Not To Be Overlooked: 5 Outstanding Films Vie For Best Animated Short

With the Oscars just weeks away, talk is heating up over who will take home Hollywood's biggest honor . While the limelight may shine brightest on the nominees for the "big" categories — Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress — there is plenty of movie magic to be found throughout the evening's 24 categories. Take the nominees for Best Short Film (Animated), for example. This category is among the most difficult to predict. While there are usually a few standouts, it seems to be anyone's game up to the moment the envelope is opened.

That being said, it would come as no surprise if La Luna, directed by Enrico Casarosa, took home the prize this year. As a Pixar film, La Luna delivers the beautiful imagery we've come to expect from the animation powerhouse, along a story to match — a boy's first journey out to work with his father and grandfather on a peculiar occupation. Pixar has received 11 Academy Award nominations and three wins, but has gone home empty-handed after its last six nominations, so this could be its year. Here's a clip from La Luna:

Another top contender is Wild Life, by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. It tells the tale of a young Englishman with more enthusiasm than experience who emigrates to Canada to become a rancher. Forbis and Tilby may be due a win – they're the only directors in the category to be previously nominated – but compared to the dazzling La Luna, Wild Life may be a little on the forgettable side. Read more about it here.

The remaining three films in this category share something in common with Best Picture frontrunner The Artist in that they are all silent — but is silence golden? The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, could very well take home the honors. Part Wizard of Oz, part Buster Keaton, Mr. Morris Lessmore centers around a young man who is transported by a storm to a place where books are living entities. It is the first nomination for Joyce and Oldenburg. Here's a clip:

It is also the first nomination for A Morning Stroll directors Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe as well as Dimanche director Patrick Doyon. The former, about a New Yorker who passes a chicken while out for his morning stroll, is interesting in both its visuals and storytelling, but may not stand out enough for a win, while Dimanche, about a boy's ordinary and extraordinary Sunday, seems like a pretty conventional Best Short nominee.

You can check out Dimanche here.

—MATT GERISH

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