The Best Short Films from the 2025 CalArts Character Animation Students

As I grow older, I find myself drawn more and more toward the work of the new artists. Not out of nostalgia, but out of hunger – a hunger for something unfiltered and unresolved. As both a professor and a curator, this pull has become less of a profession and more of a passion. Some people collect watches, others drink wine; I collect the first sparks of voices not yet dulled by expectation.

That’s why the unveiling of this year’s student films from CalArts feels less like a showcase and more like a small detonation. Sixty-plus shorts, each one tugging at the thread of what animation can be – and who it can be for.

This year’s crop isn’t defined by polish or perfection, but by freshness. That rare, invigorating freshness that only emerges when stories are told with urgency and without apology. These are films born out of obsession, confusion, grief, lust, frustration, joy – and in some cases, all of the above. In that honesty, they offer something increasingly rare in our curated world: a sense of becoming.

So consider this your boarding pass. We’ve been through all the shorts created by the CalArts Character Animation Students and have seven we want to champion for their innovative approach to style or story.

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Goddamn’s Great Big Adventure: The Dating Crisis!!

by Lulu Mckown

Goddamn an adorably naive sock ventures out to find love, and runs into a few problems along the way…

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Leftover Pasta

by Ben Knight

Caleb is trapped in a video game!! Can Frankie get him out?

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Motor Girl

by Val Yu

In the glamorous, male-dominated world of motorsport, racecar driver Mia de Milo stands as the sole female competitor. As cracks begin to form in Mia’s confidence and her vehicle falters, her personal insecurities begin to overpower her, and the line between body and machine begins to blur.

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Sweet on You

by Liz Yang

A baker uses an unusual ingredient in her highly desired bakes.

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This is Not An Emergency

by Sydney Agans

A culmination of experiences from growing up in Georgia…

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Unbound

by Emily Chang

A doodle trapped in a sketchbook world full of rules and structures bursts into a bright and playful sketchbook page.

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You Are Brave

by Sebastian Zakhem

A stomach-ache leads a sufferer down a Google rabbit hole.