| Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| Formerly called |
|
| First award | November 18, 1932; 93 years ago (1932-11-18) (for films released during the1931/1932 film season) |
| Most recent winner | Shirin Sohani, Hossein Molayemi In the Shadow of the Cypress (2024) |
| Website | oscars |
TheAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annualAcademy Awards, or Oscars, since the5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1931–32, to the present.
From 1932 until 1970, the category was known asShort Subjects, Cartoons; and from 1971 to 1973 asShort Subjects, Animated Films. The present title began with the46th Awards in 1974. During the first 5 decades of the award's existence, awards were presented to theproducers of the shorts. Current Academy rules, however, call for the award to be presented to "the individual person most directly responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film." Moreover, "[i]n the event that more than one individual has been directly and importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be awarded."[1]
OnlyAmerican films were nominated for the award until theNational Film Board of Canada (NFB) was nominated forThe Romance of Transportation in Canada in 1952. The first non-English-language international short to win wasZagreb Film'sErsatz (The Substitute) in 1961.
The first film to win in this category wasFlowers and Trees byWalt Disney, who has since held the category's record for most nominations (39) and most wins (12).[2][3]MGM'sTom and Jerry (1940–67) is the category's most lauded animated series over all, being nominated for a total of 13 Oscars and winning 7.Warner Bros.'sLooney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series also had a big amount of 16 Oscar nominations and winning 5. Among international studios, the NFB has the most wins in this category, with 6 Oscars. The biggest showing fromBritain in this category isNick Park, with three wins: 1 forCreature Comforts and 2 for theWallace & Gromit series.
The Academy definesshort as being "not more than 40 minutes, including all credits."[4] Fifteen films areshortlisted before nominations are announced. In the listings below, the title shown in boldface was the winner of the award in that given year, followed by the other nominees for that year.
All bars that are highlighted yellow were winners—with the title and name shown in boldface.
For this Academy Award category, the following superlatives emerge:[3]
| Most awards | Walt Disney | 12 awards | [2] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most nominations | 39 nominations | ||
| Most consecutive years | 8 years (1931–1939) | ||
| Oldest winner | 67 years, 130 days (posthumously, forWinnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day) | ||
| Youngest winner | Bob Gardiner | 24 years, 20 days (forClosed Mondays) | |
| Shortest winning film | The Crunch Bird (1971) | 2 minutes and 32 seconds | |
| Shortest nominated film | Fresh Guacamole (2012) | 1 minute and 40 seconds | [8] |
| Longest winning film | The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022) | 34 minutes and 8 seconds | |
| Longest nominated film | Pear Cider and Cigarettes (2016) | 34 minutes and 56 seconds | [9] |
The following is a list of animation studios or animators that earned multiple nominations and awards in this category.
| Studio | Nominations | Awards |
|---|---|---|
| Disney[10] | 51 | 15 |
| MGM | 23 | 9 |
| National Film Board of Canada | 38 | 6 |
| Warner Bros. | 27 | 5 |
| Pixar | 17 | 5 |
| United Productions of America | 14 | 3 |
| Aardman | 9 | 3 |
| John Hubley andFaith Hubley | 7 | 3 |
| BBC | 3 | 3 |
| Channel 4 | 6 | 2 |
| Frédéric Back | 4 | 2 |
| Sony Pictures Animation | 2 | 2 |
| Rembrandt | 5 | 1 |
| Bob Godfrey | 4 | 1 |
| Aleksandr Petrov | 4 | 1 |
| Will Vinton | 4 | 1 |
| Zagreb Film | 4 | 1 |
| Brandon | 3 | 1 |
| Passion Pictures Animation | 3 | 1 |
| Blue Sky | 3 | 1 |
| DePatie-Freleng | 2 | 1 |
| Fred Wolf | 2 | 1 |
| Motionpicker | 2 | 1 |
| Michael Mills | 2 | 1 |
| Dave Mullins | 2 | 1 |
| Pannonia Film Studio | 2 | 1 |
| Stephen Bosustow Productions | 2 | 1 |
| Walter Lantz | 10 | 0 |
| George Pal | 7 | 0 |
| Screen Gems | 6 | 0 |
| National Film & Television School | 6 | 0 |
| Fleischer | 4 | 0 |
| Terrytoons | 4 | 0 |
| Pathe Contemporary | 3 | 0 |
| Magic Light | 3 | 0 |
| Mark Baker | 3 | 0 |
| Melnitsa | 3 | 0 |
| Harman-Ising | 2 | 0 |
| Dago | 2 | 0 |
| Pyramid | 2 | 0 |
| TVC London | 2 | 0 |
| S4C | 2 | 0 |
| Brown Bag | 2 | 0 |
| Halas & Batchelor | 2 | 0 |
| Bill Plympton | 2 | 0 |
| Don Hertzfeldt | 2 | 0 |
| Folimage | 2 | 0 |
| Emanuele Luzzati | 2 | 0 |
| Konstantin Bronzit | 2 | 0 |
| Joanna Quinn | 2 | 0 |