Short films already don't nearly get the attention they deserve, but it goes even a step further when it comes to animated shorts. Because of how time-consuming and difficult animation is, these projects often take quite a bit of time to make and don't typically have huge crews, as most animated short films are made by students.
This, however, shouldn't count out animated short films, because they're often some of the most moving and compelling stories told. The ability to capture such extreme emotions in such a short amount of time—sometimes without any dialogue—is masterful. Whether they're made in 2D or 3D animation, these animated shorts are amazing. This is no ranking, either—simply an appreciation for all animated short films from the last 5 years.
10 'Black Eyed Dog' (2023)
Image via Alessandro ZolfanelliStop motion animation is one of the most underappreciated forms of animation in the modern age. The reason it doesn't occur in cinema as often today is because of how much grueling, time-consuming work that it takes. Everyone can agree, though, that it more than pays off. Some proof of this isn't just in features like Coraline, but also in shorts like Black Eyed Dog.
This 2023 short film, directed by Alessandro Zolfanelli, is filled to the brim with style. It feels like a Tim Burton movie at its heart, while still maintaining its own style and identity. Following a man who's struggling with an obsession over a monster he came across as a child, this flick feels incredibly introspective and thought-provoking.
9 'Farewell' (2026)
Image via Luke LeeFarewell is the recent college thesis short film by director Luke Lee. Taking clear inspiration from the likes of the ever-popular Studio Ghibli, Farewell is, in short, absolutely gorgeous. Following a young man who is looking for his melody, this 2026 7-minute project is one that is heartfelt and astoundingly well-animated.
Some say 2D animation is a dying art form, but Farewell is one of those projects that helps prove that dead wrong. 2D art is still well and alive through talented artists like all the ones who worked extremely hard on Lee's movie. One of the best things about Farewell is the painterly backgrounds that the animation lies on top of, by Lee himself, William Burger, Himari Chatani, Elio Ramirez, and Antoine Couttolenc Camacho. There's so much to love about Farewell, and it is proof that the future of animation is in very good hands.
8 'Under the Thicket' (2024)
Image via Caleb WorcesterMany animated films decide not to rely on dialogue to convey their story and the emotions within the characters, and one of the ones that does this very well is none other than Caleb Worcester's Under the Thicket. This project has an abundantly unique and beautiful style of animation that helps bring not just the characters to life well, but some eye-grabbing colors, too.
Worcester stated in the film's description that this film was worked on for a year, and it shows. The heart of this movie is so pure and filled with love. Any project that can make people truly feel is a success in some way, and boy does Under the Thicket manage to do that, and then some, throughout its almost 5-minute runtime.
7 'Boy, I'm Scared' (2025)
Image via Lindsey TenagliaFriendship can be one of the most special bonds a human can have, and Boy, I'm Scared by Lindsey Tenaglia is a short film that captures this bond almost perfectly. Following three friends as they share what will most likely be their last conversation with each other, Boy, I'm Scared depicts a friendship that feels abundantly natural.
The conversation had between the pals is incredibly well-paced, and, as stated, feels genuine and honest. There's something so raw about this story and its execution that makes it unforgettable. Friends holding each other together at the end of everything. The bonds shown are ones that most people wish they could find in life, which is a huge part of why this is so special.
6 'Snubbed' (2025)
Image via Jesse Braak and Kian SherrittDirected by Jesse Braak and Kian Sherritt, Snubbed is a fun, lighthearted short film about coming together for the common good, despite one's differences with another. When two performers manage to royally tick off the local patron god—destroying the god's altar during a skirmish between each other—they must join forces to make things right once more.
The colors in this project are vibrant, bright, and all-around magnificent. This just-over-3-minute adventure is such a fun and wild ride. It's fast-paced and flowing, making this such an eye-grabbing project, definitely thanks to the animation lead, Ja-Zaria "Momo" Hall. The entire team on this project clearly worked so dang hard to make sure this came out perfectly, and they succeeded.
5 'Fuelled' (2021)
Image via Killedthecat ProductionsFuelled tells a story of revenge and the way it can have an impact on one's life and mental health. Seeking revenge for her husband's murder—committed in a home invasion—a housewife tries to track down the man who killed him to get the revenge she so rightfully deserves. But when she runs out of gas in her car from doing so, she gets into a confrontation with the worker there.
The title of this project has a few different meanings, with her car needing fuel, but her personally being fueled by hate and vengeance—the fuel from the car eventually blowing up the gas station, but, in truth, her own fuel is what truly did it. The way that Fuelled uses visuals to capture the meaning and themes behind the story is excellent—borderline masterful.
4 'Andy: A Dog's Tale' (2024)
Image via Canine CompanionsIf anything can get someone's emotions moving, it's the use of animals as a protagonist or narrative device. That's exactly what the likes of Andy: A Dog's Tale does. This 2024 short is about none other than Andy, a young pup who is attempting to find purpose by becoming a service dog for the disabled.
Andy: A Dog's Tale is tear-jerking in all the best ways. The way it pulls on the heartstrings is so profound and warms the heart abundantly. The story told here isn't just filled to the brim with emotions, but has a message that is genuinely so important, raising awareness for service animals all over the planet.
3 'Student Accomplice' (2024)
Image via Spencer BairdWhen a very anxious teenager named Letty (Mercedes Murguia) struggles to face her fears during her driving test, she's forced to confront them when a bank robber, Vaughn (Christopher Robin Miller), takes over the test and forces her to be his getaway driver. She's thrown into a high-speed chase as her skills are put to the test.
