2017 Oscars: 70 Animated Shorts Contend for Shortlist of Ten
[divider style=”solid” top=”20″ bottom=”20″]
A longlist of 70 animated short films contending for the Academy Award has been revealed by Cartoon Brew, including their top picks, synopsis, and trailers. This is a significant jump from last year’s total (60) and a continuing trend in this category. Back in 2010 only 33 films qualified. This is not the “official” list from the Academy, that comes in November. From that official list, 10 will make it to the shortlist and then ultimately five will be nominated for an Oscar on January 24, 2017.
With every year there are frontrunners, mostly in the form of Disney and/or Disney/Pixar shorts that show before a feature. This year is no different with Piper from Alan Barillaro, the short that was shown before Finding Dory this summer, and Leo Matsuda’s Inner Workings. Two Pixar artists Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj, also qualified for their independent short Borrowed Time. Disney and/or Pixar have earned Oscar nominations here for the last six years in a row and have won twice (Paperman and Feast).
Other notables include Céline Devaux’s Le Repas Dominical from France, which won the César Award last February and two entries from the National Film Board of Canada: Franck Dion’s The Head Vanishes and Theo Ushev’s Blind Vaysha.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- Frontrunner Friday Oscar Predictions: We Need to Talk About ‘Marty’ - January 30, 2026
- 2026 Sundance Film Festival: ‘Josephine’ Wins Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award - January 30, 2026
- Midnight Critics Circle (MCC) Awards: ‘Marty Supreme’ Wins Best Picture - January 28, 2026
Frontrunner Friday Oscar Predictions: We Need to Talk About ‘Marty’ 
2026 Sundance Film Festival: ‘Josephine’ Wins Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 137 – ‘Je Tu Il Elle’ (Chantal Akerman, 1974) 
Midnight Critics Circle (MCC) Awards: ‘Marty Supreme’ Wins Best Picture