Animated Shorts - The Oscar Long List ?

by Nathaniel R

Since the Academy doesn't always release the longlists for their short film categories (why did they stop doing this?) we have to rely on other sources. The following list is not "official" but thanks to Cartoon Brew we have an approximation of what the Oscar's qualifying long list looks like in Best Animated Short. Cartoon Brew thinks it's about 96 films long with the following titles having had either "Oscar-qualifying" wins at approved festivals, public exhibition (this is how big studio shorts often qualify since they play before movies), or honors from BAFTA or the Student Academy Awards.

The longlist, where to screen the contenders, predictions, and a few notes after the jump...

THE LONGLIST
* = qualified more than once (so they're obviously going over well at festivals)
† = qualified through theatrical exhibition
• = qualified through the Student Academy Awards or BAFTA
✰ = the filmmaker was previously nominated in this category

Bavarian director Andreas Hykade makes animated shorts for both adults and children. This, we believe, is one of the adult ones 

• Altötting Andreas Hykade (Germany, Canada, Portugal)
• Am I a Wolf? Amir Houshang Moein (Iran) 
• And Then the Bear Agnès Patron (France) *
• The Beauty Pascal Schelbli (Germany) • Gold medal Student Academy Awards (International Film Schools)
• Bench Rich Webber (U.K.) He works frequently for Aardman Animation
• Beyond Noh Patrick Smith (U.S./Japan)
• Burrow Madeline Sharafian (U.S.) † streaming on DisneyPlus
• Butterflies in Berlin — Diary of a Soul Split in Two Monica Manganelli (Italy)
• Canvas Frank Abney (U.S.) † streaming on Netflix
• Ciervo Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma (U.S.) • Gold medal Student Academy Awards (Domestic Film Schools)

Siqi Song, nominated last year for "Sister" is back with "The Coin"

• The Coin Siqi Song (U.S.) ✰  streaming on YouTube 
• Coming Home Benjamin Swiczinsky (Austria)
• Cops and Robbers Arnon Manor, Timothy Ware-Hill (U.S.) † streaming on Netflix 
• Cosmic Fling Jonathan Langager (U.S.) 
• Crunch Liukaidi Peng/GOF Animation (U.S.)
• Dalia’s Still Here Nuria Menchaca (Mexico)
• A Dark Day of Injustice Julio Azamor, Daniela Fiore (Argentina)
• Dont Know What Thomas Renoldner (Austria) streaming on Vimeo
• Elo Alexandra Ramires (Portugal/France)

"El Pájarocubo" is about a songbird who eats as much as he can to become too big for his cage

• El Pájarocubo Jorge Alberto Vega Rivera (Colombia)
• Empty Places Geoffroy de Crécy (France)
• The Fabric of You Josephine Lohoar Self (U.K.)
• Float Bobby Rubio (U.S.) †  streaming on DisneyPlus 
• 4 North A Jordan Canning & Howie Shia (Canada) †
• Freeze Frame Soetkin Versteken (Belgium)
• Friends Florian Grolig (Germany)
• Genius Loci Adrien Mérigeau (France)
• Grab My Hand: A Letter to My Dad Camrus Johnson, Pedro Piccinini (U.S.)
• Grandad Was a Romantic Maryam Mohajer (U.K.) • BAFTA winner
• The Great Malaise Catherine Lepage (Canada) †

"Hamsa" took the bronze medal at the Student Academy Awards

• Hamsa Chrisy Baek, Daniela Dwek, Maya Mendonça (U.S.) •
• 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.) streaming on Apple TV
• Homeless Home Alberto Vázquez (France/Spain)

"Moi, Barnabé" is from the National Film Board of Canada... the NFB often has strong Oscar contenders

• I, Barnabé Jean-François Lévesque (Canada) †
• If Anything Happens I Love You Michael Govier and Will McCormack (U.S.) streaming on Netflix 
• Inside Me Maria Trigo Teixeira (Germany)
• Just a Guy Shoko Hara (Germany)
• Kapaemahu Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu (U.S.) *
• Kids Michael Frei (Switzerland)

