Animated Thoughts: 2025 Academy Award Nominated Short Films

Well, the Academy Awards have come and gone. And I'm still rejoicing over the fact that Flow rightfully won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. It was well deserved. I'm not one of those anti-Hollywood studio types, but it always feels good to see a superior film get the recognition it deserves, especially when it's not a big-budget production backed by hundreds of millions of dollars.

As for the animated shorts, while I usually drive down to the Detroit Institute of Arts to see the shorts program at the Detroit Film Theater, this year was different. As my car has passed the 300,000 mile mark on the odometer, I'm trying to be a little more selective with my day trips--both to stretch out the lifespan of my car for as long as I can but also to shuffle the money saved into a new used car fund.

You can imagine my joy when I discovered that the animated shorts program was being shown by a local theater chain about a ten minute drive from my home (thank you Studio C). So, with popcorn and soda in hand, I settled in to watch this year's program. Felt a little wistful that I didn't get to spend the day soaking in the beautiful works of art at the DIA, but I was very appreciative that I had a good crowd at the theater for the screening. There were only nine of us, but once the lights dimmed, we all forgot about the outside world and were drawn in to a magical world of animation. There were no smartphones lighting up the theater, no one talking to each other, just us and the art of the moving image. Pure bliss.

Onto my thoughts from the screening.

Beautiful Men (directed by Nicolas Keppens)

Beautiful Men is a very thought provoking film. I've seen it three times now at different venues and each time I discover something new in the story, be it an enormous realization or a small nuance. From this third viewing, the plight of the three brothers finally left me with a moment of clarity. After the events of the story, Stephen and Koen want things to go back to the way they were. Whereas Bart is haunted by the irrevocable change in their relationship--his hair being a constant reminder of what was lost instead of a source of joy. If this short ever gets released on DVD, I'd definitely like to pick this one up for the collection--hopefully as part of something like Ron Diamond's Animation Show of Shows. Beautiful Men is a slow burn but tells a surprisingly deep story. Rating: A.

In the Shadow of the Cypress (Directed by Hossein Molayemi, Shirin Sohani)

This was a well executed, well animated film. Good animation quality, character design, cinematography, and color choices. Not much more to say. Decent film, but I just didn't find it memorable in the way that the other films were. I do think it's worth a second viewing. I'd like to go back, watch it again, and see if there's something there that I missed. Sometimes it's just not the right time in your life to connect with a film. Rating: B.

Magic Candies (Directed by Daisuke Nishio)

Not going to lie, I didn't like the character design. The boy looked ugly in an "uncanny valley" sort of way that made me cringe and look at other areas of the screen--which led to being able to really appreciate the lush backgrounds in this film. But I really liked the story as well as Dong-Dong's character growth arc as the lad learned, through the magic candies, what his impact on his little world really was. This was a story of growth and maturing and it was handled rather well. Rating: B+

Wander to Wonder (Directed by Nina Gantz)

Another film I've seen several times in different venues. This is the tragic tale of three doll-sized humans (faeries?) who are struggling with the loss of their caretaker--and the loss of the world as they knew it. This is a solid piece of stop-motion animation with an equally solid, very well executed story.--especially how they told the events leading up to the story's driving conflict using old VHS recordings as a flashback tool. It's well worth the time watching. Rating: A.

Yuck! (Directed by Loïc Espuche)

 
Yuck! was cute. It's another story about kids growing into maturity--this time where they are starting to make that shift from finding physical affection (kissing) between adults as something gross to one where, quoting the Princess Bride, "Someday, you may not mind so much." Like Magic Candies, Yuck! was a film where the character design really didn't do it for me, but the art design, color choices, and the animation were very competently executed with an engaging story and a heartwarming payoff. Rating: B+/A-

In the end, this was a pretty good selection. Personally, I was rooting for Beautiful Men or Wander to Wonder to take home the Oscar, but all the films in this year's line up are worth watching--and I hope you do, whether they're released on the net individually or as part of a festival program.

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