enough to predict when the shortlist was only 10 films, and now that it's 15 films long I have even less of an idea. I hope more of these films will be posted in their entirety soon.