48 Of The Best Short Animated Films (Oscar winners included)

Picture this: A burst of colors, a symphony of sound, and a story that unfolds in minutes, not hours. That’s the magic of short animated films. These mini visual wonders aren’t just for kids, and they’re not mere cartoons. They’re gateways to diverse realms where creativity knows no bounds.

What is it about these bite-sized narratives that snags our attention and often leaves us with more to ponder than their feature-length cousins? It’s the blend of heart-tugging storytelling, punch-packing animation techniques, and voices that bring characters to life, echoing in our heads long after the credits roll.

By the end of this reel—you see what I did there?—you’ll get the insider scoop on everything from the whispers of indie animators to the roars of animation festival favorites. Expect to dive into the behind-the-scenes world of animation studios, the nuances of voice acting, and the revolutionary software that’s changing the game.

Ready? Let’s sketch the bigger picture.

I’ve watched all of these animated shorts and I was astonished by the creativity and exemplary execution done by top-notch motion graphic studios.

This article has three main parts. If you want to jump to a specific section, click on one of the links below:

Academy Award Winners for Best Animated Short Film (2017-2000)

Dear Basketball (2017)
Piper (2016)
Bear Story (2015)
Feast (2014)
Mr Hublot (2013)
Paperman (2012)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)
The Lost Thing (2010)
Logorama (2009)
La Maison en Petits Cubes (2008)
Peter and the Wolf (2007)
The Danish Poet (2006)
The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (2005)
Ryan (2004)
Harvie Krumpet (2003)
The ChubbChubbs! (2002)
For the Birds (2001)
Father and Daughter (2000)

Now let’s look at them in detail.

Dear Basketball (2017)

Dear Basketball is a 2017 American animated short film written and narrated by Kobe Bryant and directed and animated by Glen Keane, with music by John Williams.

Piper (2016)

Piper is a 2016 computer-animated short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios. Written and directed by Alan Barillaro, it was theatrically released alongside Pixar’s Finding Dory on June 17, 2016.

It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 89th Academy Awards, becoming the first Pixar animated short to win the award since For the Birds in 2002.

Feast (2014)

Feast is a 2014 American 3D computer-cel animated romantic comedy short film directed by Patrick Osborne, and produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It made its world premiere on June 10, 2014, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and debuted in theaters with Big Hero 6 on November 7, 2014.

Paperman (2012)

Paperman is a 2012 American black-and-white computer-cel animated romantic comedy short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and directed by John Kahrs.

The short blends traditional animation and computer animation, and won both the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 85th Academy Awards and the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject at the 40th Annie Awards.

Paperman was the first animated short film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios to win an Academy Award since It’s Tough to Be a Bird in 1970.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a 2011 animated short film directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, and produced by Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Described as an “allegory about the curative powers of story,” the film centers on bibliophile Lessmore and his custodianship of a magical library of flying books. It was created using computer animation, miniatures and traditional hand-drawn techniques.

The Lost Thing (2010)

The Lost Thing is a picture book written and illustrated by Shaun Tan that was also adapted into an Academy Award-winning animated short film.

La Maison en Petits Cubes (2008)

The House of Small Cubes is a 2008 Japanese animated short subject film created by Kunio Katō, with music by Kenji Kondo and produced by Robot Communications.

It won several prizes, including The Annecy Cristal at the 32nd Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 81st Academy Awards. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2008.

The Danish Poet (2006)

The Danish Poet (Norwegian: Den danske dikteren) is a 2006 animated short film written, directed, and animated by Torill Kove and narrated by Liv Ullmann.

A co-production of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and Mikrofilm AS of Norway, it has won both the Academy Award and Genie Award for best animated short film.

Ryan (2004)

Ryan is a 2004 animated documentary created and directed by Chris Landreth about Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who had lived on skid row in Montreal as a result of drug and alcohol abuse. Landreth’s chance meeting with Larkin in 2000 inspired him to develop the film, which took 18 months to complete.

The ChubbChubbs! (2002)

The ChubbChubbs! is a 2002 American computer-animated comedy short film by Sony Pictures Imageworks. It was directed by Eric Armstrong, produced by Jacquie Barnbrook, and written by Jeff Wolverton.

The ChubbChubbs! won an Oscar for a Best Animated Short in 2002.

Father and Daughter (2000)

Father and Daughter is a 2000 Dutch animated short film, made by Michaël Dudok de Wit. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

A look at some of the best short animated films

Sam | The Short Animated Movie

In one of the best-animated shorts you’ll see, Sam, a shy young man, finds himself in a slow-motion world. Trying to restore time, he fails. The circumstances bring him to rescue his co-workers, and Nathalie, the girl he secretly loves.

