“Playing God”, the Italian animated jewel in the final at the 2026 Oscars | Artribune

The short is by the young independent animation studio Studio Croma Animation Playing Godwhich from 2017 to today has created a real community of people who, step by step, followed the making of the short film. Until we get to the most important step, the shortlist of the 15 best animated shorts of the next Oscars. The journey of the film began with massive promotion of the crowdfunding through one of the largest platforms in the world, and has reached over 160 official selections at festivals around the world, winning 80 awards including the Silver Ribbon 2025 as Best Animated Short Film.

The number 815, the protagonist of the stop-motion dark drama

The short film, directed by Matteo Burani and animated by Arianna Gheller, is entirely made in stop-motionone of the oldest and at the same time widely used animation techniques today by directors such as Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Wes Anderson, Peter Lord, Guillermo del Toro (with his Pinocchio in stop-motion won the Oscar for best animated film in 2023). In Playing Godhuman and artisanal work is highlighted by the storytelling itself, which entrusts the role of “creator-God” to human hands, also moved with the step one technique (pixilation).

“Playing God”, the Italian animated jewel shortlisted at the 2026 Oscars

The “creator” is one tormented sculptor, who in his dark laboratory gives birth to a work that according to him must be perfect. However, when he realizes that his creature does not reach perfection, he abandons it. It is precisely here that his clay sculptures come alive, not accepting their fate and trying to free themselves from the pedestal to which they are stuck. The latest sculpture created, the number 815, is the protagonist of the film: in an attempt to reach his creator he ends up destroying himself, finding compassion and empathy from the other abandoned and deformed works.

Metaphor of human frailty and self-analysis of the animators’ work are the two directions that guided the director’s motivations. The clay in the short is made with plasticine of a wine color that is very reminiscent of the shades of Lamentation over the Dead Christ by Niccolò Dall’Arca (wooden complex preserved in the church of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna, the city where the firm is based). THE’dark atmosphere and thriller soundtrack accompany the phases of the creation of puppetto the point of confusing clay, plasticine and flesh, body fluids and eyeballs that seem truly alive and suffering. In the film’s trailer you can perfectly find the color palette and narrative tension. To see the entire short, we will have to wait for the next festival or, perhaps, the 2026 Oscars.

The production challenges, the craftsmanship of cinema that becomes art

The technique with which the short film is made presents several challenges, since stop-motion in itself is a very long and detailed work. In a note the director Matteo Burani states that “stop-motion is an expensive process, but it embodies the very essence of cinema. What you see is something impossible: a few seconds of a short film are months of workThe process is very artisanal, linked to matter and materials: from wire to plasticine, from wood to paper, everything is shaped frame by frame with three different techniques: puppet animation, clay animation e pixilation. In the making of the two years of animation, curated by Arianna Gheller, which led to the creation of over 20,000 shots with very little post-production. Sole Piccininno created the 50 sculptures from the short: all the characters are naked, a choice that brings them closer to the primordial image of the creation of man. Some sculptures are very reminiscent of a complete human being while others have almost lost recognizable features and appear melted. The references used for these characters are certainly zombies and demonic creaturesbut also malformations and diseases. Playing God is a short film with a strong introspective and horror soul, designed for an adult audience; independent of market logic, which has chosen the most difficult but truest path to reach the hearts of spectators.

The short, an Italy-France co-production with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region through the Emilia-Romagna Film Commission, the Italian Ministry of Culture and the CNC Center National Du Cinema Et De l’Image Animèe (France), has an Italian distribution with Sayonara Film and a French distribution with Autour de Minuit. Other prestigious awards for the film: Best Short Film at the 24FRAME Future Film Fest 2024; selection at the 39th Critics’ Week at the Venice International Film Festival, where it received the FEDIC Award for Best Short Film; participation in the international section of the Clermont-Ferrand 2025 Festival. The awards that made the film officially qualified for the Oscar were the Jury Prize and the Award for best Stop Motion al Animayo International Film Festival a Gran Canariafollowed shortly after by Best animated short film al Tribeca Film Festival.

Giulietta Fara