Toyland (2007)

german movie of Jochen Alexander Freydank

won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.

Sypopsis

The film is set in Nazi Germany in 1942. An Aryan family, the Meissners, and a Jewish family, the Silbersteins, are neighbors and friends. The respective sons in each family, Heinrich Meissner and David Silberstein, discreetly take piano lessons together. The deportation of the Silbersteins to a concentration camp is imminent, and when Heinrich asks why they may have to go soon, Frau Meissner does not tell Heinrich the truth. She instead invents a story that the Silbersteins will go to a new place called "Toyland". Heinrich says that when the Silbersteins go, he wants to go with them, so that he can still be with his friend David, which terrifies Frau Meissner.

After the Silbersteins are taken away for deportation, Heinrich is found missing from his room one morning. Marianne Meissner begins to search for Heinrich. She encounters ridicule from Gestapo officers after she explains her situation, because they think that she is Jewish. However, after she shows her papers that prove that she is Aryan, they accept her story about Heinrich and assist in searching for him. The search continues until the last moment before the train with the Silbersteins on it must leave

watch the movie there (14min) select "low" if the movie doesn't work.

Logorama (2009)

french movie by collective H5

The film won the Prix Kodak at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 82nd Academy Awards

Synopsis

Police chase an armed criminal in a version of Los Angeles comprised entirely of corporate logos.

The Mozart of Pickpockets (2006)

french movie directed by Philippe Pollet-Villard

won the 2007 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film and the César Award

synopsis

Richard and Philippe live hand to mouth, backing up a gang of Romanian pickpockets on the streets of Paris, posing as policemen who arrest a gang member while the others rifle the pockets and purses of gawkers. When all of the gang except Richard and Philippe are pinched, things look grim.

Then, Richard insists that they take in a wide-eyed immigrant lad, a deaf-mute left behind in the arrests. Philippe suggests a three-person pickpocket trick, using the boy, but when that goes spectacularly badly, they hit rock bottom.

The New Tenants (2009)

danish movie directed by Joachim Back

won the 2009 Oscar for Best Live Action Short

synopsis

A prying neighbor, a glassy-eyed drug dealer, and a husband brandishing both a weapon and a vendetta make up the welcome wagon. Set amidst the as-yet-unopened boxes and the hopes for a fresh start of two men on what might just be the worst moving day ever. Their new apartment reveals its terrifying history in a film that is by turns funny, frightening, and unexpectedly romantic

Peter and the Wolf (2006)

polish-british-norwegian movie directed by Suzie Templeton

won Academy Award in 2008 for best Short Film (Animated),

British Animation Award (BAA) in 2008 for Best TV Special,

the Grand Prize ('The Annecy Cristal') and the Audience Award at the 2007 Annecy International Animation Festival,

the Golden Rose for Performing Arts at the 2007 Rose d'Or Festival,

the Pulcinella Award for Best European Programme at the 2007 Cartoons on the Bay Festival in Italy,

the Special Prize at the 2007 Krok International Animated Film Festival in Ukraine.

synopsis/spoiler

On the edge of the vast forests of Russia, where wolves still roam, lies a little cottage surrounded by a big, high fence. This is where Peter lives with his grumpy Grandfather. Grandfather will not let Peter go out into the forest. Peter has a friend, the lovable Duck (a Runner Duck in this version), with whom he hangs around Grandfather's yard. A Bird (a Hooded Crow in this version) with a broken wing arrives in the yard. Bird is very impatient with Peter and signals to go into the forest. His heart beating fast, Peter tiptoes into the cottage and reaches over his sleeping Grandfather and the snoring, fat, pet Cat. Ever so carefully Peter takes the keys to the gate.

Peter has the time of his life playing in the forest with his friends. He helps Bird to fly, using a balloon and some rope.

Then everyone skates on the frozen lake. Everyone, that is, except Cat. She chases Bird, but is so fat that she crashes straight through the ice and into the freezing water. Grandfather awakes and sees that Peter is in the forest. Very angry, he grabs his gun and rushes outside. He grabs Peter off the ice and drags him back into the yard. Suddenly the forest goes quiet. Peter looks out through a hole in the fence and sees the Wolf on the edge of the forest. Moments later the Wolf snatches up Duck, tosses her high into the air and swallows her in a single gulp. Peter slings a heavy net over his shoulder and climbs up the tall fence and into the tall tree. Peter falls from the tree and the Wolf attacks him. Eventually, after a fierce struggle, Peter catches the Wolf.

