The animated shorts program returned to Tribeca this year, which as always was curated and hosted by Whoopi Goldberg. The shorts varied from the sweet to the devastating, from thought-provoking to utterly bizarre. The Mayfly was by Sue Perroto (an alum of several Cartoon Network shows) and featured a mayfly who, in her short day of life, breaks off from her family to pursue her own path in music. The animation is adorable and the film is sweet and sad, but I can’t say too much aside from that. Nate & John is about the long form friendship between a barber and his customer over decades. It’s a beautiful and touching story that ends on a note that will melt your heart. In LUKi and the Lights, LUKi is a robot whose joints are powered by lightbulbs. Don’t be fooled by the cute art style—this is easily the most devastating short of the set. One day, LUKi’s lights start shorting out, and a trip to the doctor reveals he has ALS. What brought me to tears more than the premise was the reveal that the creator of this short has ALS and made it so that his kids could understand what their father was going through. It was easily one of my favorite shorts of the set.

Another short that rose above the rest was In the Shadow of the Cypress. Made in Iran, it’s about a father with PTSD who is struggling to be a good parent to his daughter in their house by the sea. The use of animation in this film is utterly superb, with a lot of surrealist elements to complement the grounded storyline. I felt like it may have been a bit too abstract in execution, but it was still one of the better selections. It also won the award for Best Animated Short at the festival, which puts it on track for the Oscar race. Scrubby tried to evoke the feelings of a children’s book, and it accomplished that, but not much else. It’s about an adorable furry creature who wants to live in his mother’s fur forever, but it starts to fall out. There’s not much here, to be honest, and was one of the weakest shorts for me. In Budō, a widow finds a pair of shoes given to her by her husband, and while going for a walk, takes home a hungry stray cat. I thought this would be another sweet story, but I was wrong. This is actually the most bonkers short film of the bunch, and ended up being a total laugh riot by the end. I honestly don’t wanna say too much about this one, as it’s that good. Finally, Ruthless Blade is an action short about a white tiger fighting its archenemy…or is it? This one had the best animation of the bunch (it was created for a Chinese streaming series), and ends on an unexpectedly amusing plot twist.

Finally, here are some of the other things I saw at the festival this year. The restaurant renovation documentary gets a stranger-than-fiction twist in ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! Casa Bonita is the Mexican restaurant famous in Denver, Colorado for its massive scale, wealth of attractions, and comparatively lackluster food, but when the pandemic closes its doors, the establishment ends up on the verge of bankruptcy. Enter some unlikely investors: Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, who famously featured the restaurant on the show. Purchasing Casa Bonita allows Trey and Matt to realize a childhood dream, but those dreams turn into nightmares fast when they discover the restaurant is in far, far, far more dire need of repair than originally thought. As the renovations costs balloon, and the community becomes more and more eager to return to Casa Bonita, Trey, Matt, and the team are determined to see things through and, yes, serve some food that’s actually good. The documentary is a must-see for South Park fans (Trey admitted that Casa Bonita is responsible for the lack of output for the show recently), and Trey and Matt’s sense of humor brings an edge to the proceedings. At the same time, the idea of a television celebrity going headfirst into the restaurant business creates tension that carries the project, especially as conflicts within the employees begin to rise. Funny and heartfelt, it should be a welcome watch for fans of the show. This movie also won the Audience Award for Best Documentary.

Sacramento is the feature debut of Michael Angarano, and it ended up being a pleasant surprise. Michael plays Ricky, who suddenly re-enters the life of his former friend and father-to-be Glenn (Michael Cera) for an impromptu road trip from LA to Sacramento. There’s a lot of laughs in this movie, mostly coming from Ricky’s often reprehensible behavior. It’s not a great movie, but it was better than I expected, and near the end takes a turn that I legitimately not anticipate. Sacramento also has theatrical distribution and should be hitting the big screen soon. I also attended a screening of an untitled docuseries about Tim Burton. Coming from the angle of Burton’s outsider nature, it delves deep into his rise to fame with plentiful examples of his art and even a few revelatory details (such as Tom Cruise being considered for the lead in Edward Scissorhands). With 3 more episodes yet to be seen, I hope this gets picked up by somebody. So far, as a Burton fan, this was a real treat. Well, I hope you enjoyed my coverage of this year’s Tribeca Festival. Here’s hoping you’ll get to see all that I talked about soon.

Every year, the Oscars have their fair share of snubs and surprises, and the Best Animated Feature category often contains both, but usually the former. While there’s always an adequate number of acclaimed, high quality animated features eligible for the award, the nominees are typically major Hollywood releases, many of which are worthy, but some of which overshadow independent and lesser known productions. (That’s even before you get to the Academy seemingly believing animation is a children’s medium, even when the films they’re voting on disprove that.) It’s always an accomplishment when an independent animated film or two get in the running, but I haven’t seen anything like this year, when the Academy nominated Robot Dreams. Not only is this an independent film, but it hasn’t even been released in the US (or at least outside of a qualification run, and not in New York City). Directed by Pablo Berger and based on the graphic novel of the same name, it’s safe to say that Robot Dreams has already gotten the best publicity it could before it even released, and having recently attended an early screening of the film, I can tell you it absolutely deserves it.

The film is about Dog, a dog, who lives alone in his apartment in a version of 1980s New York City populated by anthropomorphic animals. One night, while flipping through channels, he comes across an ad for a robot buddy. He orders it and soon Dog and Robot are inseparable. Everything is going great until a fateful trip to the beach throws a crushing wrench into their friendship.

First of all, the film is told entirely visually, with the score telling the story. At most, there’s licensed song lyrics. This also allows the visuals to take center stage, which is good because this film has a lot of great comedic timing and humorous touches within the world. It’s also a great love letter to 1980s New York, with practically all the fashions and fads intact, from punks flipping you off to animal-fied versions of classic arcade games. (Just to make it truly authentic, there’s a sign at one point telling you how not to get mugged.) In contrast to the grimy time period, the art style is adorable and endearing, and really sets the initial tone for the world. The key word there is “initial”, because if you haven’t read the graphic novel, it doesn’t take long for you to quickly realize this is not the film you may think it is.

Simply put, Robot Dreams is a film that will break your heart. At some point the cute funny animal buddy-comedy vibes give way to something real and devastating, as the true nature of the plot is revealed. There’s also a lot more story here than you might think. I felt the film could’ve been trimmed a bit, but it used its runtime well. While a lot of the film seemed a tad episodic, it still came across as fully-fleshed out. Without giving too much away, the film also keeps you on your toes emotionally, but there’s a decent balance of tone. It’s soul-crushing when it needs to be, and heartwarming when the former gets too much.

Don’t be fooled by its cutesy exterior and silent-film style. With humor, heart, sadness, and an unexpectedly bittersweet ending, Robot Dreams has genuine depth and is certainly one of the best animated films of 2023. I really hope the Oscar nomination brings this film the publicity it deserves. It takes a gamble, and it certainly paid off.