'I Died in Irpin', 'Butterfly', The Night Boots' in the 2026 Oscar Animation Shortlist

The usual mixture of indie arthouse short animation films and lesser-known animation shorts in the festival circuit dominated the 15 slots reserved for the short animation in the 2026 Academy Awards Best Short Animation shortlist.

We find the immigrant-themed 'Autokar' by Sylwia Szkiłądź (awarded at the Animator Festival, Poland); the still contemporary chronicle of a relationship breakup during the war in Ukraine in Anastasiia Falileiva's 'I Died in Irpin'. Another Czech production, the noirish 'Hurikán ' by Jan Saska, is also there.

The Canadian stop-motion parable 'The Girl Who Cried Pearls' by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski is there; a more existential horror-attuned stop-motion entry, 'Playing God' by Matteo Burani figures here. 

The Holocaust-themed painterly 'Butterfly' by Florence Miailhe is another French entry on the list, which also includes the French Annecy Festival winner, the exquisite children's pinscreen film 'The Night Boots' by Pierre-Luc Granjon (our review).

The Irish Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers) features the short 'Éiru' by Giovanna Ferrari, a child's adventure to find water in the center of the Earth. 

But the biggest surprise is the inclusion of 'The Three Sisters', an animated film about three sisters living on an isolated island. Initially credited to Timur Cognov (a Georgian director in a Cypriot production), the film was revealed to be the work of the (already twice Oscar-nominated) Russian director Konstantin Bronzit (We Can't Live Without Cosmos, Lavatory Love Story). The author confirmed this on his personal Facebook account: the Academy has the bad habit of omitting directors' (or other professionals') names from its press releases, mentioning only the film name.

Notable omissions from the list: 'On Weary Wings Go' by Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, 'Winter in March' by Natalia Mirzoyan

Papillon/ Butterfly, Florence Miailhe

The 15 short animation nominees shortlisted for the 2026 Academy Awards

• Autokar, dir. Sylwia Szkiłądź / Belgium, France
• Butterfly (Papillon), dir. Florence Miailhe / France
• Cardboard, dir. J.P. Vine / UK
• Éiru, Giovanna Ferrari / Ireland
• Forevergreen, Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears / US
• The Girl Who Cried Pearls, dir. Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski / Canada
• Hurikán, Jan Saska / Czechia, France, Slovakia, Bosnia & Herzegovina
• I Died in Irpin, dir.  Anastasiia Falileieva / Czechia, Slovakia, Ukraine
• The Night Boots, dir. Pierre-Luc Granjon / France
• Playing God, dir. Matteo Burani / Italy, France
• The Quinta’s Ghost, dir. James A. Castillo / Spain
• Retirement Plan, dir. John Kelly /Ireland
• The Shyness of Trees,  dir. Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis D’Argentré, Lina Han, Simin He, Jiaxin Huang, Maud Le Bras & Bingqing Shu / France
• Snow Bear, dir. Aaron Blaise / US
• The Three Sisters, dir. Konstantin Bronzit

The 2025 winner for Best Animation Short was the Iranian 'In the Shadow of the Cypress' by Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi.

Nominations for the 98th Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, 22 January 2026. The 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, 15 March, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

Note: the article was edited to reflect the original author of the 'Three Sisters' film.

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