Animated Thoughts: The 2026 Academy Award animated short films

The Oscars are March, 15th. For those of you who are interested in watching the Academy Award nominated animated short films, a number of them have been posted on YouTube for the time being--so I'd watch them sooner rather than later as they may be removed soon. 

I had two opportunities to see these films in the yearly Shorts International program: at the local theater and at the DIA. Unfortunately, some personal life events took precedence so I had to cancel my plans and make alternate arrangements in order to watch the films before the awards ceremony. Fortunately for me, I was able to watch them through my membership with ASIFA/Central, on YouTube, and by attending the Ottawa International Animation Festival last year.

Butterfly

Beautiful film that tells a tragic tale. This paint-on-glass film did what a good historical docudrama should, it inspired me to do some research on the story behind the story--in this case, Alfred Nakache, an olympic swimmer who was sent to Auschwitz by the Nazis.

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Forever Green

Nice enough film, although a bit schmaltzy. The story of a bear and his tree... or is it a tree and his bear? Regardless, this was a well produced film. Though my initial analysis of the story didn't match the actual moral of the story. I personally saw it more as the story of a parent and the sacrifices they make to protect their children.

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Retirement Plan

Retirement Plan had this Fired on Mars (2016)' quality to it. Or maybe Nick Fox-Gieg's The Orange (2009). What I liked most about it is that as the story progressed, the character continued to age. It wasn't a pie-in-the-sky daydream. It honestly reminded me of How to Train Your Dragon when Hiccup lost his leg at the end of the film. There were actual, lasting consequences to the events in the film. It was very refreshing.

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The Girl Who Cried Pearls

I'm assuming that this film will be on the NFB's website and YouTube channel soon, so I recommend keeping an eye on their website or the YouTube channel so you can watch this film as soon as it goes live. Fortunately for me, I got to see this film at last year's Ottawa International Animation Festival. It was a solid production and, much like the NFB's Madame Tutli-Putli (2007), it integrated stop-motion with some non-standard digital and practical effects. I highly recommend watching the following two-minute documentary where the Technical Director describes how they merged 3d CG animation with the stop motion animation. You can see it here on the NFB YouTube channel.

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The Three Sisters

Unfortunately for everyone, Konstantin Bronzit hasn't uploaded The Three Sisters as of yet. Hopefully sometime in the future. Based upon the name and the trailer, I was actually expecting this film to be more in tune and tonality with Chekhov's story. It ended up being an interesting look at human dynamics when routines are disrupted and with a very hopeful ending.

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All-in-all, this year's selection was pretty solid and very approachable. I'm looking forward to seeing which one takes home the Oscar. Congratulations to the nominees.

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Animated Thoughts: The 53rd Annual Annie Awards

My yearly thoughts on the Annie Awards...

