A-Z Short Films

Exploring the lives of five gender-creative kids, this thoughtful and tender documentary serves up intimate and essential viewing for children and adults alike. Celebrating self-determination and acceptance, these remarkable young people invite us into their imaginations and sometimes challenging experiences, showing us what it really means to be your true self.

Accompanied by a 10,000-year-old shapeshifter and friend known as Sabe, Biidaaban sets out on a mission to reclaim the ceremonial Anishinabe harvesting of sap from maple trees in an unwelcoming suburban neighbourhood of Ontario.

Over the summer, puberty comes between two friends whose bodies mature at a different pace. Investigating the awkwardness of this rite of passage, Nienka Deutz’s award winning film uses unconventional and charming animation techniques to illustrate the dissipation of childhood bonds.

Inspired by whimsy and a grand cinematic score, Bobo takes a moment to reflect on his stature. He is the smallest boy in the world with the biggest imagination on the planet.

Carlotta is unable to recognize her own face in a mirror. She has struggled with this rare condition from an early age. Using pixilated images, co-directors Valentin Riedl, a neuroscientist, and Frédéric Schuld, an author and animator, reveal the complexity of face blindness and the confusion it causes.

Jiro has a fever and no desire for pancakes and syrup. His dad’s concern grows when the doctor diagnoses Jiro with an unnamed condition. What does the diagnosis really mean? With vibrancy and abstract colours Jon Frickey’s absorbing illustrations draw us into a world in which we are invited to embrace the unfamiliar.

In a forest where single-coloured birds live in a tree that matches the colour of that bird. But what happens when a bird has two colours? If a bird has two colours, what happens? Touching on the dynamics of segregation, this adorable short film uses humour to shine new light on the matter.

Performing themselves, twelve girls participate in a hybrid documentary/work of theatre as they investigate the curious and unique creature commonly known as the 12-year-old girl. Hot off the heels of her dazzling appearance in the Australian coming-of-age drama, 52 Tuesdays, Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s directorial debut is an astounding accomplishment not only for the detailed attention to its subjects, but also for the inventive and playful manner in which it disrupts the documentary form.

In a plausible dystopian future, humans are training for an important mission. Floreana takes us on a vividly animated journey to witness the inner mechanics of a training facility on a remote island, and meet the creatures living there.

A hunter entraps a young fox, ties a dog's bell to its neck, and leaves it to fend for itself in the woods. The fox, growing desperate and hungry, is delirious with rage. Yet the instinct to survive is fierce. An allegory of survival, revenge, and love, this provoking and erratically animated short is based on a Persian story by French writer Jean Guèvre.

Mary Lou loves basketball despite her mother’s claims that she’ll ‘grow muscles’ and ‘a pee pee, like a boy’ if she practices sports. In order to play, she has to convince her hyper-religious parents to sign a school permission form. Speaking to Jesus, via unorthodox means, Mary Lou tries to find a way to help her parents see the light.

Hitkoak describes her youth: the food she ate, the toys she grew up with, and the values she learned from her elders. Now, she passes them on to the young people in her community.

On a secluded island, mysterious flora and fauna take new shapes and make strange sounds as this cacophonic world comes to life. Mixing styles of animation, directors Max Mörtl and Robert Löbel create a unique world of wonder and fun.

A porcelain shop owner turns to greet a customer only to discover that his worst nightmare has come true... What is the worst thing that could happen if there was an elephant in a china shop? Playing with tension and the absurd, this clever animation finds a way to fill the room with hilarity.

The heads of characters are linked by their hair. They influence each other with every move they make, and the result is captivating, profound, and comical.

When confronted by the white girls in her ballet class, nine-year-old Mahalia is made to feel like an outsider. In an effort to improve her confidence before picture day, her mother takes her to a salon to have her hair straightened for the very first time. When the other girls pressure her to join in their fun, it becomes clear that Mahalia isn’t like them.

Drawing on Indigenous folklore, this is the story of a girl who is raised by a she-wolf. She is found by an Anishnabe woman who tries to tame her, and we glimpse what happens when worlds collide.

Life in coastal communities is connected to, and dependent on, oceans and marine resources. As temperatures rise and weather patterns change, the knowledge and experience developed over thousands of years is becoming less reliable for those navigating the land. The students of Pangnirtung, a small Inuit community located on Baffin Island, used pinhole cameras to capture their unique perspectives on how climate change is affecting their home and way of life.

With the unconditional support of her humble Japanese-American father, an ambitious young girl chases her lifelong dream to be an astronaut. With heaps of tenderness, and impressive animation, we are reminded that the road to achieving our biggest aspirations can be long and challenging. We are lucky to be loved along the way. One Small Step is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

The journey of a single pea escalates to aerial heights as the tomato stands by trying to help reunite this little pea with its plate.

It's John's first day at school. In lieu of parental support, his big brother Mika takes on the responsibility of getting John prepared. Eleven-year-old Mika attempts to teach John some hard facts about their world, starting with how to deal with the merciless demands of the schoolyard.

From the back seat of a car an entire world of sibling rivalry escalates to epic proportions. Emotions run high, bodies bend and explode, and two sisters push their relationship to its limits.

Inuk artist Asinnajaq plunges us into a sublime imaginary universe—twelve minutes of archive-inspired cinema that recast the past, present and future of Inuit in a radiant new light. Embedding historic footage into original animation, this young new talent from the North, Asinnajaq, who also goes by Isabella Weetaluktuk, conjures up a vision of hope and beautiful possibility.

To escape the monotony and boredom at the end of the school year, a young boy fabricates a transceiver-receiver to communicate with strangers in the sky.

In luminous black and white, and using an array of animation techniques, filmmaker Parissa Mohit patiently examines the interactions of a woman and child amidst a bustling cityscape under construction. Lulled from a high-rise apartment building, the world becomes a fantastical and dreamlike realm where buildings shift and topple, and fabric flows freely in the breeze.

Chalk-line figures depict a family struggling amid the outbursts of an alcoholic father. He transforms into a dog when he’s drinking and his cruel words mark his wife and their young child. Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre’s simple yet affecting portrait of a family in crisis, and offers an effective way to tend to psychological scars. Your Mother is a Thief! marks the second film R2R has shown by Saint-Pierre. McLaren’s Negatives (R2R 2007) is an animated film about famed Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren.