Best Animated Short Film: Ranking Every 96th Academy Award Nominee
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
This article is a part of the Academy Awards Project, where Andreas Babiolakis from Films Fatale ranks every Oscar nominee from worst to best, and goes through every category once a day five days a week.
We’ve reached the second of three shorts-based categories, and it’s time to have some fun with the Best Animated Short Film nominees! Mind you, that’s what it would seem like would be the case if you’ve never explored this category before. For the unaware, animated short films aren’t always warm or for all ages, and it’s a shocking realization for many once they finally get around to watching these nominees. This year isn’t too out-there (although the 2022 Oscars made for a particularly controversial year in this way), and we do have a handful of strong films nominated here. Which films manage to create stories, worlds, or characters that work in their short runtimes? Which short films best explore the animation medium in creative, inventive ways?
Here are your nominees for Best Animated Short Film ranked from worst to best.
Biggest Snub: Koerkorter (Dog Apartment)
One of the more twisted shortlisted nominees to miss out on the final five nominations (you can read more about the shortlisted films here), Koerkorter (Dog Apartment) is a creepy, grim allegory of how society smushes hopes and dreams by confining citizens into soul-sucking jobs, routines, and locations. While I don’t think twisted cinema is everyone’s cup of tea, I do like it when the filmic medium pushes us outside of our comfort zones (well, when it’s done effectively, anyway), and Koerkorter is a great example of a film that forces you to grapple not just with the uneasy images on screen, but with those existential nerves that are embedded deep within you as well.
5. Our Uniform
I feel like Our Uniform is a better idea than the final result we get. An Iranian girl provides details about her time in school via the stop-motion animation of her mandatory uniform. There’s commentary here about Middle Eastern politics and what it’s like being a woman in society, but we also get the bare minimum of these statements (seven minutes may not have been enough time to truly make the most of these talking points). The saving grace of the film is how the uniform is used to tell these stories, with some astounding animation that cleverly incorporates elements of fashion and sewing (I love it whenever the floppy tape measure makes an appearance) to convey these stories, as if the history of one’s life is presented within the fabric of the clothes they wear in a provenance-based sense. Again, a neat idea that perhaps wasn’t fully realized (at least outside of the animation department).
Rating: 3/5
4. WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
I’m ranking and grading WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko not because I now think the film is bad, but because I found the other three short films that I’ve ranked higher only get better when you revisit them; WAR IS OVER! is kind of a one-and-done deal. A crucial statement on the needless amount of deaths during wartime, WAR IS OVER! takes the titular John Lennon and Yoko Ono song and makes a moving, dialogue-free story about the bloodbaths that ensue when we are meant to be “protecting” others. The film gets a bit on the nose, but I’m also glad that the entire short isn’t dependent on the song (only the climax, which the entire short film essentially builds towards, is). I wish the film was a little more inventive with its incorporation of an iconic song, but WAR IS OVER! is well-intentioned and well-constructed enough that it isn’t ever bothersome.
Rating: 3.5/5
3. Pachyderme
Perhaps I didn’t quite understand Pachyderme the first time I saw it, but revisiting it told me two things. Firstly, the grim, devastating themes of mortality, abuse, and coming-of-age dread are far deeper than the film initially leads you to believe (to discover more about a film that’s only eleven minutes long upon subsequent watches is quite something; that’s a testament to how multifaceted the poetic narrative in Pachyderme is). Secondly, I grew to love the lush yet eerie animation style more. This is a powerful, heavy short film that is disguised like a child’s storybook that is — essentially — falling apart. I feel like I ranked it far too low on my initial shortlist rankings, and I won’t make that same mistake, here.
Rating: 4/5
2. Ninety-Five Senses
Can you pull off a successful twist in just fourteen minutes? Ninety-Five Senses does just that. As you get whisked away by Tim Blake Nelson’s hypnotic storytelling and the hallucinogenic images on screen, Ninety-Five Senses feels like the nostalgic reminiscing of a geriatric who is at the end of his life. What transpires instead is far more shocking, and you learn that you’re really listening to the confessions of someone who wasted their entire life over one mistake. Ninety-Five Senses is sure to move you and have you wrestle with your own internal conflicts; how easy is it to make one wrong move and waste everything that life has offered you? We get a full story, stunning visuals, and a resonant performance from Nelson; all three elements together make for a complete experience that’ll be over by the time you pick your jaw up from off the floor.
Rating: 4/5
1. Letter to a Pig
What starts off as a recounting of a traumatic time in a Holocaust survivor’s life turns into a young girl’s nightmarish depictions of what he may have endured (albeit in an abstract sense). Letter to a Pig is as creative as animated films can be, via its sketchy, rotoscope-esque visuals and the bleak, cryptic deliverance of themes and ideas. This short film is haunting, effective, and eye-opening. The concepts of plagued memories turn into the horrors of those who cannot fathom the extent of what could have gone on during a tumultuous time like surviving Shoah. I think Letter to a Pig is brilliant, easily my favourite of the animated short nominees (shortlisted, too), and quite possibly my favourite of all of the nominated short films this year.
Rating: 4.5/5
Who I Want To Win: For me, this feels like a no-brainer. I’m supporting Letter to a Pig through and through, to the bitter end. This short has left such an impression on me.
Who I Think Will Win: Right now, it does seem like Letter to a Pig has the most award-season steam, but I wouldn’t rule out Ninety-Five Senses either. Short films shift in rankings all the time during the award season, so I wouldn’t rule out any of the nominees just yet. I think the competition blew wide open once none of the Disney-related nominees made the final five, so something like Letter to a Pig even has a shot now (thank goodness for this).
The Academy Awards Project will continue tomorrow with another category. We’re going to rank every single nominee in every single category, Monday through Friday. You don’t want to miss it!
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.