In November, before this year’s torrent of animated shorts had settled into a proper Oscar race, we surveyed some of the films that were likely to be competing for a golden statuette. With the qualifying period now over, we can reveal that 96 short films are on the longlist.
We are publishing the list below, in alphabetical order. It has been compiled using public information and confirmed by sources within the Academy. Having compared the list to our research from previous years, we believe that 96 qualified animated shorts is an Academy record, but haven’t confirmed this.
To recap: a short can become eligible for an Oscar in one of three ways. It has to be publicly exhibited in a theater in L.A. or New York City under certain conditions, or take home an award at a designated “qualifying” festival (see the list here), or win at the Student Academy Awards. The filmmakers must then submit it to the Academy. The pandemic played havoc with the festival circuit, postponing some events and cancelling others, but this doesn’t seem to have had a significant impact on the qualifications — record or not, 96 is a high number.
Shorts are where some of the most beautiful, innovative, and distinctive animation can be found. Yet many remain inaccessible to the general public while on their festival run (even if the rise of virtual festivals last year changed that somewhat).
This Oscar category doesn’t enjoy much visibility — year after year, few outside (or even in) the industry have a clear idea of what’s in the running. As the Academy has looked at shortening its telecast, the animation short category has often been rumored to be one of the categories that it would eliminate from its live broadcast. We’re publishing the list in order to draw attention to the sheer diversity of animated short filmmaking, and to spark debate among the animation community, and hopefully beyond, about the films that should be considered for an Oscar.
Note that the information regarding how each film qualified comes from our own research; it is neither complete nor confirmed, but we will continue to update this post to ensure that the data is as complete and accurate as possible.
Here are the films that qualified in 2020:
Altötting
Andreas Hykade (Germany, Canada, Portugal)
Qualified at Cinanima
Am I a Wolf?
Amir Houshang Moein (Iran)
Qualified at Hiroshima
And Then the Bear
Agnès Patron (France)
Qualified at Aspen, Chicago, Leeds
The Beauty
Pascal Schelbli (Germany)
Qualified at the Student Academy Awards
Bench
Rich Webber (U.K.)
Beyond Noh
Patrick Smith (U.S./Japan)
Burrow
Madeline Sharafian (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Butterflies in Berlin — Diary of a Soul Split in Two
Monica Manganelli (Italy)
Canvas
Frank Abney (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Ciervo
Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma (U.S.)
Qualified at the Student Academy Awards
The Coin
Siqi Song (U.S.)
Qualified at Chilemonos (Chile)
Coming Home
Benjamin Swiczinsky (Austria)
Cops and Robbers
Arnon Manor, Timothy Ware-Hill (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Cosmic Fling
Jonathan Langager (U.S.)
Qualified at Cinequest
Crunch
Liukaidi Peng/GOF Animation (U.S.)
Dalia’s Still Here
Nuria Menchaca (Mexico)
A Dark Day of Injustice
Julio Azamor, Daniela Fiore (Argentina)
Qualified at Chilemonos
Dont Know What
Thomas Renoldner (Austria)
Elo
Alexandra Ramires (Portugal/France)
El Pájarocubo
Jorge Alberto Vega Rivera (Colombia)
Empty Places
Geoffroy de Crécy (France)
The Fabric of You
Josephine Lohoar Self (U.K.)
Qualified at Palm Springs International Shortfest
Float
Bobby Rubio (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
4 North A
Jordan Canning & Howie Shia (Canada)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Freeze Frame
Soetkin Verstegen (Belgium)
Qualified at Ann Arbor (U.S.)
Friends
Florian Grolig (Germany)
Genius Loci
Adrien Mérigeau (France)
Qualified at Go Short
Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad
Camrus Johnson, Pedro Piccinini (U.S.)
Qualified at New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival, Chicago Int’l Children’s Film Festival
Grandad Was a Romantic
Maryam Mohajer (U.K.)
Qualified through BAFTA Awards
The Great Malaise
Catherine Lepage (Canada)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Hamsa
Chrisy Baek, Daniela Dwek, Maya Mendonça (U.S.)
Qualified at the Student Academy Awards
Harvest
Sun Lijun (China)
Have a Nice Dog!
Jalal Maghout (Germany/Syria)
Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth
Douglas Carrigan, Philip Hunt (U.S.)
Homeless Home
Alberto Vázquez (France/Spain)
Qualified at Annecy
I, Barnabé
Jean-François Lévesque (Canada)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
If Anything Happens I Love You
Michael Govier and Will McCormack (U.S.)
