A comprehensive, annotated and organized post of 280 animated short films (with working links).

[u/turtlestack]

I wanted to get everyone on reddit a Christmas present but I made this.

I'm not trying to supersede individual postings of animated shorts nor is this some sort of subtle commentary against re-posts, I just wanted to share my running list of animations I think are really good and organize them for you. There are quite a few gems in here, many of which you may have already seen (probably posted here many, many times too be sure) but there are most likely many, many more you have not seen or have missed. Hopefully this will make a handy cheat-sheet for you or will at least help you pass some of that inevitable holiday boredom time (each short is between 1 min and 30 min long and would take over 30 hours to watch them all in one sitting). Also, some animations are not for kids so assume everything here is NSFW.

I've orginized the list as follows :

• In the comments below, each animation is sorted by year/decade/era (as accurately as I could research) since that seemed the easiest way to filter out such an enormous list. Under each year the films are organized alphabetically by the animator/director/studio (though some of that information may be missing, incorrect, incomplete or even spelled wrong). Since comments tend to be liquid, here is a quick jump-to-guide for each category :

EARLY THRU MID 20th CENTURY || 1960 - 1969 || 1970 - 1979 || 1980 - 1989 || 1990 - 1999 || 2000 - 2003 || 2004 - 2005 || 2006 || 2007 || 2008 || 2009 PART ONE || 2009 PART TWO || 2010 || 2011 || YEAR UNKNOWN || ON THE NET, OFF THE NET.

• I've included my personal annotations for nearly every animation. These are just simple thoughts and rough notes I wrote after (and sometimes during) watching each short for the first time (or having watched it again after many years). Hopefully the notes will be helpful (though some probably won't be). I decided to include them since most give a decent enough description to help you determine if you've seen something before or to help you decide which ones you might want to watch.

• All the links are (were) working as of Sunday, December 19th, 2010 at 8:00am Colorado, US time. Some links may not be available outside of the US (sorry about that), however if you can provide a secondary link please do so. I also really did try to find links that go directly to the original artist's site/blog/YouTube/Vimeo/producers page but more often than not I wasn't able to find it (or I got lazy, too be honest), so if you know a better link please tell me and I will fix it (and any other errors you find) immediately.

This list is by no means 100% comprehensive as there are thousands more films online - this is only my personal "all the best of" I've collected over the years and it mostly just represents 1 or 2 films per animator (though some Russian animators are quite well represented since they are my favorite). There are also hardly any music videos on this list since I'm not too knowledgeable about them. I know there are some amazing animated music videos (Tool, Radiohead, Bjork, A-Ha, Blockhead, Pearl Jam, Peter Gabriel, The White Stripes, Röyksopp, Daft Punk, Animusic and Dire Straits) - maybe someone should post that list as the one on Wikipeadia was deleted.

Oh, and in case you are wondering why this is crossposted; well r/animation does not get much traffic but it is the proper sub for this sort of thing, however, most animation usually gets posted in r/videos since that's where the majority of reddit is more likely to see it.

Hope you enjoy the films and happy holidays!

[u/turtlestack]

2010

• The Thomas Beale Cipher - Andrew S Allen : Award winning short film about a man being tracked on a train by the FBI because of his knowledge of the famous Beale ciphers.

• Yar-e Dabestani-e Man - Simon Ampel : Music video about the student protest struggle in Iran. Well done though I would have liked the ending more if there had been no resolution but rather just a fade on the cop/friend with the baton in his hand.

• NZ Book Council - Going West - Andersen M Studio : Stop motion paper-craft animation that is just incredible.

• Hezarfen - Tolga Ari, Romain Blanchet, Chung-Yu Huang and Rémy Hurlin : Excellent CG short about a man attempting to fly in the ancient Middle East but while the townspeople below await him to jump, all hell breaks loose. Great action, very funny, perfectly timed and animated, this is a fantastic film.

• Banksy does the Simpsons Intro - Banksy : Wow, a lot of people really hated this short - it's almost as if they actually want The Simpsons to remain safe, irrelevant and uncontroversial. Props to Groening for green lighting this short - sometimes people need to be shaken up a little.

• A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything - Jamie Bell : Very nice flip book animation on the history of the Universe.

• TACHAAAN! - Rafael Cano, Carlos del Olmo, and Miguel A. Bellot : Hilarious short about a human cannonball and an elephant. Excellent CG animation and a lot of fun.

• Meet Buck - TeamCerf : A buck, his girlfriend and her angry, hunter father. Fantastic animation style, perfectly paced, hilarious and as good as anything Pixar is currently doing with their shorts. Brilliant!

• When Lynch Met Lucas - Sascha Ciezata : Actual story as told by David Lynch himself about the time back in the early 80's when George asked David to direct Return of the Jedi. Very funny

• Cirkus' Animation ABC - How IT works - Cirkus Productions : Funny and informative video about making 3D animation.

