The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., with the stated goal of adva ...

(AMPAS) as part of the annual

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

, or Oscars, since the

5th Academy Awards The 5th Academy Awards were held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on November 18, 1932, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, hosted by Conrad Nagel. Films screened in Los Angeles between August 1, 1931, and Ju ...

(with different names), covering the year 1931–32, to the present. From 1932 until 1970, the category was known as Short Subjects, Cartoons; and from 1971 to 1973 as Short Subjects, Animated Films. The present title began with the 46th Awards in 1974. During the first 5 decades of the award's existence, awards were presented to the producers of the shorts. Current Academy rules, however, call for the award to be presented to "the individual person most directly responsible for the concept and the creative execution of the film." Moreover, " the event that more than one individual has been directly and importantly involved in creative decisions, a second statuette may be awarded." Only

American films This is a list of films produced by the American film industry from the earliest films of the 1890s to the present. 1890s * List of American films of the 1890s 1900s * List of American films of 1900 * List of American films of 1901 * List ...

were nominated for the award until the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

(NFB) was nominated for '' The Romance of Transportation in Canada'' in 1952. The first non-English-language international short to win was

Zagreb Film Zagreb Film is a Croatian film company principally known for its animation studio. From Zagreb, it was founded in 1953. They have produced hundreds of animated films, as well as documentaries, television commercials, educational films and several ...

's '' Ersatz (The Substitute)'' in 1961. The first film to win in this category was ''

Flowers and Trees ''Flowers and Trees'' is a '' Silly Symphonies'' animated short film produced by Walt Disney, directed by Burt Gillett, and released to theatres by United Artists on July 30, 1932. It was the first commercially released film to be produced in t ...

'' by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

, who has since held the category's record for most nominations (39) and most wins (12).Search Results: 'Walt Disney'
" ''Academy Awards Database''. 2021.

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

's ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series ...

'' (1940–67) is the category's most lauded animated series over all, being nominated for a total of 13 Oscars and winning 7.

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

's ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

''/''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

'' series also had a big amount of 16 Oscar nominations and winning 5. Among international studios, the NFB has the most wins in this category, with 6 Oscars. The biggest showing from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

in this category is

Nick Park Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is an English filmmaker and animator who created '' Wallace & Gromit'', '' Creature Comforts'', '' Chicken Run'', '' Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy ...

, with three wins: 1 for '' Creature Comforts'' and 2 for the '' Wallace & Gromit'' series. The Academy defines '' short'' as being "not more than 40 minutes, including all credits."Rule Nineteen: Short Films Awards
. Retrieved March 27, 2010. Fifteen films are

shortlisted A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

before nominations are announced. In the listings below, the title shown in boldface was the winner of the award in that given year, followed by the other nominees for that year.

Winners and nominees

All bars that are highlighted yellow were winners—with the title and name shown in boldface.

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Notes

Superlatives

For this Academy Award category, the following superlatives emerge:Academy Award Statistics
" ''Academy Awards Database''.

Multiple nominations and awards

The following is a list of animation studios or animators that earned multiple nominations and awards in this category.

Footnotes

{{Academy Awards lists Animated Short Film American animation awards * History of animation