Nov 18, 2015

12 Animated Short Shorts Shortlisted for 2016 Cesar Awards

The César Awards, the highest honor in French cinema, has announced its short list of 12 French films nominated for the Best Animated Short Film of 2016.

The four nominees will be announced on January 27, followed by the winners at the César Awards ceremony on February 26, 2016.

One of Cartoon Brew's key themes is to highlight the breadth and diversity of animation from around the world, and the list of César Award nominees is a good illustration of this point. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Technology, the organization that awards the prize, selected 12 quality films, only one of which was eligible for consideration for this year's Academy Awards.

As much as we talk about the Oscars and the Annie Awards, the César Awards remind us of the impracticality of having a single awards body or festival judge the work of the entire animation community. Yet each of these events is valid in that they help audiences discover new work.

Below are some of the finalists for the César Prize. The French treat the short format as a platform for serious storytelling and are unafraid to tell more complex stories than is generally expected of animated shorts. Wherever possible, trailers or full-length films are included:

(header images from "Tigres à la queue leu leu" and "Carapace")