Grandfather drives into town with the captured Wolf, Peter standing, triumphant, on top of the Wolf's cage. The town bullies arrive and tease the defenseless Wolf with a gun. After looking into the Wolf's sorry eyes, Peter opens the cage and the Wolf races back into the forest.

The ending is a complete departure from the original, in which the wolf is presumably left caged in the zoo. Throughout the later parts of the film, the duck can be heard quacking inside the wolf's belly, and is presumably still alive.

here the movie (33 minutes)

Election Night (1998)

danish short comedy film directed by Anders Thomas Jensen

won an Academy Award in 1999 for Best Short Subject.

synopsis :

On election night we meet Peter, an idealistic young man, who suddenly discovers he has forgotten to vote. On his way to the polls he encounters a variety of taxi drivers, all racist in their way and Peter has to decide whether to stand up for his convictions or getting to the polls on time

The House of Small Cubes (2008)

Japanese animated short subject film created by Kunio Katō

Awards :

2008 Hiroshima Prize and Audience Prize Hiroshima International Animation Festival

2008 Grand Prize Animation Division Japan Media Arts Festival

2008 Grand prize for short films (the Annecy Cristal)

2009 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film

synopsis:

As his town is flooded by water, an aged widower is forced to add additional levels onto his home in order to stay dry. But when he accidentally drops his favorite smoking pipe into the lower submerged levels of his home, his search for the pipe eventually makes him relive scenes from his eventful life.

Bean Cake (2001)

american/japanese movie directed by David Greenspan.

won the the Palm d'Or for Best Short Film in 2001

synopsis:

On his first day of school, Taro learns that there are somethings more important than his favorite snack.

Ark (2007)

polish movie directed by Grzegorz Jonkajtys

won the the Palm d'Or for Best Short Film in 2007

synopsis:

An unknown virus has destroyed almost the entire human population. Oblivious to the true nature of the disease, the only remaining survivors escape to the sea. In great ships, they set off in search of uninhabited land. So begins the exodus, led by one man ...

Six Shooter (2005)

irish movie directed by Martin McDonagh

awards :

In 2004 the film won as Best First Short by an Irish Director at the Cork International Film Festival and the Festival Prize as Best Irish Short at the Foyle Film Festival.

In 2005 it was nominated for the Best Short Film BAFTA Film Award and won the Best British Short British Independent Film Award and the IFTA Award as Best Short Fiction, where it was also nominated for Breakthrough Talent (Martin McDonagh - writer/director).

On March 5, 2006 it won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film. In the same year, it also won the Audience Award at the Leuven International Short Film Festival.

synopsis:

comedy about a sad train journey where an older man, whose wife has died that morning, encounters a strange and possibly psychotic young oddball...

Wasp (2003)

english movie directed by Andrea Arnold

awards:

2005 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film

2004 Bermuda Shorts Award at the Bermuda International Film Festival

2005 Short Filmmaking Award, Sundance Film Festival

2004 Best Live-Action Short, Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival

2003 Best Short Film, Stockholm Film Festival

2004 Best International Short Film, Regensburg Short Film Week

2004 Best of the Festival, Palm Springs International Short Film Festival

2004 Main Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Honorable Mention, and Prize of the Ministry for Development, Culture and Sports, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival

plot:

Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years

Omnibus (1992)

french movie directed by Sam Karmann

Academy Award in 1993 for Best Short Subject and it won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

synopsis :

For this man the foundation of his life is based on his work. Unfortunately, the corner stone of his work is the S.N.C.F. But one day, all this changes when the timetables are changed and the world of this man is turned upside down.

