Oscars 2025: In the Shadow of the Cypress wins Best Animated Short Film

In the Shadow of the Cypress has received the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 97th Academy Awards, held on March 2, 2025. The wordless 2D animated Iranian film is directed by Shirin Sohani and Hussein Molayemi.

This 20-minute project explores the post-traumatic stress disorder a father experiences and how it affects his daughter in their house by the sea, taking inspiration from the difficulties Iranian war veterans and their families faced.

Others nominated in the category includes Beautiful Men, Magic Candies, Wander to Wonder, and Yuck! Besides the historic win for In the Shadow of the Cypress, the Oscar shortlist for the category has also turned heads as the list represents six different countries, but not the US. The list also boasts mostly 2D animation and stop-motion, except Magic Candies, as opposed to CG, which is common in many Hollywood short films.

In the Shadow of the Cypress joins Latvian film Flow, which has won Best Animated Feature, for a dual victory for foreign language titles in the typical effects-heavy Hollywood film-dominated genre at the 2025 Oscars.

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In the Shadow of the Cypress directors almost missed out on giving their speech onstage at the 2025 Oscars

In the Shadow of the Cypress directors and married couple, Shirin Sohani and Hussein Mulayemi, almost missed out on attending the 2025 Academy Awards ceremony because of visa problems. Variety first reported on February 18, 2025, that the two had been unable to obtain a visa because of the intractable situation.

Without any US embassy in Iran, obtaining a US visa had to be done outside the country, which adds to the expense. The duo revealed during their Oscars acceptance speech that they were ultimately awarded their visa yesterday. With that, they had to plan a last-minute trip and only arrived in Los Angeles three hours before the 2025 Oscars started. They called it a "miracle" onstage.

However, the visa problem wasn't the only hurdle the duo directors experienced in the making of In the Shadow of the Cypress and their journey to the Oscars. In an interview published by Directors Notes on February 14, 2025, Molayemi and Sohani recalled the struggle of making the film during the COVID pandemic, with the former saying:

"We had to overcome sever economic problems, political obsessions and even didn't have access to the free internet, we had to use VPS to be in touch with each other, especially during the COVID era.

They also opened up about the lack of funding and support they got from the Iranian government on top of their already struggling production because of the pandemic, with Molayemi adding:

"We didn't receive any governmental financial support, nobody came to assist us."

A Variety report, published on February 18, 2025, also mentioned the Iranian government rescinding their financial support for the movie, which prevented more international travel for the directors in the midst of Oscar campaigning. It was also why they almost missed out on their Oscars appearances.

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In the Shadow of Cypress previously won the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival for best animated short and was nominated for the same category at the 2024 and 2025 Annie Awards.