Written by Jeff Wolverton and directed by Eric Armstrong, The Chubbchubbs! was the first short animation film produced by Sony PIctures Imageworks (SPI) and won the makers the Best Short Animation Oscar in 2003. It helped positiion SPI as both a special effects company and an animation studio (now Sony Pictures Animation) but its feature films, inlcuding the Open Season series have failed to dent the dominance of Pixar and Dreamworks.
Dog by Suzie Templeton is a dark, stop motion animation about a young boy and his father coming to terms with the recent loss of the mother. The father assures his son that his mother died "peacefully" but when their dog becomes increasingly ill the father decides to take drastic action - and thus leaves a question mark over his wife's death. Suzie Templeton also won an Academy Award in 2008 for her 30 minute stop motion animation Peter and the Wolf.
Dutch animator MIchael Dudok de Wit had been nominated for an Oscar with his short animation Le Moine et le Poissonin in 1994 before claiming both the BAFTA and Oscar in 2001 with his beautiful short, Father and Daughter. A father and daughter go cycling together before the father says goodbye. In time, the daughter grows old, but within her is always a deep longing for her father... it's a weepy!
The Bead Game was made by Indian born animator Ishu Patel, who worked at the National Film Board of Canada for more than 20 years. The NFBC so dominated animation during the latter half of the 20th century that they really warrant their own page. Patel won the BAFTA for Best Short Fictional Film with The Bead Game in 1978. It was nominated for an Oscar the same year and remains a mesmerising example of stop-motion animation to this day.