Student Accomplice was nominated for and won multiple awards after release, including 3D Animation Film of the Year at 2024's The Rookie Awards. It more than deserves it, as the animation is very well-done, the voice acting is compelling, and the story behind it all is very entertaining in almost every way.
2 'Cat and Moth' (2023)
Image via India BarnardoAnother award-winning short film comes in the form of India Barnardo's Cat and Moth, an overwhelmingly cute, stylized animation about a little fluffy cat who simply wants to find somewhere comfortable to stay. However, things aren't easy as a pesky moth tries to get in on the excursion, greatly annoying her.
The animation quality and style in Cat and Moth are out of this world. Much like how Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does, Cat and Moth blends 3D and 2D animation perfectly, giving it a very defined style. This short is extremely cute and is impressive in almost every single way—unforgettable is the only way to describe it.
1 'Snow Bear' (2025)
Image via Aaron BlaiseHand-drawn 2D animation is not nearly used enough in cinema these days, and that's a huge loss, because it's one of the most beautiful, hard-working, and elegant styles of animation of all time. It's the original form of animation, and it needs to be more appreciated. A short film that truly proves this is Aaron Blaise's Snow Bear.
This is a fully hand-drawn 2D-animated film that is beautiful in every single way it possibly could be. It is filled with 11,000 drawings and was made over the course of a whopping 3 years—oh, and Blaise was the only animator on the project. Yes, he did it alone. This short won awards at countless festivals worldwide—seen on its IMDb—and deserves it.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz
Which Oscar Best Picture
Is Your Perfect Movie?
Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
FIND YOUR FILM →
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don't just entertain — they leave something behind.
ASomething that pulls the rug out — that makes me think I'm watching one kind of film and then reveals I'm watching another entirely. BSomething overwhelming — funny, sad, absurd, and genuinely moving, all at once. CSomething grand and weighty — a film that makes me feel the full scale of what I'm watching. DSomething formally daring — a film that pushes what cinema can even do. ESomething lean and relentless — pure tension with no wasted frame.
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02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What's yours?
AClass, inequality, and what people are willing to do when desperation meets opportunity. BIdentity, family, and the chaos of trying to hold your life together when everything is falling apart. CGenius, moral responsibility, and the catastrophic weight of a decision you can never take back. DEgo, legacy, and the terror of becoming irrelevant while you're still alive to watch it happen. EEvil, chance, and whether moral order actually exists or if we just tell ourselves it does.
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03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
AGenre-twisting — I want it to start in one lane and migrate into something completely different. BMaximalist and genre-blending — comedy, action, drama, sci-fi, all in one ride. CEpic and non-linear — cutting between timelines, building a mosaic of cause and consequence. DA single unbroken flow — I want to feel like I'm living it in real time, no cuts to safety. ESpare and precise — every scene doing exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
AA system — invisible, structural, and almost impossible to fight because it has no single face. BThe self — the ways we sabotage, abandon, and fail the people we love most. CHistory — the unstoppable momentum of events that no single person can stop or redirect. DThe industry — the machinery of culture that chews up talent and spits out irrelevance. EPure, implacable evil — a force so certain of itself it becomes almost philosophical.
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05
What do you want from a film's ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
AShock and inevitability — a conclusion that recontextualises everything that came before it. BEarned emotion — I want to cry, laugh, and feel genuinely hopeful, even if the world is a mess. CDevastation and grandeur — an ending that makes me sit in silence for a few minutes after. DAmbiguity — something that leaves enough open that I'm still thinking about it days later. EBleakness — an honest refusal to pretend the world is tidier than it actually is.
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06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what's even possible.
AA gleaming modern city with a hidden underside — beauty masking rot, wealth masking desperation. BA collapsing suburban life that opens onto something infinite — the multiverse of a single ordinary person. CThe corridors of power and science at a world-historical turning point — where decisions echo for decades. DThe grimy, alive chaos of New York and Hollywood — fame as both destination and trap. EVast, indifferent landscape — desert and highway where violence arrives without warning or reason.
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07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
AProduction design and mise-en-scène — every frame composed to carry meaning beneath the surface. BEditing and tonal control — the ability to move between registers without losing the audience. CScore and sound design — music that becomes inseparable from the dread and awe of what you're watching. DCinematography as performance — the camera not recording events but participating in them. ESilence and restraint — what's left unsaid and unshown doing more work than any dialogue could.
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08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
ASomeone smart and resourceful who makes increasingly dangerous decisions under pressure. BSomeone overwhelmed and ordinary who turns out to be capable of something extraordinary. CA brilliant, tortured figure whose gifts and flaws are inseparable from each other. DA self-destructive artist whose ego is both their superpower and their undoing. EA quiet, principled person trying to make sense of a world that has stopped making sense.
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09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
AI love a slow build when I know the payoff is going to be seismic — patience for a devastating reveal. BGive me relentless momentum — I want to feel breathless and emotionally spent by the end. CEpic runtime doesn't scare me — if the material demands three hours, give me three hours. DI want it to feel propulsive even when nothing is technically happening — restless energy throughout. EDeliberate and unhurried — I want dread to accumulate in the spaces between the action.
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10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
AUnsettled — like I've just seen something I can't fully explain but can't stop thinking about. BMoved and energised — like the film reminded me what actually matters and gave me something to hold onto. CHumbled — like I've been in the presence of something genuinely important and overwhelming. DExhilarated — like I've just seen cinema doing something it's never quite done before. EHaunted — like a cold, quiet dread that stays with me for days.
REVEAL MY FILM →
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it's ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn't want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it's about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it's about. Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor's ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn't be possible. Michael Keaton's performance and Emmanuel Lubezki's restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
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