• KKUM Kim Kang-min (South Korea)
• Lal Gökalp Gönen (Turkey)
• Little Hilly Yun-Sian Huang, Pei-Yu Liao (Taiwan) streaming on YouTube
• The Lonely Orbit Benjamin Morard, Frederic Siegel (Switzerland)
• Loop Erica Milsom (U.S.)  streaming on DisneyPlus
• Lost and Crowned Borja Peña Gorostegui (U.S.)  †
• Maggie Simpson in “Playdate with Destiny” David Silverman (U.S.) ✰  streaming on DisneyPlus
• Matches Géza M. Tóth (Hungary) ✰
• Me (Yo) Begoña Aróstegui (Spain)
• Melting Heart Cake Benoît Chieux (France) †
• Mi Hermano Luca Carlos Algara, Catalina Serna (Mexico)

"Mime Your Manners" took the Silver Medal at the Student Academy Awards

• Mime Your Manners Kate Namowicz, Skyler Porras (U.S.) • streaming on YouTube
• 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) †
• My Wish List Don G. R. Jayamanne (U.K.) †
• Naked Kirill Khachaturov (Russia)
• O28 Otalia Caussé, Geoffroy Collin, Louise Grardel, Antoine Marchand, Robin Merle, Fabien Meyran (France) reviewed at HollyShorts
• Opera Erick Oh (South Korea/U.S.)
• Orgiastic Hyper-Plastic Paul Bush (Denmark, U.K.)
• Out Steven Clay Hunter (U.S.) †   streaming on DisneyPlus 
• Petty Thing Li Zexi (China)
• The Power of Hope Kalia Love Jones (U.S.) †

• Précieux Paul Mas (France)
• Purpleboy Alexandre Siqueira (Portugal/France)
• The Quiet Radheya Jegatheva (Australia)
• Red Rover Astrid Goldsmith (U.K.)
• Sh_t Happens Michaela Mihalyi, Dávid Štumpf (Czech Republic, Slovakia, France) †
• The Shawl Sara Kiener (U.S.)
• The Snail and the Whale Max Lang, Daniel Snaddon (U.K.) †✰

Farzaneh Omidarnia specializs in fabric sculptures as you can see here in her short "Song Sparrow"

• Song Sparrow Farzaneh Omidvarnia (Iran)
• Sororelle Frederic Even, Louise Mercadier (France)
• Spanner Rex Grignon
• The Story of the “I’m Alone” Allison Wolvers (Canada)
• Symbiosis Nadja Andrasev (France/Hungary)
• 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.) †
• To the Dusty Sea Héloïse Ferlay (France)

an office worker moonlights as a gigolo in "Toomas"

• Toomas Beneath the Valley of the Wild Wolves Chintis Lundgren (Estonia/Croatia/France)  †
• The Torture Letters Laurence Ralph (U.S.)
• 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)

• Wild Love Paul Autric, Quentin Camus, Léa Georges, Maryka Laudet, Zoé Sottiaux, Corentin Yvergniaux (France)
• Wind Edwin Chang (U.S.) †  streaming on DisneyPlus
• Windup Yibing Jiang
• World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime  Don Hertzfeldt (U.S.) ✰†
• The Wrong Rock Michael Cawood (U.K./U.S.)
• Yes-People Gísli Darri Halldórsson (Iceland)

Have you seen any of these shorts yet? Here are our foolish predictions -- foolish, in that anything might always happen in this category. 