Blow Job (1964)

american silent film directed by Andy Warhol.

plot :

the film shows only the expression on the young man's face; the implied sexual act itself is not seen. It is not stated whether it is a male or a female performing the act, and the viewer must assume that fellatio is occurring. It has also been speculated that the salaciousness is entirely in the title, and that no fellatio was actually being performed

watch the movie here (27 min)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)

american animated movie directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

The film has received 14 awards, including the Audience Award at the Austin Film Festival, "Best Animated Short" at the Cinequest Film Festival, and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

plot :

Morris Lessmore sits on a balcony in the French Quarter of New Orleans writing his memoir. Suddenly a hurricane strikes, blowing Morris’s writing out of the book and blowing him off the balcony. While Morris frantically grabs for his book, the hurricane blows away the buildings.

After the storm, Morris finds the city and its residents devastated. He walks through the streets strewn with book pages and into the countryside. There he sees a woman fly past, magically suspended by flying books which she is holding with ribbons. She sends one of the books down to Morris. The book’s pages flip back and forth to animate an illustration of Humpty Dumpty, who urges Morris to follow him.

The flying book takes Morris to a library where other flying books live. Morris finds no humans there, but notices several portraits on the wall, one of which is the woman he had seen.

Morris then becomes the proprietor of the library. He takes care of the books, even saving the life of an early French edition of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon after it suffers a catastrophic injury falling from a shelf.[Note 1] He also gives out books to those who visit the library from the city still suffering from the effects of the storm. Eventually Morris begins to rewrite his memoir, sharing passages with the flying books who gather around him on the grassy hill opposite the library.

Years later Morris, now an old man, finally completes the book. Satisfied with his life’s work, he closes the book and heads for the door. The flying books swirl about him and Morris becomes young again. He then flies away, carried by flying books like the woman earlier. As he departs, his book, which had earlier been a regular book, becomes a flying book like the others, and returns to the library. Just then, a young girl arrives. She sits down on the steps of the library and begins to read Morris's book as the flying books gather around. The final scene shows Morris’s portrait added to the picture wall in the library.

Starfish (1928)

french movie directed by Man Ray

plot :

Two people stand on a road, out of focus. Seen distorted through a glass, they retire upstairs to a bedroom where she undresses. He says, "Adieu." Images: the beautiful girl, a starfish in a jar, city scenes, newspapers, tugboats. More images: starfish, the girl. "How beautiful she is." Repeatedly. He advances up the stair, knife in hand, starfish on the step. Three people stand on a road, out of focus. "How beautiful she was." "How beautiful she is." "Beautiful."

Anemic Cinema (1926)

french movie directed by Marcel Duchamp.

plot :

The film depicts whirling animated drawings -- which Duchamp called Rotoreliefs -- alternated with puns in French. Duchamp signed the film with his alter ego name of Rrose Sélavy

Les Têtes Interverties (1957)

also know under the name of "La Cravate" is a french movie directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky

plot :

the film is a mime adaptation of Thomas Mann's 1940 play The Transposed Heads. The film stars Micheline Beauchemin and surreal humorist Raymond Devos as well as Jodorowsky himself.

The Lost Things (2010)

australian animated movie directed by Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

the movie won the Oscar for Best Animated Short. It was nominated for the 2011 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

plot :

Set in the near future, in dystopian Melbourne, Australia, The Lost Thing is a story about a boy who enjoys collecting bottle tops for his bottle top collection. One day, while collecting bottle caps near a beach, he discovers a strange creature, that seems to be a combination of an industrial boiler, a crab, and an octopus. This creature is referred to as "The Lost Thing" by the narrator.

The boy realizes the creature is lost and out of place. He attempts to find its owner but is not able to, due to the indifference of everyone else. As he is looking for the creature's owner, he is met by a creature who gives him a business card with a weird sign on it. After searching much of the city for the sign, the boy is able to find the sign and follows it to a utopian land for lost things, where he returns the creature,and continues on with his life - although he was unable to say whether the creature really belonged there

Scorpio Rising (1964)

american movie directed by Kenneth Anger

plot :

An army of gay/nazi bikers make their engines roar and ride the way to pain/pleasure as sexual and sadistic symbols are intercut into the dazing chaos and rhythmic experiences of this underground film by cult director Anger

Paperman (2012)

american movie directed by John Kahrs

has won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2013^] and the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject at the 40th Annie Awards

plot :

An urban office worker finds that paper airplanes are instrumental in meeting a girl in ways he never expected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3WVAR1McO4