2026 Oscars Short Film Contenders: ‘The Wolf’ Director Theodore Ushev

Welcome to Cartoon Brew’s series of spotlights focusing on the animated shorts that have qualified for the 2026 Oscars. The films in this series have qualified through one of multiple routes: by winning an Oscar-qualifying award at a film festival, by exhibiting theatrically, or by winning a Student Academy Award.

Today’s film is The Wolf from Bulgaria-born, Montreal-based director and Oscar nominee Theodore Ushev (Blind Vaysha). After premiering at Toronto, the film qualified for the Oscars by winning the Animated Grand Prize at the Edmonton International Film Festival.

In the short, Ushev spins a dialogue-free, elemental parable of man versus nature. An old hunter follows a pack of wolves deep into a snowy wilderness until a young wolf escapes his tracking, and the balance of predator and prey is unsettled. The Wolf features stark, cold landscapes in icy whites and slate greys, with the sharp silhouettes of trees and figures etched against the vast stillness of the bitter Canadian winter. Ushev’s impressionistic animation is mirrored in a standout soundscape that is as muted, yet familiar, as its aesthetic.

What was it about this story or concept that connected with you and compelled you to direct the film?

A long time ago, I read a short documentary story by the Bulgarian author Emilian Stanev. It was about an old man being chased by a young wolf, whose pack had been killed by the man. That story haunted me like a wolf itself. During the isolation of the COVID era, it resurfaced with urgency. I felt compelled to explore the eternal conflict between man and nature. Who is the real beast?

I wanted to create a slow, contemplative film — an observation of the landscapes of my beautiful country, Canada. I began painting those landscapes, letting them guide the narrative. The man in the story is barely visible, fleeting, almost unrecognizable — like a temporary, curable virus within nature. He’s driven by unnecessary revenge. Unlike other animals, man kills not only to feed himself, but also for pleasure.

What did you learn through the experience of making this film—whether in terms of production, filmmaking, creativity, or the subject matter?

This was an unorthodox filmmaking experience for me. I had never tackled an environmental theme before. But I didn’t want to make a conventional “eco-conscious” film. Instead, I focused on the primal battle between man and beast — the beast that lives within every man. By the end, one thought kept chasing me: every man has a wolf living inside him.

Can you describe how you developed your visual approach to the film? Why did you settle on this style/technique?

I wanted to orchestrate a drama of impressionistic emotion. That led me to “destroy” the animation — to blur and obscure the images, giving them a painterly, impressionist quality. My visual inspiration came from the Canadian post-impressionist group The Group of Seven. I didn’t want hyperrealism. Instead, I developed techniques where brushstrokes nearly conceal the image. The palette was deliberately cold — earthy greys and blues — to evoke a sense of chill. As I joked: I wanted the film to feel like -30 degrees Celsius. With wind.

The film’s impressionistic visual style is reflected in its soundscape. Noises are muddled and distorted, yet always familiar. How did you approach the sound design to complement the abstract, painterly aesthetic of the short?

The sound was crafted by the brilliant Olivier Calvert, who has designed the sound for all my previous films — from the Oscar-nominated Blind Vaysha to our most recent feature. Our first brief was simple but ambitious: we had to create a whole new universe of sound — an impressionistic soundscape. A sound that animates the brushstrokes and makes them feel alive.

Olivier built a sonic world of nature using imaginative tools. We agreed that when the image dissolves into abstraction, sound must take the lead and carry the narrative. He’s a stunning sound artist — a storyteller who breathes life into every image. And that’s exactly what animation is meant to do.