A Bear Named Wojtek is a new dramatic, hand-drawn animated short vying for awards consideration this year. It’s inspired by the life of a real, large, Syrian brown bear, who was adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II. His significant, remarkable accomplishments and lasting impact are chronicled in the film, from director Iain Gardner. […]

Adam Paloian and his team at Pinreel Inc. are nominated for the 2024 “Best Sponsored” Annie Award for iconic duo Tenacious D’s Video Games music video. Paloian, who recently won an Emmy for The Cuphead Show, joins me to talk about working with Jack Black and Kyle Gass and directing this fast-paced showcase of animation, […]

BOOM, about birds reacting to an erupting volcano (and hoping to stay alive and protect their eggs), has already won a Student Academy Award. Now it’s on the 96th Oscars shortlist for Best Animated Short Film. Find out how these five directors — Romain Augier, Charles Di Cicco, Gabriel Augerai, Yannick Jacquin and Laurie Pereira […]

Director Stéphanie Clement’s Pachyderme is on the 96th Annual Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film shortlist. It’s about a woman named Louise who recalls visiting her grandparents as a child. What follows is a serious and shocking look at their time together. Clement provides some context for how Pachyderme came to be in this Animation […]

Letter to a Pig is about a guest speaker in a classroom recalling a traumatic event and a female student who becomes immersed in the story. In this Animation Scoop Q&A, director Tal Kantor takes me through how she made one of this year’s 15 finalists for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar. (This Email […]

Academy Award nominee Dave Mullins (of Pixar’s Lou) is back on the Oscars Best Animated Short Film shortlist. He has directed WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko. Learn how Mullins took an iconic song and paired it with a powerful story to create a short that will likely be talked […]

Flora Anna Buda is the director of 27, a 2024 Oscar shortlisted animated short about a 27-year-old woman trying to navigate life’s complications — what she experiences day to day and what she feels, emotionally, inside. Buda and I explore the short’s themes, which will likely resonate with some of this generation’s twentysomethings, in this […]

It’s a day in the life of a worker who loves ballet dancing and lives in a… Dog Apartment. Ordinary for him. Unique for us. This short comes from director Priit Tender, who is thrilled to be on the 96th Oscars Best Animated Short Film shortlist. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was conducted as an Email […]

One of the fifteen 2024 Best Animated Short Film Oscars finalists is Eeva, from directors Lucija Mrzljak and Morten Tsinakov. A rainy funeral. A restaurant. Woodpeckers. And you should expect the unexpected. Tsinakov shared these answers to my Eeva questions, on behalf of himself and Mrzljak, for this Animation Scoop Interview. (This was edited for […]

Director Stephen Vuillemin’s A Kind of Testament is on the 96th Annual Oscars Best Animated Short Film shortlist. One day, a woman discovers online that someone has taken some of her social media posts and turned them into animated video clips. It gets wilder from there. Vuillemin takes me through the thought process behind it […]

Director Yegane Moghaddam’s Annecy-winning Our Uniform is now one of the 15 finalists for the 2024 Best Animated Short Film Academy Award. It’s about an Iranian girl who recalls her school days and, specifically, what she had to wear. Clothing is a major component of the story and the unique look of Our Uniform, as […]

One of the 15 selections on this year’s Best Animated Short Film Oscars shortlist is Wild Summon, a fascinating *tail* of the life cycle of salmon, shown to us in human form. It’s an instantly captivating live-action / animation hybrid that screened at Cannes in May to rave reviews. The directing duo Karni & Saul […]