Items18The creator’s order
  1. 1The Hill Farm (1989)The Hill Farm (1989) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 2, 1989Mark Baker's 1988 film from the National Film and Television School is the oldest here, and the proof that a student film can become a classic. Its flat, childlike drawings follow a country couple and their shepherd through a few odd days of drought, flood, a monstrous bear, hunters and tourists,…0
  2. 2The Building (2005)The Building (2005) 6.5/10 on IMDbReleased May 30, 2005Le Building, as it is better known, was made in 2005 by five final-year students at Gobelins as an opener for the Annecy festival, and it is still cited as one of the school's best student works. In little more than a minute, a man singing in the shower sets off a chain of slapstick accidents that…0
  3. 3Kiwi! (2006)Kiwi! (2006) 7.9/10 on IMDbReleased May 5, 2006Dony Permedi's master's thesis at the School of Visual Arts in New York lasts three minutes, has no dialogue and became one of YouTube's early viral hits. A kiwi spends its life nailing trees to a cliff face, for a reason that only becomes clear when it jumps. The computer animation is simple by…0
  4. 4Oktapodi (2008)Oktapodi (2008) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased May 31, 2008Six Gobelins students made this two-and-a-half-minute chase, and it went all the way to an Oscar nomination for best animated short, a rare feat for a graduation project. Two octopuses in love are separated by a stubborn restaurant cook, and the escape that follows tears through the streets of a…0
  5. 5Mobile (2010)Mobile (2010) 6.9/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 7, 2010Verena Fels made this computer-animated comedy with her team at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, and it is the gentlest film on the list. A cow at the edge of society tips the balance of destiny, and the title tells you just how literally the film means it. It builds a whole small world from…0
  6. 6Defective Detective (2011)Defective Detective (2011) 6.5/10 on IMDbReleased Jan 1, 2011Avner Geller and Stevie Lewis made this as computer animation students at Ringling College, and it took the bronze medal for animation at the 2011 Student Academy Awards. A washed-up detective's imagination runs wild as he tries to solve the most critical case of his career, and the comedy lives in…0
  7. 7Sleeping with the Fishes (2013)Sleeping with the Fishes (2013) 7.2/10 on IMDbReleased Jun 26, 2013Yousif Al-Khalifa's hand-drawn graduation film from the National Film and Television School won the BAFTA for British short animation in 2014. Sonja is a lonely fishmonger, more at ease with her fish than with her customers, until a delivery man turns up who looks like a rainbow trout. It is a…0
  8. 8Symphony No. 42 (2014)Symphony No. 42 (2014) 7.6/10 on IMDbReleased Feb 7, 2014Réka Bucsi's graduation film from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest is the strangest film here, and one of the most rewatchable: 47 short scenes linked by what it calls the irrational connections between humans and nature. There is no plot to follow, just one deadpan,…0
  9. 9Sweet Cocoon (2014)Sweet Cocoon (2014) 5.9/10 on IMDbReleased Sep 4, 2014ESMA's 2014 graduation comedy follows a caterpillar trying to complete her metamorphosis in a cocoon that is far too small, while two insects do their earnest best to help. The squash-and-stretch animation and precisely timed slapstick make it a favorite to show children, and it has a warmth that…0
  10. 10The Present (2014)The Present (2014) 7.5/10 on IMDbReleased Apr 22, 2014Jacob Frey's graduation film from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg runs just over four minutes and is the one most likely to make you cry. Jake spends his days indoors playing video games until his mom gives him a present, and the reveal that follows is handled with real restraint. It is based…0