| Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film | |
| Presenter: | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
| Country: | United States |
| Year: | 1932 |
| Holder Label: | Most recent winner |
| Holder: | Dave Mullins, Brad Booker War Is Over! (2023) |
| Former Name: | |
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1931–32, to the present.
From 1932 until 1970, the category was known as Short Subjects, Cartoons; and from 1971 to 1973 as Short Subjects, Animated Films. The present title began with the 46th Awards in 1974. During the first 5 decades of the award's existence, awards were presented to the producers 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]
Only American films were nominated for the award until the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) was nominated for The Romance of Transportation in Canada in 1952. The first non-English-language international short to win was Zagreb Film's Ersatz (The Substitute) in 1961.
The first film to win in this category was Flowers and Trees by Walt Disney, who has since held the category's record for most nominations (39) and most wins (12).[2] MGM's Tom 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.'s Looney 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 from Britain in this category is Nick Park, with three wins: 1 for Creature Comforts and 2 for the Wallace & Gromit series.
The Academy defines short as being "not more than 40 minutes, including all credits."[3] Fifteen films are shortlisted 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.
| Year | Film | Nominees |
|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 (93rd) | If Anything Happens I Love You | Michael Govier & Will McCormack |
| Burrow | Michael Capbarat & Madeline Sharafian | |
| Genius Loci | Adrien Mérigeau & Amaury Ovise | |
| Opera | ||
| Yes-People | Arnar Gunnarsson & Gísli Darri Halldórsson | |
| 2021 (94th) | The Windshield Wiper | Alberto Mielgo & Leo Sanchez |
| Affairs of the Art | Joanna Quinn and Les Mills | |
| Bestia | Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz | |
| Boxballet | Anton Dyakov | |
| Robin Robin | Dan Ojari and Mikey Please | |
| 2022 (95th) | ||
| The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse | Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud | |
| The Flying Sailor | Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby | |
| Ice Merchants | João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano | |
| My Year of Dicks | Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon | |
| An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It | Lachlan Pendragon | |
| 2023 (96th) | ||
| War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko | Dave Mullins and Brad Booker | |
| Letter to a Pig | Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter | |
| Ninety-Five Senses | Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess | |
| Our Uniform | Yegane Moghaddam | |
| Pachyderme | and Marc Rius |
For this Academy Award category, the following superlatives emerge:[8]
| Most awards | Walt Disney | 12 awards | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Most nominations | 39 nominations | |||
| Most consecutive years | 8 years (1931–1939) | |||
| Oldest winner | Walt Disney | 67 years, 130 days (posthumously, for Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day) | ||
| Youngest winner | Bob Gardiner | 24 years, 20 days (for Closed Mondays) | ||
| Shortest winning film | The Crunch Bird (1971) | 2 minutes and 32 seconds | ||
| Shortest nominated film | Fresh Guacamole (2012) | 1 minute and 40 seconds | ||
| 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 |
The following is a list of animation studios or animators that earned multiple nominations and awards in this category.
| Studio | Nominations | Awards | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disney[9] | 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 and Faith 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 Productions | Motionpicker | 2 | 1 |
| Michael Mills Productions | 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 Productions | Dago | 2 | 0 |
| Pyramid Films | 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 |