As with most years, the front-runner for Best Animated Short is Pixar’s “Lou,” which played before “Cars 3” and addressed bullying on the playground. A few others I feel have a good chance are “Dear Basketball,” “Garden Party,” and “In A Heartbeat” as it looks like they are out of the box animations with some interesting subject matter.
- “Cradle” – Devon Manney (University of Southern California)
- “Dear Basketball” – Glen Keane and Kobe Bryant(Glen Keane Productions)
- “Fox and the Whale” – Robin Joseph (Robin Joseph)
- “Garden Party” – Victor Caire and Gabriel Grapperon (MOPA)
- “In a Heartbeat” – Esteban Bravo and Beth David (Ringling College of Art and Design)
- “Life Smartphone” – Chenglin Xie (China Central Academy of Fine Arts)
- “Lost Property Office” – Daniel Agdag and Liz Kearney (8th in Line)
- “Lou” – Dave Mullins and Dana Murray (Pixar Animation Studios)
- “Negative Space” – Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata (Ikki Films)
- “Revolting Rhymes” – Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer (Magic Light Pictures)
NOMINATION PREDICTIONS
- “Lou” (because it’s Pixar)
- “In A Heartbeat” (I believe the subject matter of a young closeted homosexual boy will be enough to push this one into the limelight)
- “Dear Basketball” (because the animation looks great and Kobe Bryant is involved)
- “Fox and the Whale (seems like the sort of thing the Academy usually votes for)
- “Garden Party” (the still frames on this alone look intriguing)
