Best Short Film, 1948

Awards presented March 24, 1949

And the nominees were ...
(Cartoon)

• The Little Orphan, Fred Quimby, producer 
• Mickey and the Seal, Walt Disney, producer 
• Mouse Wreckers, Edward Selzer, producer 
• Robin Hoodlum, United Productions of America 
• Tea for Two Hundred, Walt Disney, producer 

(One-reel)

• Annie Was a Wonder, Herbert Moulton, producer 
• Cinderella Horse, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• So You Want to Be on the Radio, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• Symphony of a City, Edmund H. Reek, producer 
• You Can't Win, Pete Smith, producer 

(Two-reel)

• Calgary Stampede, Gordon Hollingshead, producer 
• Going to Blazes, Herbert Morgan, producer 
• Samba-Mania, Harry Grey, producer 
• Seal Island, Walt Disney, producer 
• Snow Capers, Thomas Mead, producer 

And the Oscar went to ...
(Cartoon)
The Little Orphan, Fred Quimby, producer.

Jerry plays host to an orphan on Thanksgiving day, which turns into a colossal food fight when Tom tries to prevent the mice from raiding the feast that has been set out. The usual mayhem from writer-directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.


(One-reel)
Symphony of a City, Edmund H. Reek, producer.

An image from Arne Sucksdorff's Symphony of a City

The city is Stockholm in this Swedish short, originally titled Människor i stad, which was written, directed and filmed by Arne Sucksdorff. It was the first of three short-film Oscars for Reek, producer of the version released in the United States; he had been nominated three times before.

(Two-reel)
Seal Island, Walt Disney, producer.

Disney's experience making training and propaganda films during World War II had spurred a new interest in live-action films. There was also a streak of the didactic in him, and he was flattered by the attention he received from educators. Animator Ben Sharpsteen introduced him to wildlife photographers Alfred and Elma Milotte, who spent a year documenting the lives of fur seals in the Pribilof Islands. The copious footage was edited down to twenty-seven minutes, with a narration by Winston Hibler and music by Oliver Wallace, then shown at a preview screening in Pasadena in December 1948. The audience was enthusiastic, and the weeklong run of the short qualified it for the Oscar that it won a few months later. Thus was born the Disney "True-Life Adventures" series -- a highly anthropomorphic treatment of animals that Disney thought of as educational but entertaining, while critics complained that the education was scanted in favor of the entertainment.