Directed by Payetaprod Studio, a French team composed of Mickael Bonfill, Romain Protect, and Emmanuel Aurengo.

“Spellbound Short Film” by Ying Wu & Lizzia Xu

“Spell Bound” is a short animation about a lonely girl, Rene, who is jealous of her perfect sister Sunny but must save her after writing negative thoughts in her diary that unexpectedly transform into monsters.

CGI Animated Short Film “Wakan Short Film” by ISART DIGITAL

This animated short film begins at dusk. When the sun sets on a small native American village in the middle of a forest, two children, Aiyanna and her brother, Tawa, are playing hide and seek.

From the edge of the village, the young girl is lured away by a furtive blue light into the mystical forest. To save his sister, Tawa must venture deep into the heart of the spirit world.

“A Fox And A Mouse” – by ESMA

Watch this beautiful and touching award-winning 3D short animated film called “A Fox And A Mouse” as a lonesome fox hunts a mouse – and their relationship evolves as two owls begin to interfere with the hunt!

“Dustin” – by The Dustin Team

Enjoy this cute award winning CGI 3D Animated short film – “Dustin” is an animated comedy about a pug who, much to his chagrin, has to arrange with an automatic cleaning robot as his new roommate. Created by the talented hands and minds of Michael Fritzsche, Kristina Jaeger, Andreas Tetz & Nadine Utz Produced in Germany in 2014! One of the best short animated films available.

“Take Me Home” – by Nair Archawattana

Watch one of the most moving short animations about hope. In a cold, dark dog shelter, a young beagle is waiting for the right one to take him home. Time passes by, the beagle is getting desperate.

Until one day, when hope finally shines upon him. He has to do everything he can to leave the place! For more information, please see the details and links below.

“Take Me Home” is an animated short film created and directed by Nair Archawattana, with a collaboration of talented students at Academy of Arts University.

Dust Buddies Short Film” by Beth Tomashek & Sam Wade

CGI Animated Dust Buddies Short Film by Beth Tomashek & Sam Wade from Ringling college of art and design.

Dust Buddies is a story about the friendship between two dust bunnies, Fuzz and Lint, who live peacefully under a couch. When an evil maid comes to clean the house and sucks Fuzz into her vacuum, Lint must overcome his fears and set out to rescue his friend. An excellent animation short about courage.

“The Controller Short Film” by Bob Yong, Kang Yung Ho, Ian Ie

CGI Animated The Controller Short Film by Bob Yong, Kang Yung Ho, Ian Ie from Ringling college of art and design.

Roles are reversed when a controlling mom is trapped in her son’s video game. Helpless, she now has to listen to him if she hopes to escape the unfamiliar game world. A great short movie for kids.

“Last Shot Short Film” by Aemilia Widodo

CGI 3d Animated Last Shot Animated Short Film by Aemilia Widodo from Ringling College of Art and Design.

In this short animated film, a girl just discovering the joys of photography ends up breaking her camera by accident.

Presto

Presto is one 2008 American Pixar computer-animated short stories shown in theaters before their main feature-length film. This one was shown before WALL-E.

The short is about a magician trying to perform a show with his uncooperative rabbit and is a gag-filled homage to classic cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes. Presto was directed by veteran Pixar animator Doug Sweetland, in his directorial debut.

Oktapodi

Oktapodi is a 2007 French animated short film that won a short film, Oscar. It was created as a Graduate Student Project from Gobelins L’Ecole de L’Image.

The short is about a pair of love-struck octopuses who through a series of comical events are separated and find each other. Oktapodi was directed by Julien Bocabeille, François-Xavier Chanioux, Olivier Delabarre, Thierry Marchand, Quentin Marmier, and Emud Mokhberi. Music was composed by Kenny Wood.

Oktapodi was well received, winning a number of awards, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Short Film (Animated) for the 81st Academy Awards.

Invasions

They may steal our cows and take over our cats, but Clement Morin’s animated short film animation, Invasions, shows that alien dudes do things for the exact same reason that human dudes do.

The lady and the reaper

The Lady and the Reaper is a 3D imaging animated short film created by Javier Recio Gracia and produced by Kandor Graphics. It was one of the short animation movies nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and won the Goya Award for Best Animated Short of 2009.

Replay

In a destroyed world, the only glimpse of hope is the memory of a forgotten past. But be careful not to let your dreams control your mind. This is Replay an amazing animated short animated video.