Comments

[Kris]

Here's a list of 111 doc shorts submitted to the academy this year (from an academy doc branch member):
Abortion helpline, This is Lisa
Akashinga-the brave ones
All cats are grey in the dark
Ancient caves
Another Hayride
Apollo 11: quarantine
Ashes to ashes
Asteroid hunters
Black sand
Blackfeet boxing
Blue boy
Bob of the park
Broken orchestra
Call center blues
Caregiver: a love story
Charon
Churc and the fourth estate
Colette
Concerto is a conversation
Copacabana Auschwitz
Covid diaries NYC
Crescendo: on how not to remain quiet with Michael Fabiano
Crossing
D.Wade: life unexpected
Dear Father…
Do not split
Dope years: story of Latasha Harlins
Draw with me
Eddy's world
El limite infinito
Elevator pitch
Far from home
Filhas de lavadeiras
Flesh
Flower punk
From Auschwitz to Hollywood
Game
Heart still hurts
Hell (El Infierno)
Horse has more blood than a human
How America killed my mother
How to fall in love in a pandemic
Hunger ward
Huntsville station
Hyers sisters' dream ja legacy
Hysterical girl
I still breathe
I want to make a film about women
Into America's wild
John Van Hamersveld: Crazy world ain't it
John Was trying to contact aliens
Life & Larry Brown
Life too short
Like no other
Linda and the Mockingbirds
Love bugs
Love song for Latasha
Made in China
Making the case
Making waves
Marie
Messania's story
Miss curvy
Mizuko
Moj Kraj taki piekny
Mommy's nightmare
Montezume cypress/Tuyuku
Mortician of Manila
My father the mover
Negros
No crying at the dinner table
Now is the time
Nuestra vida como ninos refugiados en europa
One thousand stories: the making of a mural
Pandemic19
Pluck
Puberty
Racially charged: America's misdemeanor problem
Red taxi
Rifleman
Running positive
Sacheen-breaking the silence
Searching for Anna May Wong
See you next time
Shanzhai screens
Sing me a lullaby
Sith of june
Small world
Speed cubers
Still plays with trains
Sustained outrage
Tailing pond
Take me to prom
Terror and hope
That which is to come is just a promise
Then comes the evening
To calm the pig inside
Toilets: freedom at 70
Toxic pigs of Fukushima
Tribute to Judas (Homenatge a judes)
Undocumented lawyer
Unfinished lives
Unforgivable
Up at night
Valerie
War & grace
We have one heart
Weight of all the beauty
What if nothing?
What would Sophia Loren do?
Youth

[Ben]

I'm pretty bullish on The Coin, but I have a feeling about Kapemahu, Umbrella and If Anything Happens I Love You.

[Jesus Alonso]

"Out" is a complete masterpiece of storytelling, and one of the most brilliant shortfilms I've ever seen. I inmediately asked myself if it would become my #1 film of the year... right now it is still sitting at #2 over Mank and Da 5 Bloods. #1 is a spanish film streaming in Amazon Prime, "Unfortunate Stories"

I really hope "Out" wins the Oscar... is groundbreaking (for Disney) and absolutely perfect.

[thevoid99]

For me, Loop is one of the best shorts I saw and how it handled autism in a delicate way and with such patience. It is exactly what Music failed to do based on that horrendous trailer.

[eduardo]

Usually this category has at least acouple of shorts with high visibility, mostly Disney stuff. Following this logic i'd go with Burrow (which is Pixar,but with a 2D twist,which is refreshing for their standards) or Out. Then If Anything Happens I Love You, since has Netflix behind it, and tackles a tough issue.

I want to say World oftomorrow 3,but i'm iffy since part 2 was ignored a few years ago, but Don Hertzfeldt is highly respected and the first one actually got in.

After this, it's anyone's guess. Which is cool, because this category has a terrific track.

[Gork]

Coming Home is a Submission by an interesting Animation Studio from Austria NÖT. Hope to See more from the min the future.

[Nadja Andrasev]

Géza M. Tóth (Matches) from Hungary has also been nominated before.

[ajnrules]

Little Hilly is available in its entirely on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qtv8HpfOJ8

It might not even have been submitted, and if it did there's no chance that it would get a nomination, but it's still a worthy step forward in the Taiwan independent animation scene.

[MSP]

Kapaemahu is narratively a little thin, but the animation and sound are stunning. I think it will get in on the strength of its technical elements alone.

[Beta]

UMBRELLA - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl1FOKpFY2Q