Animation

BALKONE (BALCONIES) by Xenia Smirnov
(5 min, 2024, monströös, Theatrical Run USA)
Festivals (selection): Anibar 2024, Winterthur 2024, Clermont-Ferrand 2025, Dresden 2025, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg 2025, Minikino Bali 2025, Newport Beach 2025

BUTTERFLY KISS by Zohar Dvir
(10 min, 2024, DE/IL, Fabian&Fred, Golden Hugo Best Animation Short – Chicago Film Festival 2024)
Festivals (selection): AFI Fest Los Angeles 2024, Tallinn 2024, Athens Film Festival 2025, Vienna Shorts 2025, Bengaluru Short Film Festival 2025, Out on Film Atlanta 2025, Woodstock 2025

DETLEV by Ferdinand Ehrhardt
(13 min, 2024, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Best International Animation Short Film Cinelebu – Lebu International Film Festival 2025)
Festivals (selection): Hof 2024, Leuven 2024, Filmfest Dresden 2025, SXSW Austin 2025, Cinequest San Jose 2025, Go Short Nijmegen 2025, Annecy 2025, Grimstad 2025, Siggraph 2025, Calgary 2025, Tirana 2025, Show Me Shorts New Zealand 2025, Belo Horizonte 2025

DULL SPOTS OF GREENISH COLOURS by Sasha Swirsky
(11 min, 2024, Wait A Second!, Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis 2024 – Animationsfilm bis 30 Minuten
ASIFA Austria Award Best Film AA Animation Avantgarde Competition – Vienna Shorts 2025
Grand Prix Best Short Film – Animafest Zagreb 2025)
Festivals (selection):  Locarno 2024, Montreal Nouveau Cinema 2024, Tallinn 2024, Denver 2024, Animateka Ljubljana 2024, Ann Arbor 2025, Go Short Nijmegen 2025, Hong Kong 2025, Vienna Shorts 2025

MORAL SUPPORT by Vuk Jevremovic
(4 min, 2024, DE/HR, Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film – Ann Arbor Film Festival 2025)
Festivals (selection): Annecy 2024, Ottawa Animation 2024, Animateka Ljubljana 2024, Athens Film Festival 2025, Anifilm 2025, Vienna Shorts 2025, Odense 2025, Indiecork 2025

MY BROTHER, MY BROTHER by Abdelrahman Dnewar & Saad Dnewar
(15 min, 2025, EG/FR/DE, Milkman Films, Golden Gate Award Best Animated Short Film San Francisco International Film Festival 2025)
Festivals (selection): Rotterdam 2025, Clermont-Ferrand 2025, Annecy 2025, HollyShorts 2025, Telluride 2025, El Gouna 2025, Sevilla 2025

PATTERNS by Alex Glawion
(8 min, 2024, Best Animated Short Award – Cleveland International Film Festival 2025)
Festivals (selection): Siggraph 2024, Foyle 2024, Seattle 2025

A SPARROW’S SONG by Tobias Eckerlin
(9 min, 2025, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Student Academy Award Gold – Animation 2025, Short Film Grand Jury Prize – Calgary Film Festival 2025)
Festivals (selection): Siggraph 2025, Bengaluru Short Film Festival 2025, Cinanima Espinho 2025

Documentaries

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG by Hao Zhou
(23 min, 2025, DE/US/CN, Best Short Film Award - DocAviv – Tel Aviv International Documentary Film Festival 2025, Best Short Documentary – Blackstar Film Festival Philadelphia 2025, Grand Prix International Competition – Drama International Short Film Festival 2025, Best Documentary Short – Hamptons International Film Festival 2025)
Festivals (selection): Rotterdam 2025, Frameline San Francisco 2025, Guanajuato 2025, Odense 2025, AFI Fest Los Angeles 2025, ZINEBI Bilbao 2025

EINE EINZELNE TAT (A SINGLE INCIDENT) by Constanze Wolpers
(19 min, 2023, Radpaar Films, Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis 2024 – Dokumentarfilm bis 30 Minuten Laufzeit)
Festivals (selection): Dokfest Kassel 2023, Filmfest Dresden 2024, Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg 2024, Vienna Shorts 2024

MAMA MICRA by Rebecca Blöcher
(24 min, 2024, Fabian&Fred, Theatrical Run USA)
Festivals (selection): IDFA 2024, Flickerfest Sydney 2025, Full Frame Documentary Festival 2025, Hong Kong 2025, Krakow 2025, Uppsala 2025, interfilm Berlin 2025

PREKID VATRE (CEASEFIRE) by Jakob Krese
(30 min, 2025, DE/IT/SI, Majmun Films, Golden Chair for Best Short Documentary – Norwegian Short Film Festival Grimstad 2025)
Festivals (selection): Berlinale Shorts 2025, Go Short Nijmegen 2025, Vienna Shorts 2025, Guanajuato 2025, Dokufest Prizren 2025

Live Action

DER BADEANZUG (THE SWIMSUIT) by Amina Krami
(10 min, 2025, DE/AT, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Austrian Short Film Award ÖW Austrian Competition – Vienna Shorts 2025)
Festivals (selection): Drama 2025, Manaki Brothers International Cinematographers' Festival 2025, Uppsala 2025, Hof 2025, Zagreb 2025, Mar del Plata 2025, Belo Horizonte 2025

BITTER CHOCOLATE by Sahar Sotoodeh
(20 min, 2024, IR/DE, PakFilm, Best Live Action Short Film - Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2025)
Festivals (selection): Brussels Short Film Festival 2025, FEST Espinho 2025, Odense 2025, Minikino Bali 2025

MELODIES OF BARKING DOGS by Daniel Huss
(9 min, 2024, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Deutscher Kurzfilmpreis 2024 – Spielfilm bis 10 Minuten Laufzeit)
Festivals (selection): Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken 2024, Oberhausen 2024, interfilm Berlin 2024, Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg 2025

TENEZ by Maximilian Nita
(20 min, 2025, Grand Jury Prize Narrative Short – Dallas International Film Festival 2025)

WALUD by Daood Alabdulaa, Louise Zenker
(27 min, 2024, DE/TN, Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München HFF, Best of Fest – LA Shorts 2025)
Festivals (selection): Bogoshorts 2024, Clermont-Ferrand 2025, Short Shorts Tokyo 2025, Cinema Jove Valencia 2025, FEST Espinho 2025, Tel Aviv Student Film Festival 2025, Odense 2025, Santa Fe 2025, Camerimage 2025

On December 16, 2025, the shortlists, each containing up to 15 titles, will be announced. The five nominated titles will be published on January 22, 2026. The Oscar® ceremony will take place on March 15, 2026.

Qualifications for submission:
To be eligible for submission to the Oscar competition, a short film must have won a major prize at an international festival recognized as “qualifying” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Student Academy Award, or a national film award (e.g., German Short Film Award). Short films that were not produced at universities can alternatively qualify for submission by having been commercially released in theaters in the USA for at least 7 days. The respective “qualifier” is indicated in parentheses.
 
The Academy does not publish the titles of all submitted short films, so German Films cannot guarantee the completeness of this list.