The setting is an apocalyptic world caused by who knows what where two siblings are surviving in some underground cabin. Outside, there is doom and destruction everywhere – they even have to wear oxygen masks while going out because of the polluted air!

One day, the older of the two siblings, Lana finds something that’s going to change their lives forever! And now I shall shut up about the story – you will have to watch it yourselves :).

French Roast

French Roast is a short animation video created by Fabrice O. Joubert. It is Joubert’s first short film.

In a fancy Parisian Café c. 1960, an uptight businessman discovers he forgot to bring his wallet and bides his time by ordering more coffee. He constantly turns away a homeless man who asks him for money, but in the end, due to a curious turn of events, it is the homeless man who is unselfish enough to pay the businessman’s bill thus saving him from embarrassment.

Cathedral

The Cathedral is the title of an award-winning animation by Jacek Dukaj, winner of the Janusz A. Zajdel Award in 2000; and of a 2002 short animated movie by Tomasz Bagiński, based on the story.

The film was nominated in 2002 for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film for the 75th Academy Awards. The movie won the title of Best Animated Short at Siggraph 2002 in San Antonio as well as several other awards.

Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty

In this animation, old lady Granny Grim is a storyteller of note. Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty is a six-minute-long CG/flash animated socially satirical black comedy short film, directed by Nicky Phelan and produced by Darragh O’Connell of Brown Bag Films in 2008.

It was written by Kathleen O’Rourke. The plot centers on Granny O’Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, who loses the plotline as she tells her own version of Sleeping Beauty to her terrified granddaughter.

This Way Up

Laying the dead to rest has never been so much trouble.

This Oscar Nominated short is directed by Smith & Foulkes and written by Foulkes, Smith, and Christopher O’Reilly, and produced at Nexus by Charlotte Bavasso and Christopher O’Reilly, the film follows two dour unfortunates as they battle a series of misadventures while trying to deliver a coffin to the graveyard.

The animated caper is a series of emotional and literal pitfalls for the pall-bearing team, as their journey and relationship unravel on an epic scale culminating in the pair joining the old lady in a trip through the underworld.

‘This Way Up’, was nominated for an Oscar® for best animated short at the 81st annual Academy Awards.

Before its Oscar win, “This Way Up” won numerous awards at film festivals around the world, including an Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival, the Public Prize for Best Short Film at the 2008 Ottawa Animation Festival, the Audience Award for Animated Short at both the Palm Springs International Film Festival, and the Mundos Digitales in Spain.

This is proof that is one of the amazing Oscar animated short films of our time.

Even Pigeons Go To Heaven

Even Pigeons Go To Heaven is a short animation movie directed by Samuel Tourneux and released in 2007. It was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for the best animated short film.

Madame Tutli-Putli

Madame Tutli-Putli is a 2007 Academy Award nominated stop motion-animated short film by Montreal filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). It is available on the Cinema16: World Short Films DVD as well as from the NFB. An excellent academy awards animated short film to add to your collection.

Artificial Paradise, Inc

Artificial Paradise, Inc is an experimental animated short story anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed a unique software, based on organic virtual reality, which holds all the lost memories of humankind. A user connects to this database of the forgotten…what is he searching for?

The Monk & The Monkey

In this animation short story, a determined young boy, Ragu, is sent by his master on his final quest to become a monk. A seemingly simple task becomes an unexpected challenge for Ragu as he discovers the real value of his quest.

Created by Brendan Carroll & Francesco Giroldini
Music by Erez Koskas

Something Left, Something Taken

This short story animation is a dark comedy about a vacationing couple’s encounter with a man they believe to be the Zodiac Killer. Based on a true story. Techniques and tools: After Effects, Stop-Motion, Pixilation, Drawn on Paper, Flash, Live Action puppets

Direction/Animation/Design/Writing: Max Porter & Ru Kuwahata
Sound Design/Mix: Greg Sextro (East West Audio)
Voice recording: Erin Kilkenny

The Raven

This partly animated movie is an exception for this article. I’ve included it because it has some damn good effects.

Chris Black possesses a power that could lead to the destruction of the current regime, and they will stop at nothing to destroy him.

The chase is on as Chris runs for his life in this sci-fi thriller set in an alternate and futuristic Los Angeles.

