87th Academy Awards Short Animated Film Shortlist

Ten (10) short animated films, out of 58 submissions that originally qualified, advance to the next stage where up to 5 short films will be officially selected for the category.

These are the 10 short animated films.

The Bigger Picture, Daisy Jacobs, UK, 8'
Coda, Alan Holly, Ireland, 9'
The Dam Keeper, Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, USA, 18'
Duet, Glen Keane, USA, 4'
Feast, Patrick Osborne, USA
Footprints, Bill Plympton, USA, 4'
Me and My Moulton, Torill Kove, Canada, 14'
The Numberlys, William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, USA, 12'
A Single Life, Joris Oprins, Marieke Blaauw and Job Roggeveen, Netherlands, 3'
Symphony No. 42, Réka Bucsi, Hungary, 10'

The Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch Reviewing Committee viewed all the eligible entries for the preliminary round of voting at screenings held in New York and Los Angeles. Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will now select three to five nominees from among the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in Los Angeles, London, New York and San Francisco in December.

The 87th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 15, 2015, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. The Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network

Check trailers and pictures from shortlisted short animated films

The Bigger Picture
'You want to put her in a home; you tell her; tell her now!' hisses one brother to the other. But Mother won't go, and their own lives quickly unravel as she clings to life. Director Daisy Jacobs uses two-metre-high painted characters in full-size sets to tell the stark and darkly humorous tale of caring for an elderly relative. The Bigger Picture is quite simply the most innovative animated short you will see this year.



Coda
A lost soul stumbles drunken through the city. In a park, Death finds him and shows him many things.



The Dam Keeper
The Dam Keeper, a short film by feature-animation artists Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi tells the tale of a young pig with an important job, and a new friend who changes everything.. The short film blends traditional hand-drawn animation with digital painting techniques to bring Kondo and Tsutsumi's celebrated paintings to life. In a desolate future, one small town has survived because of a large windmill dam that acts as a fan to keep out pollution. The dam's operator, Pig, works tirelessly to keep the sails spinning and protect the town, despite abuse from classmates and an indifferent public. When a new student joins Pig's class, nothing will be the same again.



Duet
A celebration of life through the hand-drawn line.



Feast
The story of one man's love life is seen through the eyes of his best friend and dog, Winston, and revealed bite by bite through the meals they share.



Me and My Moulton
Follows a seven-year-old girl and her sisters, who ask their parents to get them a bicycle. Our young protagonist struggles with her sense that her family is somehow unconventional, and her loving yet hopelessly out-of-touch parents prove to be a source of quiet embarrassment and anxiety. With a bright palette, this film views the creative attitudes of the parents through the eyes of their introspective daughter. Me and My Moulton tells the charming story of a young girl whose sensitive nature sometimes makes it difficult for her to be honest with the ones she loves most.



The Numberlys
The Numberlys is an epic homage to Fritz Lang's Metropolis, but for kids. Friends 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 live in a world where there is no alphabet - only numbers. One day, they decide they want something different from their orderly, black-and-white world. They set out to create each letter of the alphabet and bring color, creativity and jellybeans to their world.



A Single Life
When Pia plays a mysterious vinyl record single, she suddenly knows how to travel through her own life.




Symphony No. 42
The film applies an unconventional narrative. It presents a subjective world through 47 scenes. The small events, interlaced by associations, express the irrational coherence of our surroundings. The surreal situations are based on the interactions of humans and nature.



Footprints