The words “yuck!” and “beautiful men” probably conjure images of dating profiles if one pairs them. In 2025, though, Yuck! and Beautiful Men point to the Oscars. Three words, unfortunately, that have probably been associated with the ceremony since the days of #MeToo and Harvey Weinstein, but that’s another story.
This year, anyways, Yuck! and Beautiful Men are two of the five very worthy nominees for Best Animated Short Film. The five Oscar nominated animated short films are a total delight. They offer five truly unique approaches to the art form with inventive styles and down-to-earth stories full of heart and wisdom. All the shorts demonstrate the wonders of independent animation happening around the globe, too. This reach again reflects the benefits of the Academy expanding its rosters to consider perspectives from around the world. Audiences are richer for the effort with worthy contenders like these films.
Yuck!, for one, marks a joyous exploration of first loves. This French short directed by Loïc Espuche lets audiences re-experience that tingly feeling of butterflies sparked by a first crush. A handful of kids at a camping ground gag and make barfing noises when they see two adults trading spit near a tent. The sight of two old people kissing grosses them out, but adolescent curiosity entrances them. Some sparkly pink glow emanates from the grown-ups’ lips. The kids oooh and aaah as they recognize something magical beneath the yucky lip-locking.
As the kids wander the campgrounds, they see more lips glowing with pangs of anticipation. Men, women, women, men. This sex-positive and inclusive lark lets the kids’ discover the earliest stages of attraction in child-friendly terms. The kids eventually come to recognize that same glow within themselves whenever that special someone passes them by.
Espuche favours a style that finds the age between storybook fable and Saturday morning cartoons, evoking memories of childhood while making older audiences chuckle about how squeamish they used to be around k-i-s-s-i-n-g. Told with a wonderful heart and a child-like yet refreshingly mature sense of humour, Yuck! shows there’s nothing gross about a first kiss. Except, maybe, if you don’t like whatever the other person ate before leaning in.
A child’s sense of wonder, meanwhile, fuels the Japanese Oscar nominee Magic Candies. When Dong-Dong finds himself down in the dumps because other kids won’t play with him, he trades his bag of marbles for some spherical candies. They turn out to be magic. Like Jack without the beanstalk, Dong-Dong’s fanciful purchase incites an adventure. This stop-motion animation becomes slightly fantastical as each candy unlocks a secret power. They let Dong-Dong speak with his dog or conjure imaginary friends. Or the couch offers guidance when Dong-Dong pops another candy into his mouth: the sofa would like a word about farts!
Magic Candies offers a fun adventure about the power of imagination and the personal growth afforded by finding comfort in alone time. This film has a great message about self-love that kids young and old need to see. It’s also just a wild little feat of escapism.
If Yuck! and Magic Candies offer a healthy dose of wonder, then their fellow Oscar nominee Wander to Wonder delivers enchantment in spades. This contender arguably offers the most formally audacious work of the bunch. Mixing archival documentary and stop motion animation, Wander to Wonder marks a truly original voice in director Nina Gatz.
Live action images pepper the screen as an old TV show, “Wander to Wonder” tells of three friends–Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton—who star in a strange afterschool special. But if the show-within-the-show is stranger, things get even weirder when the series’ creator dies, leaving the stars to their own devices. Their journey through the fantasy world of “Wander to Wonder” takes some very dark turns, and Gantz invites audiences to explore the depths of loneliness and isolation. It’s a remarkable study of grief as the actors struggle to cope when the world as they know it changes. But, as they wander into new terrain, the film brings them—and the audience—into magical new places. It’s a strange delight of a film, and a work that really makes an impression since you’ve never seen anything like it before.
Wander to Wonder finds a good thematic complement in In the Shadow of Cypress, a dialogue-free Iranian short directed by Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani. This beautifully evocative hand-drawn animation explores a sea captain’s experience with post-traumatic stress disorder. He revisits the loss of his wife, who gave her life to save a whale. The film assumes Melvillian proportions as the old man and the sea engage in a tango with grief and closure. Without a single word, it takes a viewer along a truly moving emotional journey.
Finally, there’s not one old fart but three in the droll stop motion lark Beautiful Men. Three brothers, all struggling with varying stages of baldness, take a trip to Istanbul for hair transplants. Unfortunately, tensions arise when the clinic can only book one of them for an appointment. What ensues is a middle-aged crisis played to the hilt. The brothers confront their differences and bid adieu to their younger selves when they’re forced to stay together at the boring hotel.
Director Nicolas Keppens injects the story with a perfectly balanced sense of humour. Beautiful Men takes a dash of zany, a pinch of ribald comedy, and a splash of gravitas to make for a fun coming of age story. The film echoes some of its competitors’ themes of self-love and adventure, but it also finds a refreshingly mature tone with which to tell the tale. It’s a welcome reminder that animation proves an ageless art form. Especially since, let’s face it, older bald guys are probably much easier to sculpt that beautiful men with dazzling ’dos. It won’t win the Oscar for Make-up and Hairstyling, but Best Animated Short Film wouldn’t be a sin.