Director: Ricardo de Montreuil
Producers: Ricardo de Montreuil & Eliz Eskeranli
Writers: Ricardo de Montreuil & Antonio Perez
Cinematographer: Andres Sanchez
Music by: Angelo Milli
Special Effects Supervisor: Aaron Burns
3D Modeling and Animation: Juan Somarriba and Francisco Concha
Visual Effects and Compositing: Ricardo de Montreuil
Editing: Ricardo de Montreuil
Color Correction: Santiago Padilla
Sound Design and Mixing: Martin Seltzer
Budget: $5k
Format: RED 1920×1080
Special thanks: Filmosonido, CO3, and Converse

Descendants

Heiko van der Scherm – Writer, Director, Design, Modeling
Bernhard Haux – Character TD Flower main actors
Goro Fujita – Supervising Animator
Felix Graf – Animator
Holger Schönberger – Pipeline, Shading, Lighting, Compositing

FAQ about short animated films

What inspires short animated films?

Truth? It’s like asking what makes the heart beat. Ideas flow from everywhere. An indie animator might find a spark in a coffee shop’s chaos, while big animation studios, well, they might fish from a sea of childhood memories or dreams. Inspiration’s really everywhere—just gotta catch it.

How long does it take to make a short animated film?

“Quick” is not a word we use. Even the shortest of shorts, say a 5 minute Pixar dazzler, can take months or years. It’s laborious, realizing those stop-motion frames or perfecting CGI. Time ticks differently in the world of animation screenplay crafting and character building.

What software do animators use for short films?

Oh, the toolkit’s vast! Adobe After Effects, Autodesk Maya, occasionally old-school Flash. Cutting-edge? Maybe some are whispering about RenderMan. But you know, all these software pieces, they’re just fancy brushes painting on digital canvases. It’s the artist, not the paint, remember that.

Can short animated films have a big impact?

They pack a punch. “Bao,” that heartstring-puller, snagged an Oscar. Short it may be, but shallow? Far from it. A good animated short doesn’t just tell a story; it leaves a mark, etches a message deep where it lingers. That’s the kind of impact we’re talking about.

Who are the most notable creators of short animated films?

You’ve heard about Walt Disney, I reckon? Pioneers. Then there’s Hayao Miyazaki, his strokes define artistry. Indie mavericks? They’re carving names too. In every animation festival, new stars rise, surprising us, delighting us. The realm of animated storytelling is rich with such maestros.

What are common themes in short animated films?

Think of them like parables, you know? Often there’s a lesson woven in, or a punchy satirical bite. Family-friendly appeals or even complex motifs suited for adults; the spectrum’s broad. Animated shorts explore it all, from the simplicity of joy to the complexity of social issues.

Where can I watch short animated films?

Hello, Internet, right? YouTube’s brimming with animated storytelling. Netflix, too, is banking on these bite-sized narratives. Animation studio channels? Sure bet for top-tier stuff. Festivals around the globe reel in the indie scene, and sometimes they stream it. They’re out there, just need to look.

How are voices chosen for characters in short animated films?

It’s casting magic. Pairing that perfect voice with the drawn personality. Not just any actor, but one who can breathe life into pixels. The voice acting is a play—auditions, instinct, a dash of serendipity. That’s how those animated beings talk to you, really talk to you.

What distinguishes a successful short animated film?

Gut feeling? Emotion. Audience swipes a tear or chuckles, that’s golden. But it’s also sophistication in simplicity, and a story that’s tight, no room for fluff. Awards? Sure, they’re shiny, but a successful short grips you, stays with you, haunts you, in the good way.

How has technology affected the production of short animated films?

Like a bolt to Frankenstein’s monster, technology’s brought things to life that once lived only in the realm of impossibilities. From sketch to screen, it’s an evolution. 3D animated films, CGI – tech’s not just changed the game, it’s constantly flipping the board and upping the ante.

Ending thoughts

So, we’ve journeyed through this vibrant tapestry of short animated films, haven’t we? A realm where sketches and voices blend into something extraordinary. Where stories are dressed with strokes of sheer brilliance within the span of a lunch break.

What sticks? These aren’t just fleeting entertainment. Nah, they’re snippets of genius that stay with you, challenge you, maybe even change a little bit of how you see the world. From the indie scene’s raw edge to Oscar-winning giants, each film is a unique heartbeat in the vast body of animation.

Keep an eye out, ’cause whether it’s on a streaming service or lost in a YouTube wormhole, there’s always more to discover. And remember, each frame, every line, it’s all someone’s soul splashed across the screen, a shared whisper of humanity.

So go ahead. Watch another, let it move you. And maybe, just maybe, inspire you to dream up your own worlds too.

If you liked this article with the best animated short films, you should check out these as well:

Amazing Adobe After Effects Tutorials You Need To Watch
Academy Awards Short Film Nominees
The short films that the Academy awarded over time with an Oscar
The Best Animated Movies For Adults

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