• Only real issue I have with these student films is finding ways to watch them! There's so much creativity and skill in these films, would really like to have a showcase where we can see all the nominees.
• Best Short Subject... Gah! Other than the Girl who Cried Pearls, I haven't see any of these shorts. We need a shorts program that shows the Annie Award student nominee and professional nominee films, much like Shorts International does with the Academy Award nominated short films!
• Nice to see Aaron win the Annie for 'Snowbear'--and his Winsor McCay award from last year. His online classes have been a great source of instruction over the years.
• Well, at least we got though eleven minutes of the show without politics.
• Love, Death + Robots won Production Design in an Animated Television/Media Production, congrats to Blur Studios and Gigi Cavenago.
• Production Design in an Animated Feature goes to Sony for KPop Demon Hunters. Wonder how many they're going to win tonight?
• Y'know, I swear I've seen "Trek" somewhere before, but I can't place it. Hrm. Off to YouTube! Yup, I've seen this before. No idea where though... Ottawa maybe?
• Bobby Chiu! Glad to see him get an award. Have loved his Schoolism.com workshops.
• Music in an Animated Feature goes to KPop Demon Hunters. Called it. Though figured Zootopia 2 would give them a run for their money.
• Best Character Design TV/Media goes to Love, Death + Robots for '400 Boys'. Awesome! Though this category was really tough to predict. Some really top shelf designs there.
• Best Character Design for an Animated Feature. That was another tough one to predict. Though once I saw KPop and Spongebob on the lineup, figured it be either one of those two. Turns out I was right again. Think we're going to see a sweep of the Annies with KPop Demon Hunters. Wonder if they'll match Arcane's record of awards? Hrm Arcane was nominated for nine, how many was KPop  Demon Hunters nominated for? Ten?
• Heh. Good one Aubry! Wah-com. Now do GIF! ;)
• We love you Brock Sampson!
• Character Animation in a video game... wow! Just wow! The skill that is on the screen. Not sure how the judges could pick the winner in this category.
• Character Animation in TV/Media, not gonna lie, was kinda hoping for Asterix & Obelix...
• Best Character Animation - Feature: KPop Demon Hunters...? Yup. Though this was another tough one to call: Zootopia, Bad Guys, Little Amelie... 
• I make a mental note to check out Spice Frontier and WONDLA...
• Best Animated Effects - Feature... KPop Demon Hunters. Going to have to check out In Your Dreams though.
• Best Editorial - TV/Media... sorry, gotta give this to Invincible or Splinter Cell.
• Best Editorial - Feature... we know it's going to be 'KPop', but wouldn't mind seeing Little Amelie or Olivia & las Nubes win this one.
• Happy to see Michaël Dudok de Wit win the Winsor McCay Award, his film The Monk and the Fish is the last film I show in my Animation History class every year.
• Best Voice Acting - Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters. Closing in on Arcane...
• Not going to lie here, I liked 'KPop', but I was really hoping that Mamoru Hosoda would win the Writing in an Animated Feature Annie for Scarlet.
• Awesome! Another win for Love, Death + Robots! Storyboarding in an Animated TV/Media Production.
• Directing in an Animated Feature Production... was still rooting for Mamoru Hosoda.
• Best Animated Independent Feature goes to Arco. Hrm. Might be worth a look...
• And KPop Demon Hunters sweeps every category it was nominated in ending up with a total of ten Annies.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners, the accolades are well deserved. And thank you for ASIFA Hollywood for bringing us the Annie Awards.

Animated Events: the 53rd Annual Annie Awards

Just a reminder: The 53rd Annual Annie Awards will be streaming this Saturday, February 21st on the Annie Awards website.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

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Animated Thoughts: Starting the year off right, pt.3

Two weeks later, I returned to Detroit as the DIA was showing The Glassworker, Pakistan's first ever hand drawn animated feature film at the DIA's Detroit Film Theatre.

Visually, it was like watching 'Ghibli-lite', and that's not a criticism. If you're going to study the art of animation, you'd be hard pressed to find a better example than Studio Ghibli. Story-wise, it was... interesting. It felt like there were no heroes in this story, just a lot of normal people who were victims of circumstances beyond their control as well as experiencing the consequences from the bad decisions that they made. There was a fair amount of complexity and there were some interesting explorations between patriotism and pacifism, classism, along with a very unexpected twist at the end. Mano Animation Studios and director Usman Riaz are off to a good start. Looking forward to seeing what they do next.

Afterwards, in keeping with the theme of the film, I took a moment to appreciate some of the glassworks in the DIA's collection.

Bowl, about 1927-29 Glass
Frederick Carder

Compote, about 1917 Glass
Frederick Carder

The year is off to a good start.

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Animated Thoughts: Starting the year off right, pt.2

It was mid-January and All You Need is Kill was showing at the theater right down the street from my place. For those who don't know, this anime is based upon the light novel "All You Need Is Kill" by Hiroshi Sakurazaka--the light novel that also inspired the Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow.

In the anime, we're following the story of a soldier in the United Defense Force as she is trapped in an endless loop during an alien invasion. The lead character, Rita Vrataski, is part of a research unit investigating these alien plants in a region of Japan where the plants have established a beachhead. I won't spoiler the rest of the film, but if you've see the Tom Cruise movie, well, for the most part, the comparison really ends with the time loop concept. But like Edge of Tomorrow, All You Need is Kill centers itself around a very engaging series of events with characters who are easy to resonate with.

