12 Animated Shorts Make The 2016 César Awards Shortlist

The César Awards, France’s highest film honor, have announced the shortlist of 12 French films that are in contention for its 2016 award for best animated short.

Four nominees will be announced on January 27, followed by the winner who’ll be announced at the César ceremony on February 26, 2016.

One of the key themes of Cartoon Brew is highlighting the breadth and diversity of animation from around the globe, and the César shortlist illustrates the point well. The organization that presents the award — Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma — selected twelve quality films, only one of which qualified for the Oscars this year.

As much as we talk about the Oscars and Annies, the Césars remind us of the impracticality of any single awards organization or film festival judging the output of the entire animation community. Yet, each of these events is valid in that they help audiences discover new work that might otherwise go unrecognized, and their collective efforts enrich us all.

Below are the films that have been shortlisted for the César. Tellingly, ten of the the films are longer than 12 minutes; the French treat the short-form format as a platform for serious storytelling and are unafraid to tell more complex stories than typically expected from animated shorts. When possible, we have included either the trailer or the entire film itself:

Le C.O.D. et le Coquelicot
Directed by Jeanne Paturle and Cécile Rousset
Production: Les Films d’Ici, XBO Films (24 minutes)

Smart Monkey
Directed by Winshluss and Nicolas Pawlowski
Production: Je Suis Bien Content (18 minutes)

(Images in header from “Tigres à la queue leu leu” and “Carapace.”)