The 97th Oscars air live March 2, 2025 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT on ABC and Hulu in the United States and in more than 200 territories worldwide.
Here are the five trailers for this year’s Best Animated Short Film nominees, beginning with Beautiful Men:
Written and directed by Nicolas Keppens.
Synopsis: Three bald brothers travel to Istanbul to have a hair transplant. Stuck with each other in a hotel far from home, their insecurities grow faster than their hair.
Synopsis: In a world blurring reality and imagination, 8-year-old Syd tries to hide his mother from Death, embarking on a hide-and-seek game as creatures of earth — Death being their predator in the ultimate form: Time.
Written and directed by Pipou Phuong Nguyen.
Synopsis: A rebellious, misfit kid trying to escape the mundanity of junior high runs away into the woods, only to be whisked away into an adventure full of excitement, hand to hand combat, monkeys, and friendship.
Written, directed, and animated by James Moutsos.
Synopsis: For months now, a group of five young soldiers have been stuck, bored, on a mission in the middle of the Afghan mountains. One day, during a support mission, the routine is finally broken.
Written and directed by Lucas Durkheim.
Director’s note: The film is inspired by the Uzbin attack. French International Security Assistance Force troops were ambushed by Afghan Taliban insurgents, with heavy casualties, in the Uzbin Valley in the Surobi District of Kabul on August 18, 2008.
With this short, I wanted to illustrate the main element in soldiers’ lives: waiting and being bored. It’s a job, of course — they are trained to kill. Perhaps not this time, but none of them is prepared to face death.
Synopsis: Overly curious Mary visits her boyfriend’s flat for the first time, only to discover it’s been stripped bare of all personal belongings. After being denied explanation, she climbs into his head.
Written by Tessa Moult-Milewska and Matthew Dickie. Directed by Tessa Moult-Milewska.
Curiosa screened at festivals worldwide and won many awards, including the Austin Film Festival Jury Award for Best Animated Short and two Royal Television Society Awards (Best Postgraduate Animation, Best Sound).
Intended for mature audiences.
Click here to watch the short film on YouTube, as it’s age-restricted.
Synopsis: Alice lives at her parents’ place at the age of 27 with no private life or a relationship. Her birthday night out ends in a bicycle accident and a short coma, making her realize it’s time to move out.
Written and directed by Flóra Anna Buda.
27 screened at festivals worldwide and won numerous awards, including Best Short at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival (2023) and a Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival (2023).
Intended for mature audiences.
Click here to watch the short film on Vimeo, as we’re currently unable to embed the video.
Synopsis: The process of being encroached by the persona — a mask you wear in public, to protect yourself, that progressively substitutes your real personality.
A short film by Moon Sujin.
Synopsis: The short-tempered Daffy Duck must improvise madly as the backgrounds, his costumes, the soundtrack, even his physical form, shifts and changes at the whim of the animator.
Directed by Chuck Jones.
Written by Michael Maltese.
Starring Mel Blanc.
Music by Carl Stalling.
Animated by Ken Harris, Ben Washam and Lloyd Vaughan.
Synopsis: Bugs rescues a penguin from an Inuit hunter at the South Pole and becomes obligated to it beyond his wildest dreams.
Directed by Chuck Jones.
Written by Michael Maltese.
Starring Mel Blanc.
Produced by Edward Selzer.
Music by Carl Stalling.
Animated by Phil Monroe, Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan and Ken Harris.
Synopsis: Tom fights off Jerry as he tries to disrupt his concert without missing a note on his piano.
The Cat Concerto won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Directed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna.
Produced by Fred Quimby.
Music by Scott Bradley.
Animated by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Irven Spence and Don Patterson.
Synopsis: A Vietnamese single mother in America must confront her past and cultural identity when her father’s visit stirs old memories with a traditional meal.
Directed by Mai Vu, winner of the Lights on Women Award at the Cannes Film Festival (2022).
Synopsis: Karen Lips is a researcher who lived for several years in a tiny little shack in Costa Rica to observe frogs. When she left the cloud forest for a short time and returned, the frogs were gone. All of them.
Karen set out to find them and encountered a horrible truth. Mysterious deaths occur all over the planet and have a similar pattern. Why have so many species vanished? And what does it all have to do with us?
Directed by Volker Schlecht. Written by Max Moench and Alexander Lahl.
The Waiting had its world premiere at the prestigious Berlinale Shorts Competition (2023). It won numerous awards, including Best Documentary Short Film at the Hamptons Film Festival and a Grand Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival.
Synopsis: Anna lives in a perfect house at the edge of a tornado. When she needs to go outside, she is forced to face the chaos of life that she usually hides away from.
The Tornado Outside was nominated for a BAFTA Student Film Award.
Directed by Maria Tomazou.
Written by Marius Scholtz.
Cinematography by Nina Oyens.
Production design by Gili Ofri.
Edited by Jack Cotter.
Produced by Solomon Golding.
Synopsis: In a run-down neighborhood, Zoe and her little brother Theo are left to fend for themselves.
A young adolescent, Zoe is a ball of anger haunted by an intimate terror. Theo, still a child, flees reality into a fantastical world.
During a scorching summer day, the two children will have to burst the abscess of their relationship so as not to lose each other.
Written and directed by Alexandra Myotte and Jean-Sébastien Hamel.
A Crab in the Pool has earned numerous awards, including Best Animated Short at Raindance Film Festival and Best Canadian Animation at Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Synopsis: Based on the director’s father’s short animation from 1980 and loosely inspired by the director’s own childhood, Sierra takes us into a surreal car racing world.
Parents often push their children to follow their steps. In this case, the father’s obsession with rally turns the kid into a car tire.
Sierra was the first Estonian animation to be shortlisted for an Oscar. It screened at over 200 film festivals and received 52 awards.
Written and directed by Sander Joon, an Estonian filmmaker who specializes in absurdist storytelling.
In recognition of his contributions to Estonian culture and his international success, Joon received the Young Cultural Figure award from the Estonian president in 2023.
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