The visuals and animation are at the level of quality that you would expect from a Studio 4°C production. The character designs are reminiscent of their earlier films Genius Party and Tekkonkinkreet. It has decent character development and the story is very tight--something that is not easy to pull off with time loop stories. But Studio 4°C's production team does the job well as this film never feels stale even as we continually move through the story's "one-day" cycles.

All You Need is Kill joins a very small list of productions that tackle this concept and gets it right -- the aforementioned Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow, Bill Murray's hilarious film Groundhog Day, the critically judged but skillfully executed The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya season 2 "Endless Eight" episodes, and "Window of Opportunity" found in Stargate SG-1 season 4, episode 6--and it's a very welcome addition.

As both Warner Bros Pictures and GKIDS appear to be involved in the distribution for this film here in the States, I'm hoping that it means they'll be releasing a DVD or Blu-Ray for All You Need is Kill later this year. It would be a very welcome addition to my collection.

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Animated Events: 2026 Academy Award Nominated Feature and Short Films

And the Academy Award nominations for 2026 are out.

In the category of animated feature film we have:

ARCO
Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas and Natalie Portman

ELIO
Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina and Mary Alice Drumm

KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong

LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN
Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Nidia Santiago and Henri Magalon

ZOOTOPIA 2
Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Yvett Merino

And in the category of animated short film:

BUTTERFLY
Florence Miailhe and Ron Dyens

FOREVERGREEN
Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears

THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

RETIREMENT PLAN
John Kelly and Andrew Freedman

THE THREE SISTERS
Konstantin Bronzit

The full list of nominees can be viewed on their website. I've only seen two of the shorts (and one of the features) thus far. Can't wait until the shorts program comes to town so I can see the rest of them.

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Animated Thoughts: Starting the year off right, pt.1

Well I decided to start the year out strong with two movies and two trips to the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The DIA brought in Dr. Daniel Jaquet to demonstrate how a knight would be dressed in his medieval armor--as well as dispel a number of myths propagated by Hollywood over the years, history versus Hollywood and all that. Apparently, knights in plate mail armor didn't need a block-and-tackle setup to lift them onto their horses. And when discussing the weight of medieval plate armor, Dr. Chaz Kirchhoff stated that it's around 40 to 50 pounds--comparable to a fireman wearing his kit, or a modern solder wearing his kevlar.

Additionally, Dr. Jaquet stated that his record for donning the armor, with the assistance of two squires, was around four-and-a-half minutes. For his Ph.D thesis, Dr. Jaquet had this replica suit of armor custom built from a 15th century design to his own physical specifications, including the underclothes that a knight would wear to provide padding between his body and the armor. He also spent six months training his body to wear the armor wearing it two hours per day five days per week--much to the chagrin of his wife. For more info on how the armor was built, I recommend this article over on the Open Culture website.

Dr. Daniel Jaquet

Well after dressing in his armor (sans some of the chainmail undergarments), Dr. Jaquet also showed off the flexibility of wearing this armor by doing calisthenics, push-ups, a short jog, and sprinting.

Demonstrations like these do more than just feed my imagnation while playing Dungeons and Dragons, they provide a rare glimpse into how the human body moves and reacts when wearing restrictive and heavy covering. It's one thing to watch films like Lord of the Rings or Conan the Barbarian, however it's another thing entirely to be in the front row watching a man in armor go through his paces. It's more than just "history comes alive", as an animator, you really get a feeling for how this kind of distributed weight affects and restricts human motion. You just can't beat watching something like this in person.

The Letter, ~1905
William Churchill

And, while at the DIA, I made sure to carve out enough time to enjoy some art and a bowl of their chicken soup at the Cafe DIA. While it's still the best chicken soup in Michigan, I'd still have to say it's  running neck-and-neck with Pesto's restaurant over in Flint, Michigan.

Part two coming soon...

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