Oscar Shortlist Interviews: Directors Nathan Engelhardt And Jeremy Spears Favorite Shot From ‘Forevergreen’ (EXCLUSIVE)

We invited the filmmakers behind each of this year’s 15 Oscar-shortlisted animated shorts to share their favorite shot from their film and explain why it’s special to them.

Nomination voting starts on January 12 and runs through January 16.

Today, we’re checking out directors Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears’ favorite shot from Forevergreen, a gorgeous CG-animated short that follows an orphaned bear cub taken in by a paternal tree. As the young cub matures, his focus drifts, and a growing appetite for scavenged scraps pulls him into serious trouble. Created by veteran Disney animators Engelhardt and Spears, the short reflects their deep studio expertise and stands out as one of the most visually accomplished works of the year. Spears’ experience as a wood carver was instrumental in shaping the film’s distinctive hand-carved look.

Here’s the director’s favorite shot, and their explanation of how it sums up everything they wanted to do with the short.

This shot is the summation of our entire film. To us, it is the picture worth a thousand words, though only one word is needed: “Grace.”

This moment underscores the film’s central theme: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friend.” For the directors, this truth carries both a deeply parental and a deeply spiritual resonance. It reflects the belief that there is a God who desires relationship so profoundly that He would reach across an infinite chasm to rescue, restore, and offer hope, despite our failures and shortcomings.

In this moment, instead of receiving justice, the bear receives something good he does not deserve- grace!  Whether viewed through a spiritual lens or a purely human one, the act of choosing grace, self-sacrifice, and love—especially towards those we feel are undeserving, or even an enemy—is one of the most powerful ideas a story can offer. In a world often marked by division, this expression of grace stands as a quiet but radical counterpoint.

To support the emotional weight of this moment, we employed every tool available in our filmmaker’s toolkit. One of the most important was the camera. Throughout the film, shallow depth of field symbolizes the intimacy of the Tree and Bear’s friendship. When the Bear leaves the Tree, we intentionally remove that depth of field, allowing the audience to feel the loss on a visual, subconscious level. In this shot, we gently reintroduce depth of field by subtly animating the camera’s f-stop, while also leaning into a tilt-shift–inspired aesthetic, softening the surrounding world so the focus rests entirely on the characters as they reconnect.