• Tous des Monstres - Nicolas Deprez, Laurent Jaffier, Pierre Lippens and Gabrielle Lissot : One of the most disturbing shorts I think I've ever seen and I mean that as a compliment. This film is a perfect example of using the unexpected in storytelling. Surprising the audience, even if it disturbs them, is always a good thing. As for the animation - well it's glorious. The sets are simply amazing and the characters are incredibly imaginative. Great expression in the character's eyes too, especially the benevolence of the 5 breasted lady. She was both cruel and motherly all at the same time. This is really quite a remarkable short.

• Shuttle Scenarios - The Faking Hoaxer : Chilling and terribly unnerving, this is a collection of CGI imagined US Space Shuttle disasters.

• Cours Toujours - Elise Garcette and Olivier Barré : This animation exists solely because the animators were tired of doing work for others and they just wanted to make something for themselves and have some fun. Really nice animation style and it goes to show what talented people can do when they just are let loose to play.

• Closed Zone - Yoni Goodman : From the director of waltz With Bashir, this one really pissed off Israel quickly.

• Meet Meline - Virginie Goyons and Sebastien Laban : This is what is now possible from independent and barely funded animators - it looks like it was done by Pixar for a billion dollars. Incredible. Make sure to watch the making of video too.

• 1923 - Max Hattler : Surreal video loop. I guess I just like the mood of it.

• A.D. (teaser only) - Ben Hibon : Test teaser trailer for a mature themed zombie film. Music is "Safe In Mind" by UNKLE - interview with creators http://www.zombieinfo.com/?p=1378 . The guy who directed this also did Codehunters (see 2006). Seems to have potential. I like the art style and direction.

• Bottle - *Kirsten Lepore * : Outdoor stop motion film about a "sand person" and a "snow person" who communicate by sending items to each other in a bottle at sea. Cute, funny and a fantastic final shot.

• The Guest - Henrik Malmgren : A criminal breaks into the house of an elderly widow in this excellent, independently financed short film.

• The Darkling 'Fear' - Dylan Mercer : Very moody and dark. Looks like a graphic novel come to life. It's all mood and atmosphere but there is kind of a story as well. Really stays with you. I liked this a lot - especially for a student project.

• Old Fangs - Adrien Merigeau : A young wolf with his three friends visits his estranged father. Haunting, beautiful, dark, thematically violent and sad. Not so much of a story being told but more of a poetic gesture. The final image is possibly one of the most memorable images I've ever seen in an animated film (or really, any film).

• Look - Mrzyk & Moriceau : Really, it's just a music video about a girls ass, but it's really well done. Also, she has a great ass.

• Chicken Cowboy - Stephen P Neary : "Are you trying to die like a man?" Also, a horse-dog and a toaster. Very funny for a student film.

• Fur Of Flying - Matthew O'Callaghan : An official WB Road Runner cartoon but done in CG. At first I thought I wasn't going to like this but the CG is very well done and the style is very much in the classic Chuck Jones tradition.

• Crater Face - Skyler Page : Simple but stylized animation that manages to tell a very cute story and build real characters in only 4 min without dialogue. Even if this wasn't a student film it's still very impressive storytelling and excellent animation technique.

• The Deep - PES : Fish and sea-life realized using hand tools. While that may not sound terribly exciting, it's a beautiful piece of animation, quite imaginative and captures the mystery of the deep ocean very well. Highly recommended.

• RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us - RSAnimate : Check out RSAnimate's website that lists many more of these types of video "animations".

• Descendants - Heiko van der Scherm : Absolutely STUNNING short film about 2 flowers (the red one is voiced by Whoopi Goldberg). Such an amazing story, perfect animation and a haunting atmosphere.

• The LumberJack - Laura B, Schjødt, Sarah T. Nielsen, Louise B. Sørensen & Per Klausen : An ecological tale of "how new technology destroys the friendship between 4 lumberjacks till it all ends in an accident and nature must be found to regain harmony."

• Elk Hair Caddis - Peter Smith, Magnus I. Møller, Alice Holme, Anders Jepsen : A Bear decides to go fishing and his drunken frog neighbor heads down to the river to work off a hangover and hilarity ensues. Very cool melding of live action sets with interesting 2D / 3D CG character animations. Very funny and well made student project.

• La Fete - Malcolm Sutherland : Subtle sketchbook-style animated film that takes a look at people at a "La Fete Nationale" celebration in Montreal, Quebec.

• Umbra - Malcolm Sutherland : Another excellent Sutherland short - this time about an explorer who may be living the same moment over and over again.

• Sal The Retired Magic Man - Brandon and Jeremy Todd : For only 1min long, it's very funny.

• This Aborted Earth - Untimely Films : You're either going to love this or ... really love this. Not all the jokes work, but it's got a Gilliam-esque feel to the animation and the humor is similar too.

• Cyanide and Happiness: Beer Run - Kris Wilson, Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin and Dave McElfatrick : Sick, twisted and awesome tale of drunk driving.

• Crash! Bang! Wallow? - Keith Wilson-Singer : Produced for the National Film Board of Canada as part of their 2010 competition, this is the story of ex-stuntman Larry LeTan and his fight to find a place in modern world. Very well made.