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1
Father and Daughter (2001)
7.8/10on IMDb
Released
Michaël Dudok de Wit's wordless animation follows a daughter whose father says goodbye and leaves when she is small, then moves through her whole life, from girlhood to old age, with the longing for him never quite fading.
That is what makes it so useful for a grief that has been around for years: it treats missing someone as something carried for a lifetime, not a stage to be finished. It runs about eight and a half minutes with no dialogue, only a score by Normand Roger and Denis L. Chartrand, and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 2001 as well as the BAFTA for short animation. In the US it is free on Kanopy, and in the UK it streams on Disney+.
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One Small Step (2018)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Luna dreams of becoming an astronaut, and her single father, a shoe repairman, backs her from the start, down to a pair of astronaut boots for her sixth birthday. When he dies, she sinks into depression and lets the dream go for a while.
The film is honest that grief can knock a long-held plan off course, and just as honest about the way a parent's love keeps working on us afterward. It runs eight minutes, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short, and Taiko Studios released it free online. Its warmth makes it a good one to watch with a younger teenager who has lost a parent.
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Negative Space (2017)
7.4/10on IMDb
Released
Five and a half minutes of stop motion adapted from a 150-word prose poem by Ron Koertge. A son remembers how his often-absent father taught him to pack a suitcase, the one ritual they truly shared, and the film carries that memory all the way to the father's casket, where the son catches himself thinking his dad would have complained about the wasted space.
That flicker of dark humor at the worst moment is exactly how grief often behaves, and few films are brave enough to show it. Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata's film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short, and the directors host it on their official Vimeo channel. It suits anyone mourning a parent they loved without ever quite knowing.
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An Irish Goodbye (2022)
7.2/10on IMDb
Released
The one to choose when you need to laugh as well as grieve. In rural Northern Ireland, two estranged brothers, Lorcan, who has Down syndrome, and Turlough, are thrown back together by their mother's sudden death, and then they find the bucket list she never finished.
It plays as a comedy as much as a drama, and the jokes sit alongside the loss rather than papering over it, which makes it a natural pick for siblings who are mourning the same parent in very different ways. James Martin and Seamus O'Hara play the brothers, it runs nine minutes, and it won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film. In the US it is free on Kanopy and The Roku Channel.
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The Dream Machine (2025)
6.2/10on IMDb
Released
Bereft after her husband's death, Marianne sees a commercial for a new machine that offers the impossible: a way to be with him again. Anyone who has caught themselves bargaining for one more conversation will recognize the pull.
Jimmy Marble's eight-minute film is mostly 2D animation and deeply personal, and it balances sincere love with real humor, so it never tips into despair. It premiered at SXSW in 2025 and went online as a Vimeo Staff Pick, which makes it one of the newest films here and an easy one to send to a widowed friend.
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Anu (2023)
Released
A recently widowed woman moves from India to New Zealand and, stuck in hotel quarantine, has to carry out the Hindu funeral rite meant to grant the departed's soul salvation with only what she has on hand.
Pulkit Arora wrote and directed it out of his own grief and displacement, and the restraint shows: there is no music and very little dialogue across its 14 minutes. It won the Audience Award at the New Zealand International Film Festival. Choose it for anyone who has grieved far from home, or without the rituals and the people they needed around them. It streams on Shortverse.
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Wander to Wonder (2024)
6.7/10on IMDb
Released
Three tiny performers starred in a 1980s children's television show called Wander to Wonder, and when its creator dies, they are left alone in the studio, still trying to make the show without the man who held it together.
It is the strangest film here and will not suit everyone, but it gets at something real: the disorientation of losing a father figure who gave your days their shape. Nina Gantz has said her own bereavement reshaped the final screenplay. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short and won the Annie Award for Best Short Subject, and it is free on Bang Bang, the YouTube channel of its distributor, Miyu.
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If Anything Happens I Love You (2020)
7.8/10on IMDb
Released
Two parents move through their home in silence after their daughter is killed in a school shooting, while their shadows argue, pull apart and reach for each other. There is no dialogue, only the distance between two people in agony over the same loss.
This is the heaviest film on the list, and the sound of gunshots comes near the end, so it is best for parents some way into their grief, or for friends trying to understand what a couple in that place goes through. Will McCormack and Michael Govier's 12-minute film won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film and streams on Netflix.
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