Awards season is well and truly underway.
Everyone at The Rolling Tape has been buzzing since our way-too-early Oscars predictions podcast, our regularly updated Oscars board on our site, and now we have arrived at our biggest milestone of the season yet: our final Oscars predictions. There is a lot ahead of us this cycle, and while there is so much anticipation for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture, it is time to shine a spotlight on a category that I’ve been vocal about deserving more love: shorts. More specifically, animated shorts.
The Oscars announced their shortlists for 12 award categories on Dec. 16, 2026, including for animated shorts. This year’s animated shorts span various countries, styles, and themes, showcasing that, even though we are in the 98th year of the Academy Awards and 93 years with this category, there is still a wide array of stories that need to be heard. Yet, oddly enough, there is common ground with some, from the incorporation of anthropomorphic animals to existentialism and battling one’s conscience.
So without further ado, here are my thoughts on all the shortlisted animated shorts.
Autokar dir. Sylwia Szkiladz
Starting off the list is the story of a little girl, Agata (Natalia Wolska), travelling to Belgium from Poland by coach on her own. Waving away her grandparents with her blue snail pencil, she ventures across countries, cautiously curious about the animal passengers travelling alongside her. Each traveller teaches her more about the world around her and the reasons why so many immigrated in the 1990s.
Szkiladz constantly shifts between realism and surrealism, reinforcing that the story is told through Agata’s childlike eyes, which puts a spin on traditional narratives that explore the purely realistic (and often brutal) experiences of immigration. The animated format is the cherry on top, offering a refreshing outlook on the topic.
Papillon dir. Florence Miailhe
Miailhe stuns with her signature oil-on-glass painting for every frame of Papillon, beautifully illustrating the life of French swimmer Alfred Nakache (voiced by Fayçal Safi) and how his relationship with water evolves. The water holds his formative memories – his initial fear transforming into love, making it his career, and finding his love through it. Sadly, the water also holds his torment, hatred, and ridicule. It is equally heartwarming and heartwrenching.
From the mesmerizing score by composer Pierre Oberkampf to the film’s formal techniques (like bubbling the paint to make it look like water foam), Papillon is easily the most artistic and elegant short of the group.
Cardboard dir. Jean-Philippe Vine
All you need are pigs and imagination – at least that’s what Vine’s Cardboard tells us. In this no-dialogue 3D animated short, a family of pigs consisting of a dad (Richard Webber) and two children (Cameron Baggarley) move to a trailer park in hopes of leading a better life, only to be met with disappointment when they discover that what they were sold did not meet the reality.
Vine elegantly explores the struggle of managing a family as a bereaved single parent in so few frames, a testament to his effective writing. In contrast, the piglet children are beaming with imagination, finding fun and joy in a cardboard box regardless of their circumstances. We are implored to reflect on our own situations and encouraged to draw out happiness wherever we can. Cardboard is an injection of light-hearted, soulful energy into an otherwise sorrowful collection of shorts.
Éiru dir. Giovanna Ferrari
Éiru, the wannabe warrior of her clan, voiced by Coco Teehan Roche, is constantly put down by everyone for her stature. She is too small to fight against enemy clans. Yet, when the water in the well turns dry, everyone turns to Éiru to investigate. In this tale of how conflict clouds humanity and harms our planet, Éiru imparts a message that evidently needs to be reiterated for everyone to hear.
Ferrari’s vibrant, hand-drawn animation looks like it was lifted from the pages of a comic book, taking surrealist turns that lean into inspirations from Irish mythology. You can imagine this as a highly entertaining feature-length animated film, seeing as, unfortunately, the short left me unsatisfied with how much of Éiru’s world was explored.
Forevergreen dir. Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears
Sticking to a theme seen previously, Forevergreen is a fable about how we treat planet Earth, told through the bond between an orphaned bear cub and an evergreen tree. What starts out as a wholesome story takes a turn for the worse. As the credits roll, your heart will be left aching, and a heavy weight of guilt will sit on your chest, making you think twice about littering in the forest.
The most striking aspect of the short is how every element in the frame looks like it is made of wood carvings, which almost makes you feel cheated when you realize it’s a completely digital rendering. This was all intentional on the part of Disney alumni Engelhardt and Spears, who wanted to lean into the hyperrealism and convince audiences that they were real wood creations animated in stop-motion. However you feel about this choice, it is an incredible feat of digital animation.
