Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film


The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards annually since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931–32, to the present.
This category was known as "Short Subjects, Cartoons" from 1932 until 1970, and as "Short Subjects, Animated Films" from 1971 to 1973. The present title began with the 1974 awards. In the listings below, the title shown in boldface was the winner of the award, followed by the other nominees for that year. Only American films were nominated for the award until 1952 with NFB's The Romance of Transportation in Canada.
MGM's Tom and Jerry are the category's most lauded animated series, winning seven Oscars and being nominated for a total of 13. Among international studios, the National Film Board of Canada has the most wins in this category, with six Oscars. The biggest showing from Britain in this category is Nick Park, with three wins
Awards were presented to the shorts' producers during the first five decades of the award's existence. Current Academy rules call for the award to be presented to "the individual person most directly responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film. In the event that more than one individual has been directly and importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be awarded". The Academy defines short as being "not more than 40 minutes, including all credits". Ten films are shortlisted before nominations are announced.

Winners and nominees

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Superlatives

For this Academy Award category, the following superlatives emerge:
The following is a list of animation studios or animators that earned multiple nominations and awards in this category.
StudioNominationsAwards
Disney4918
MGM239
National Film Board of Canada366
Warner Bros.265
Pixar165
United Productions of America143
Aardman83
John Hubley and Faith Hubley63
Channel 462
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Société Radio-Canada42
BBC32
Sony Pictures Animation22
Rembrandt51
Will Vinton41
Zagreb Film41
Bob Godfrey41
Brandon31
Passion Pictures Animation31
Blue Sky31
DePatie-Freleng21
Fred Wolf21
Stephen Bosustow103
Motionpicker21
Michael Mills21
Walter Lantz100
George Pal70
Screen Gems60
National Film & Television School60
Fleischer40
Terrytoons40
Pathe Contemporary30
Magic Light30
Harman-Ising20
Dago20
Pyramid20
TVC London20
S4C20
Brown Bag20
Melnitsa20
Halas & Batchelor20
Don Hertzfeldt20

Submissions

Animation historian Jerry Beck posted on Cartoon Research lists of animated shorts from various studios considered for nomination beginning with 1948 as documents prior to 1948 couldn't be located, and ending so far with 1986.
Between the years 1948 to 1986 the following documentions were also missing, 1949, 1950, 1976, 1981, 1982 and 1985.

1948–1959

Footnotes