Inside Me
Maria Trigo Teixeira (Germany)
Just a Guy
Shoko Hara (Germany)
Qualified at Animafest Zagreb
Kapaemahu
Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu (U.S.)
Qualified at Animayo, Atlanta, Foyle
Kids
Michael Frei (Switzerland)
Qualified at Interfilm Berlin
KKUM
Kim Kang-min (South Korea)
Qualified at Ottawa
Lal
Gökalp Gönen (Turkey)
Qualified at Izmir International Short Film Festival
Little Hilly
Yun-Sian Huang, Pei-Yu Liao (Taiwan)
The Lonely Orbit
Benjamin Morard, Frederic Siegel (Switzerland)
Qualified at Sitges
Loop
Erica Milsom (U.S.)
Qualified at Siggraph
Lost and Crowned
Borja Peña Gorostegui (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Maggie Simpson in “Playdate with Destiny”
David Silverman (U.S.)
Matches
Géza M. Tóth (Hungary)
Me
Begoña Aróstegui (Spain)
Qualified at Alcine
Melting Heart Cake
Benoît Chieux (France)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Mi Hermano Luca
Carlos Algara, Catalina Serna (Mexico)
Mime Your Manners
Kate Namowicz, Skyler Porras (U.S.)
Qualified at the Student Academy Awards
Minor Accident of War
Piotr Kabat, Diane Weis (U.S.)
My Galactic Twin Galaction
Sasha Svirsky (Russia)
My Life in Versailles
Nathaniel H’Limi & Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat (France)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
My Wish List
Don G. R. Jayamanne (U.K.)
Qualified through public exhibition in Atlanta
Naked
Kirill Khachaturov (Russia)
O28
Otalia Caussé, Geoffroy Collin, Louise Grardel, Antoine Marchand, Robin Merle, Fabien Meyran (France)
Qualified at Hollyshorts
Opera
Erick Oh (South Korea/U.S.)
Orgiastic Hyper-Plastic
Paul Bush (Denmark, U.K.)
Qualified at Odense
Out
Steven Clay Hunter (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Petty Thing
Li Zexi (China)
The Power of Hope
Kalia Love Jones (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Précieux
Paul Mas (France)
Purpleboy
Alexandre Siqueira (Portugal/France)
Qualified at Anima
The Quiet
Radheya Jegatheva (Australia)
Red Rover
Astrid Goldsmith (U.K.)
Sh_t Happens
Michaela Mihalyi, Dávid Štumpf (Czech Republic, Slovakia, France)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
The Shawl
Sara Kiener (U.S.)
The Snail and the Whale
Max Lang, Daniel Snaddon (U.K.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Song Sparrow
Farzaneh Omidvarnia (Iran)
Qualified at Lebu Int’l Film Festival
Sororelle
Frederic Even, Louise Mercadier (France)
Qualified at Warsaw
Spanner
Rex Grignon
The Story of the “I’m Alone”
Allison Wolvers (Canada)
Symbiosis
Nadja Andrasev (France/Hungary)
Qualified at SXSW
The Tattooed Torah
Marc Bennett (U.S.)
Tiger and Ox
Seunghee Kim (South Korea)
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Robin Shaw (U.K.)
A Tiger With No Stripes
Raúl Robin Morales Reyes (France/Switzerland)
To Gerard
Taylor Meacham (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
To the Dusty Sea
Héloïse Ferlay (France)
Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves
Chintis Lundgren (Estonia/Croatia/France)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
The Torture Letters
Laurence Ralph (U.S.)
Qualified at Spark
Tot
Tom Getty, Fiona McLaughlin, Aimee Kirkham Priester (U.K.)
Traces
Hugo Frassetto, Sophie Tavert Macian (France/Belgium)
Umbilical
Danski Tang (U.S./China)
Umbrella
Helena Hilario, Mario Pece (Brazil)
Untitled
Fan Bei Lu
Why Slugs Have no Legs
Aline Höchli (Switzerland)
Qualified at Warsaw
Wild Love
Paul Autric, Quentin Camus, Léa Georges, Maryka Laudet, Zoé Sottiaux, Corentin Yvergniaux (France)
Qualified at Nashville
Wind
Edwin Chang (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
Windup
Yibing Jiang
World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
Don Hertzfeldt (U.S.)
Qualified through public exhibition in L.A. county
The Wrong Rock
Michael Cawood (U.K./U.S.)
Yes-People
Gísli Darri Halldórsson (Iceland)
Benoit Berthe Siward contributed research to this article.
Films at top, l-to-r: “Symbiosis,” “World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime,” “Canvas,” “Altötting.”
