2025 Oscars Short Film Contenders: ‘Luki & The Lights’ Director Toby Cochran
Cartoon Brew is putting the spotlight on animated short films that have qualified for the 2025 Oscars.
In this installment, we’re looking at Luki & the Lights from American filmmaker Toby Cochran. The short earned its Oscars qualification by winning the best animated short award at the Santa Fe International Film Festival.
Unfolding in an idyllic setting, Luki & the Lights tell the story of a robot child and his friends, who live a seemingly happy life. When Luki starts malfunctioning, robot doctors diagnose him with a very particular disease, which affects his motor functions and eats up his robot lights one by one. It is a dialogue-less heartfelt story about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease, adapted from a character created by Dutch parents and teachers Sascha and Anjo Snijders. Anjo, who used Luki to explain his ALS condition to his children, passed away earlier this year, and this story brought to screen by Cochran and his team is a tribute to him and all people suffering from ALS around the world. The film was produced by Big Grin Productions, co-produced with Global Neuro YCare and The ALS Association.
Cartoon Brew: You mentioned in previous interviews that the film was made by a vast number of artists who themselves had connections with ALS. How was it to collaborate with such a team?
Toby Cochran: Yes, many members of our team had direct connections to ALS or other motor neuron diseases through family or friends, which brought an extraordinary level of dedication to the project. This personal connection made the film deeply meaningful for them and fueled their commitment to raising awareness. I felt a strong responsibility to honor their support by making the film as impactful as possible. Their lived experiences shaped many of the intimate moments in the film, which has contributed to the resonance it has found with audiences. The heart and care poured into every frame are palpable, and so far the response to Luki & the Lights has been overwhelmingly positive, especially among families, children, and the ALS community. The film has won several audience awards at film festivals, including those where children and family audiences voted. Those audience awards are a huge validation for us, as one of our main goals was to create a film that would resonate with children and adults, while being medically accurate and heartfelt. It has also been rewarding to have people come up to us after screenings and say things like, “I wish I had this film when I was a child because it would have helped me understand what was happening to my mom.” These moments really solidify that the film is serving its intended purpose. While the story is specific to ALS, the themes of caregiving, friendship, and resilience are universal, which has allowed audiences from all walks of life to connect with Luki’s journey.
What was it about this story or concept that connected with you and compelled you to direct the film?
The heart of this story connected with me on many levels. When Sascha and Anjo first approached me to tell Luki’s story to life, I saw the potential impact that this charming and upbeat character could have on the world. Luki explains a complicated, often hard-to-grasp disease, ALS, to children and all audiences. This type of storytelling had never been done in animation before, and it felt like a meaningful way to make a difference. My producer Adrian, also lost his grandfather to ALS and that further underscored the importance of this project and the need for continued awareness of the disease. Because although many remember the Ice Bucket Challenge, few people actually understood the disease. So to me, this wasn’t just about telling a heartfelt story, it was about creating a lasting resource that could positively impact families worldwide.
What did you learn through the experience of making this film, either production-wise, filmmaking-wise, creatively, or about the subject matter?
Making this film taught me so many things, but three things really stand out. First, that experience reaffirmed my belief in animation’s ability to deeply impact people’s lives. Our goal wasn’t just to explain ALS but to evoke Luki’s emotional journey in a way that resonated with audiences.
Second, I was reminded of the importance of trusting the process and always pushing for honesty in the characters, letting those moments naturally unfold. As creators, we have ideas about the direction of a story or a character, but as production begins, both story and character begin to reveal which direction they want the narrative to be told. It may sound cliché, but I found Luki asking me to listen. Trusting that process and letting Luki’s journey unfold was crucial, and I had to be honest with Sascha and Anjo about the fact that Luki wanted to push the envelope emotionally, instead of telling a medical, educational story about ALS, which is where the story originally started.
Lastly, we also started production knowing that Anjo had limited time, which created an underlying urgency and pressure. We wanted to make a great film, but we wanted a film that Anjo would also be able to see, knowing that his wish of making the most of life’s tragedies wouldn’t go in vain and would carry on his legacy. I made sure to keep the team informed about his health, which was a constant reminder of how precious every moment is. That drove us to push harder and finish the film before he passed.
Can you describe how you developed your visual approach to the film? Why did you settle on this style/technique?
Anjo’s life heavily influenced the visual style of Luki & the Lights. Luki’s world takes inspiration from the Netherlands, where Sascha and Anjo are from, with its iconic tulip fields and windmills. When you think of robots, people often think of shiny, slick metals, and sci-fi blue glowy bits. We wanted to turn that idea upside down so we developed the world to feel warm and storybook-like, with a softer color palette that would draw in children and families yet avoid the bubblegum look of many modern animations.
Plus, I wanted to push what I had seen done inside of Unreal Engine. Once we received [Unreal’s] Megagrant, that changed a lot for the team and I wanted to take advantage of the game engine. But I also knew I didn’t want the film to look or feel like a video game. This led to us creating hand-painted textures throughout the film reflecting my love and passion for art, making sure you could feel the artist’s fingerprints on the screen. In real life, Anjo loved creating things with his hands and built his own home furniture. He was also an avid D&D player and had character sculptures.
The final visual approach was about grounding the world in something familiar, while still giving it a painterly and handcrafted look that mirrored Luki’s and Anjo’s journeys. All of Anjo’s passions translated on screen as Luki’s passion and there are a ton of Easter eggs. We pushed the animation to feel like stop motion, especially as Luki’s condition worsens. As his disease progresses, the animation becomes more fragmented, mirroring his physical deterioration.
