List of Best Award Winning Short Films

What are the best short films to watch? There was a time when short films were as popular as the long feature films. In fact back in the silent era short films were way more popular than the feature films. There were two obvious reasons for that – First it was easy and less time consuming, Secondly short movies invested lesser time of audience too. Back in that time you can imagine how hard it would have been to stand a long film with no audible dialogues or sound. That is why it was easier and more appropriate for both film makers and audience to choose short films.

The popularity of short films continued to rise till the Second World War. This was due to the increasing popularity of comic actors such as Charles Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton. Usually directors were more interested in comedy short films that are why there were very few action short films. Although Horror short films, mystery short films and romantic short films were also produced but they were no match to the success of comedy short films and specially animated short films. Walt Disney made short films more popular by directing classic animated movies.

By the end of World War II short films only got limited to animated short films, this was because by that time Television has taken place of normal household. People were still interested in short films but they were more interested in a long story that is broken down into several shorts. This gave birth to TV series and thus short films were transitioned into TV episodes.

The proper definition of short films state that any film that is shorter than 40 minutes (including credits) is counted as short film. Due to inclusion of Best Short film category in Academy awards, the importance of short films still remained among film makers. But as decade passed by it got more and more limited to students of film schools, new aspiring directors and independent film festivals.

Here we have chosen 50 greatest short films of all time that you must watch:

50. Boundin’



49. The Follow



48. Voices of a Distant Star



47. Doodlebug



46. Frosty the snowman



45. Kiwi



44. Hotel Chevalier



43. Beat the Devil



42. Hostage



41. A Matter of Loaf and Death



40. Meshes of the Afternoon



39. Mickey’s Christmas Carol



38. Batman: Dead End



37. Six Shooter



36. Zero for Conduct



35. Blackadder Back and Forth



34. T-2 3D: Battle Across Time



33. Cashback



32. Knick Knack



31. I’m Here



30. Star (The Hire)



29. It’s the great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown



28. La Luna



27. One Man Band



26. The Snowman



25. Luxo Jr.



24. What’s Opera Doc



23. Harvie Krumpet



22. Frankenweenie



21. Day and Night



20. Tangled Ever After



19. Lifted



18. Partly Cloudy



17. Thriller



16. A Grand Day Out



15. La Jette



14. Geri’s Game



13. The Red Balloon



12. Vincent



11. Presto



10. Duck Amuck



9. Un Chien Andalou



8. For the Birds



7. A Charlie Brown Christmas



6. The Great Train Robbery



5. Paperman



4. A Close Shave



3. How the Grinch Stole the Christmas



2. The Wrong Trousers



1. A Trip to the Moon



As you might have noticed some of the short films listed here are later made into feature films. Some of them are part of major films or TV shows, while others are just short films directed by new directors. Have you ever tried hands in short film making? Tell us your experience.