The Girl Who Cried Pearls dir. Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski
Lavis and Szczerbowski began the hollowing The Girl Who Cried Pearls with so much promise, dissecting the exploitation of a young girl’s despair and the boundless greed of man. Where the short loses me, though, is the twist in the last few minutes, completely unravelling the compelling examination of how people have historically used young girls’ and women’s pain for the benefit of others, more often than not by men. It was a disappointing end to a short that had much to chew on.
Innovation is a recurring theme within the shortlist. The Girl Who Cried Pearls experiments with a combination of stop-motion puppets layered with digital facial expressions, which adds to the haunting and melancholic atmosphere created by Colm Feore’s narration.
Hurikán dir. Jan Saska
Saska really said, I want to recreate Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (1985) in animated form and make my main character a boar. The Hurikán is exactly that, following the titular Hurikán’s series of unfortunate events in the hopes of impressing the bartender at his local spot. The black and white animation only amplifies the grittiness of his misfortune, but there isn’t really anything else that stands out to say about it. It is a solid short that does not reach the heights of others on this shortlist.
I Died in Irpin dir. Anastasia Falileieva
Falileieva blurs the line between documentary and fiction in I Died in Irpin, where she recounts her own experiences travelling to Irpin from Kyiv during the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Art has tremendous power: to heal, to unmask, and to raise awareness. It is a privilege to see a short do all three, and we must continue to foster an environment where filmmakers feel brave enough to share.
She uses a blend of pencil sketches and live-action sequences to aid her reconciliation with these traumatic events, a means to take control of the past that lingers while facing it headfirst. Falileieva’s powerful story definitely earned its place amongst the group.
Les Bottes de la nuit dir. Pierre-Luc Granjon
Les Bottes de la nuit navigates the friendship between a boy and a creature he follows into the forest at night, both filling the void of loneliness in each other’s lives. The character design choice is reminiscent of Coraline’s (2009) lifeless eyes, highlighting the emptiness our protagonists felt in their lives. Yet it is the narrative that offers a flicker of hope that battling loneliness is possible and starts with taking steps out of your comfort zone, a hopeful message to send to children and adults alike.
Playing God dir. Matteo Burani
Burani’s claymation short Playing God is one of the most harrowing pieces of cinema I have seen all year. This incredibly meta story about a clay sculptor’s work asks: What happens to the discarded art that you create? The concept of “playing god” with ideas and creativity can easily become confounding, but Burani masterfully captures it in this existential body horror. Playing God is maddening, grotesque, and thought-provoking in the most complimentary way.
El fantasma de la Quinta dir. James A. Castillo
El fantasma de la Quinta is inspired by the life of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, a man who battled his demons by painting what are now known as his Black Paintings across the walls of his house. Castillo attempts to dive into the mind of Goya and what kind of illness, both physical and mental, drove him to this state. While this short sheds light on the painter and his extraordinary work, the story would benefit from more context on Goya, as some sections feel dragged out and ambiguous.
Retirement Plan dir. John Kelly
Kelly creates a simple but effective 2D animated short that explores what you would do with your time when you retire. I have found myself saying that later in life I will learn a new language or pick up a new hobby, but that time never comes. Retirement Plan (narrated by Domhnall Gleeson) acts as a cautionary tale: don’t leave living your life until the end. Don’t take for granted the limited time you have in the world. The premise works; however, less narration would have made the story punchier and less likely to meander.
The Shyness of Trees dir. Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck Du Plessis D’Argentré, Lina Han
The Shyness of Trees unearths the ever-present fear that one day we will lose our parents to the hands of old age. We watch as the daughter (Nahla Attali) goes through the five stages of grief towards her mother (Frédérique Cantrel) as she slowly loses her grip on life. The color palette and animation are bright and warm, offering a comforting embrace on the eyes in a story that tugs at your heart.
The Three Sisters dir. Konstantin Bronzit
Bronzit’s The Three Sisters is by far the weakest of all shorts. The story simply revolves around three sisters who rent out one of the houses on their small island to a sailor whom they are all fighting over. That’s it. The animation, while technically up to standard, offers nothing innovative or provocative. A generic story with visuals we’ve all seen before.
Snow Bear dir. Aaron Blaise
Blaise is the only director on this shortlist who can say he made me sob. Snow Bear highlights the ongoing climate crisis in the North Pole, where melting polar ice caps threaten many Arctic species, notably the polar bear.
This heart-shattering story follows a lonesome polar bear who makes a friend for themself out of snow. Hand-drawn over three years, this labor of love by Blaise humanizes polar bears, helping audiences empathize with them. If this is what it takes for people to comprehend the severity of the climate issue, then I say we make hundreds more of these.
List Courtesy of Nandita Joshi
Feature Image Credit to XBO Films & Sacrebleu Productions