A companion to our Animated Features, this collection of animated short films ranges from playful comedies to imaginative fables and experimental manifestos. The Exquisite Short Films of Kihachiro Kawamoto showcases works from one of the world’s greatest stop-motion animators. Shorts such as Mary & Myself, The Girl with a Rivet Gun, and The Great Malaise employ inventive animation to explore womanhood from a distinctly feminist perspective.
Dizzying digital animation techniques can be found in the experimental works Coda and CMYK, while dreams and fantasy meet in poignant narratives like Mystery of the Secret Room and The Mountain of SGaana. Frequently blending traditional animation, avant-garde experimentation, and political expression, these shorts showcase the full range and creative possibilities of the medium.
In addition, 8 of these short films won Academy Awards.
Directed by Torill Kove • Animation • With Liv Ullmann • 2006 • 14 minutes
This Oscar®-winning short animation follows Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer Sigrid Undset. Kasper attempts to answer some pretty big questions: can we trace...
Directed by David Fine and Alison Snowdon • Animation • 1993 • 12 minutes
Surprise birthday parties can be risky. Especially when the guest of honour is turning 40! When Margaret plans a celebration for her husband, Bob, she underestimates the sudden impact of middle age on his mood. A witty, of...
Directed by Claude Cloutier • Animation • 2015 • 5 minutes
In this short animated film, a Chevrolet Bel Air 1957 offers an ironic take on the iconic American ballad "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)". The Chevy's bumper transforms into a pair of seductive lips, from which emerge the so...
Directed by John Weldon and Eunice Macaulay • Animation • 1978 • 7 minutes
The first big mistake Ralph makes is not clearing the snow from the front walk, and his life goes downhill from that point on. By the end of the story, the mailman has fatally slipped on his job, Alice, his wife, doesn't ...
Directed by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre • Animation • 2016 • 12 minutes
Brilliantly mixing animated sequences and archival footage, Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre paints a touching portrait of virtuoso pianist Oscar Peterson. As with her previous films (McLaren's Negative and Jutra), Saint-Pierre pursues...
Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto • Documentary • 2014 • 99 minutes
Kimstim is proud to present this collection of short films from one of the world's greatest stop-motion animators: Kihachiro Kawamoto. Famous for his beautiful, expressive puppets, Kawamoto began his career in the 1950s. Honing his...
Directed by Norman McLaren • Animation • 1952 • 8 minutes
Two neighbours live side by side in harmony until a flower grows on the dividing line between their properties. Who does it belong to? The argument that follows ends up with both neighbours in their graves. The most famous of Norman McLar...
A collection of Oscar-winning animated shorts from the National Film Board of Canada.
Bob’s Birthday - Surprise birthday parties can be risky. Especially when the guest of honor is turning 40!
The Danish Poet - This short animation follows Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a ho...
Directed by Renaud Hallée • Animation • 2013 • 4 minutes
In this experimental animated short from Renaud Hallée, we travel inside a mysterious mechanism made up entirely of revolving gearwheels, triangles and lines. In this whirling, hypnotic world, dozens of tiny gymnasts leap, somersault and t...
Directed by Chris Landreth • Animation • 2004 • 14 minutes
Ryan is based on the life of Ryan Larkin, a Canadian animator who, 30 years ago, produced some of the most influential animated films of his time. In the film, we hear the voices of prominent animators and artists discussing Ryan's work,...
Directed by Co Hoedeman • Animation • 1977 • 13 minutes
A fable of great humour and appeal, The Sand Castle is the story of the Sandman and the creatures he sculpts out of sand. Under his direction, they build a castle and celebrate the completion of their new home, only to be interrupted by an ...
Directed by Bob Godfrey • Animation • 1978 • 6 minutes
How many people have actually read the work of Karl Marx? Based on the book by the Mexican cartoonist Rius, MARX FOR BEGINNERS is a hilarious animated film that highlights Marx's most influential ideas, and places them into the context of we...
Directed by Eva Cvijanovic • Animation • 2017 • 10 minutes
In a lush and lively forest lives a hedgehog. He is respected and envied by the other animals. However, Hedgehog's unwavering devotion to his home annoys a quartet of insatiable beasts. Together, they march off towards Hedgehog's home an...
Directed by Matthew Bate & Case Jernigan • Documentary & Animation • 2021 • 23 minutes
A five-part animated series that uses the unbridled creativity of handcrafted animation to reveal funny, profound, and illuminating stories from inside the world of football fandom. Premiered at Hot Docs 2021.
Directed by Élise Simard • Animation • 2012 • 7 minutes
To find light, we must first journey through the darkness. So begins Elise Simard's My Little Underground, a sombre and beautiful autobiographical story that follows a young girl's bus ride home in winter. Drifting between real and imagined...
Directed by Koji Yamamura • Animation • 2011 • 13 minutes
Can time be made to stand still? Can it be reversed? Koji Yamamura's Muybridge's Strings is a meditation on this theme, contrasting the worlds of the photographer Eadweard Muybridge-who in 1878 successfully photographed consecutive phases...
Directed by Christopher Auchter • Animation • 2017 • 10 minutes
The Mountain of SGaana spins a magical tale of a young man who is stolen away to the spirit world, and the young woman who rescues him. Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter's dream-like gem brilliantly entwines traditional animation ...
Directed by Noémie Marsily & Carl Roosens • Animation • 2016 • 9 minutes
He’s a magician. She’s a firefighter. Isolating themselves from the chaos of a world in turmoil, the two lovers live in a crane basket high in the sky, where they go about their daily business. Their challenge: keep their h...
Directed by Theodore Ushev • Animation • 2012 • 7 minutes
Third part of a trilogy on the relationship between art and power, Gloria Victoria is the work of a gifted filmmaker and visual artist, a virtuoso of collage and recycling that summons surrealism as much as Dracula, Cubists of the horror ...
Directed by Claire Blanchet • Animation • 2013 • 8 minutes
The End of Pinky revolves around three fallen angels seeking companionship and humanity in the shadows of the red-light district, in a mythic, magically realized Montreal. The survivor of traumatic childhood experiences recounted in hear...
Directed by Theodore Ushev • Animation • 2008 • 5 minutes
Partly figurative, partly abstract, Drux Flux is an animation film of fast-flowing images showing modern people crushed by industry. Inspired by One-Dimensional Man by the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, the filmmaker deconstructs industrial...
Directed by Martine Époque & Denis Poulin • Animation • 2014 • 11 minutes
This short animation draws on advanced digital technologies to offer a new vision of dance in cinema. With motion capture (MoCap) and particle processing, designers Denis Poulin and Martine Époque create virtual dancers fr...
Directed by Ishu Patel • Animation • 1993 • 10 minutes
This colorful animation tells the tale of a mythical universe whose existence is threatened by the arrival of unthinking and uncaring visitors. From Oscar®-nominated animator Ishu Patel comes a thought-provoking metaphor for our times: a cau...
Directed by Marv Newland • Animation • 2011 • 7 minutes
CMYK is a dizzying celebration of sound, colour and movement. Director Marv Newland and animator Kunal Sen meticulously assembled multitudes of CMYK symbols, pulled off flaps of common printed materials like cereal boxes. Freed from their w...
