Animated Oscar-Nominated Shorts 2025

Opened Friday, February 14, 2025

SHOWTIMES AT IFC CENTER

This program includes all five films nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Short:

MAGIC CANDIES– (Daisuke Nishio, 21 min., Japan, in Japanese with English subtitles) The other kids at the park never ask Dong-Dong to play. But he’s fine just playing marbles on his own. One day he goes out in search of new marbles, but ends up buying a bag of colorful, marble-shaped candies instead. But the first time he pops one of them into his mouth, he’s astonished to hear his old sofa start talking to him! For the next few minutes, until the candy melts away, he has the most unexpected and amazing conversation of his life. Realizing that these are no ordinary candies, Dong- Dong looks at the rest of colorful sweets. Who else will he be able to talk to, and what else will he learn, through these magic candies?


IN THE SHADOW OF THE CYPRESS – (Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, 20 min., Iran., no dialogue) Living in a house by the sea with his daughter, a former captain who has post-traumatic stress disorder leads a tough and secluded life.


YUCK! – (Loïc Espuche, 13 min., France, in French with English subtitles) Adults kiss each other on the mouth, and children find it disgusting! What’s more, you can see it from afar: when people are about to kiss, their lips become all pink and shiny. Little Le´o makes jokes about it, as do the other kids at the summer camp. But he has a secret he won’t tell his friends: his own mouth has actually begun glistening. And, in reality, Le´o desperately wants to give kissing a try.

WANDER TO WONDER – (Nina Gantz, 14 min., Netherlands/Belgium/France/UK) Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton are three tiny humans who star in a kids’TV Series called WANDER TO WONDER. After the crea- tor dies, they are left alone in the studio. Struggling to find enough to eat, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans.


BEAUTIFUL MEN – (Nicolas Keppens, 18 min., Belgium/France/Netherlands; in Flemish, Dutch, Turkish, and English with English subtitles) Three balding brothers travel to Istanbul to get a hair transplant. Stuck with each other in a hotel far from home, their insecurities grow faster than their hair.


Please note the final two films contain nudity and may not be appropriate for children under the age of 14; a card will notify audiences before those films begin.

Originally planned for a Feb 7 release, this program will now open on Feb 14. 

Screening as part of our program Academy Award Nominated Short Films 2025

  • Running Time 90 minutes
  • Distributor ShortsTV
  • Accessibility Assistive Listening, T-Coil

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.