Ten short films, including the new Disney short and work from past Oscar winners Torill Kove, William Joyce and Brandon Oldenberg, and two-time nominee Bill Plympton, have been shortlisted in the 2014 competition for the Oscars Best Animated Short category.
Films that made the shortlist from among the 58 shorts that qualified through theatrical release or by winning top awards at Academy-accredited festivals include “The Numberlys” from celebrated children’s book author Joyce and Oldenberg, who won for 2011’s “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” and “Me and My Moulton” from Danish director Kove, who won for 2006’s “The Danish Poet.”
Disney’s “Feast,” which will screen with the company’s upcoming “Big Hero 6,” also made the shortlist. So did “Footprints” from Plympton, one of the most iconic independent animators of the last few decades, who was previously nominated for shorts in 1987 and 2004.
Three to five of the films will become nominees after a vote of members from the Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation branch. (In almost all cases, the category contains a full slate of five nominees.)
The shortlisted films, with filmmakers and production company, are below:
“The Bigger Picture,” Daisy Jacobs, director, and Christopher Hees, producer (National Film and Television School)
“Coda,” Alan Holly, director (And Maps And Plans)
“The Dam Keeper,” Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi, directors (Tonko House)
“Duet,” Glen Keane, director (Glen Keane Productions & ATAP)
“Feast,” Patrick Osborne, director, and Kristina Reed, producer (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
“Footprints,” Bill Plympton, director (Bill Plympton Studio)
“Me and My Moulton,” Torill Kove, director (Mikrofilm in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada)
“The Numberlys,” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, directors (Moonbot Studios)
“A Single Life,” Joris Oprins, director (Job, Joris & Marieke)
“Symphony No. 42,” Réka Bucsi, director (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest)
Nominations will be announced on Jan. 15, with the 87th Academy Awards taking place on Feb. 22.