Background research · Keepsake financing deck

Twelve handmade minutes for $350,000: does the plan hold up?

The research behind the Keepsake financing deck: comparable stop-motion films, the festival and Oscar path, what a finished minute costs, who pays for animated shorts and who watches them. Where the evidence supports the deck, we say so. Where it complicates the deck, we say that too.

Prepared September 202642 sources, opened 29 September 2026Subject a ~12-minute hybrid stop-motion short
Summary

Seven things a financier should know

  1. Handmade stop-motion shorts are winning right now. The Girl Who Cried Pearls, a 16–17 minute puppet film from Canada’s National Film Board (NFB), won the Oscar in March 2026,[13] and two stop-motion shorts, Wander to Wonder and Beautiful Men, were nominated the year before.[17, 18]
  2. The deck’s festival facts check out. Annecy’s Cristal and its short-film Jury Award, and all eight other awards the deck names, are on the Academy’s 99th qualifying list, updated 10 April 2026.[2]
  3. The deck’s schedule leaves no slack. Annecy closes short-film entries in mid-February for a June festival, so a June 2028 premiere on a 12-month build needs a green light by about February 2027.[4]
  4. At about $29,000 per finished minute, the hybrid budget is plausible. It sits above a public short-film rate (€13,000–€14,500 a minute)[26] and below the Oscar-winning The Wrong Trousers in today’s money.[20]
  5. One budget line looks thin. On published animator output rates, the practical shots alone could take 58–87 animator-weeks, against $85,000 for animators and camera crew together (our estimate).[23, 37]
  6. Grants will not carry $350,000. Public short-film funds are national, capped and competitive, so recent stop-motion nominees were built as multi-country co-productions.[16, 18, 27]
  7. Generative AI is the live risk. The Academy may now ask how AI was used,[3] and part of the Annecy audience booed an AI-assisted short in 2026.[8] The deck’s promise to be honest about the tools is the right one, and it now needs to be documented.
01 · Comparables

What similar films cost, and how long they took

Features show the ceiling and the hybrid method. Shorts show the calendar, the financing structure and the prizes.

FilmLength · techniqueMoney and timeWhat it tells Keepsake
Kubo and the Two StringsLaika · 2016 · feature 101 min · stop-motion with digital water, crowds and set extensions[24] $60M budget, $77.5M worldwide; nominated for Animated Feature and Visual Effects[22]. 94 weeks of shooting at 3.31 seconds per animator per week[23] The model for Keepsake’s look and its hybrid split: practical puppets, digital extensions. It also shows that acclaim for craft does not guarantee box office.
CoralineLaika · 2009 · feature 100 min · stop-motion $60M; $126M on first release and $188M with re-releases; 18 months of principal photography[21] A handmade film can keep finding an audience for 15 years. At about $600,000 per minute, it sets the top of the cost range.
Isle of DogsWes Anderson · 2018 · feature 101 min · stop-motion $35M; 1,105 puppets and more than 200 sets[25] Even this “lean” feature cost about $350,000 a minute. Every practical puppet and set multiplies cost.
The Wrong TrousersAardman / BBC · 1993 · short 30 min · clay stop-motion £650,000; made 1990–93; Oscar winner[20] The best short-film benchmark with a published budget: about £21,700 a minute then, and roughly £47,000 a minute in today’s prices Estimate
Wander to WonderNina Gantz · 2023 · short ~14 min · 90% stop-motion, 10% live action[17] Eight years in the making, with money from four countries[16]; 188 festival selections, 49 awards, BAFTA, Oscar nomination[17] The director puts the eight years down to raising the money. Keepsake’s 12 months starts only once the money is in place.
Beautiful MenNicolas Keppens · 2023 · short 19 min · stop-motion, silicone puppets Belgium–France–Netherlands co-production; Annecy Alexeïeff–Parker Award and Ottawa Best Narrative Short (2024); Oscar nomination[18] It premiered in October 2023 and was still winning at Annecy in 2024. The festival run is long, and it ended free online in 2026.[19]
The Girl Who Cried PearlsLavis & Szczerbowski · NFB · 2025 · short 16–17 min · puppet stop-motion[13, 14] The budget covered only three minutes of mouth animation[14]; three animators, wire armatures, recycled materials[15]; premiered at Annecy in June 2025 and won the Oscar in March 2026[13] A constraint can become the style. “Only words are paper” works the same way.
Paper TrailDon Hertzfeldt · 2026 · short 14 min · drawn 2D[7] Won the 2026 Annecy Cristal for a Short Film[6] A film about writing and paper took Annecy’s top short prize. Keepsake will compete with every technique, not only stop-motion.

Several shorts often cited as stop-motion comparables are not stop-motion. The Windshield Wiper (Oscar, 2022) puts CG characters on painted backgrounds;[38, 42] Ice Merchants is drawn;[39] Letter to a Pig mixes hand-drawn, painted and filmed material;[40] and Pear Cider and Cigarettes is a 35-minute digital film.[33] They are useful for festival strategy but not for cost.

02 · Festivals & the Oscar path

Annecy first is right, but it sets the calendar

An animated short can qualify for the Oscars through a seven-day paid theatrical run in one of six U.S. metro areas, or by winning an award on the Academy’s festival list.[1] For a short, the festival route is the realistic one.

15 Feb
Annecy 2026 short-film entry deadline, for a festival held 21–27 June[4]
75%
of running time must be animation to count as an animated short (98th-year rules)[1]
40 min
Academy maximum for a short, including credits (98th-year rules)[1]
€30
Annecy short-film entry fee; selected filmmakers get six nights’ lodging[4]

Annecy

Annecy accepts “frame-by-frame” animation in any technique, completed after 1 January of the previous year and never submitted before. Selected shorts go into five competitions: Official, Off-Limits, Young Audience, Perspectives and Midnight Shorts. Unfinished films can be entered if they will be complete by mid-May.[4] Only the Cristal and the Jury Award are on the Academy list,[2] so a family film placed in Young Audience would not qualify there. Annecy also gives a Vimeo Staff Pick Award in its Official and Off-Limits categories.[4] Annecy does not require a world premiere: Beautiful Men premiered months before its Annecy prize.[18]

The rest of the circuit

These festivals are all on the current Academy list:[2] Ottawa, which held its 50th edition on 23–27 September 2026 and whose Grand Prize qualifies;[10] Clermont-Ferrand, 29 January–6 February 2027, for films completed after 1 October 2025;[12] and Sundance, which moves to Boulder, Colorado, for 21–31 January 2027.[11] For a family audience, the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival’s Best Animated Short also qualifies.[2] This list covers wins from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026. Inference By that October-to-September pattern, a June 2028 Annecy win would count toward the 101st Academy Awards in 2029.

The AI question

The Academy defines animation as movement created “by any human means.”[1] Its 99th-year rules reserve the right to ask about “the nature of the use” of generative AI and about human authorship, and they require acting to be performed by humans.[3] At Annecy 2026, part of the audience booed Hisko Hulsing’s AI-assisted Danse Macabre, and the festival’s director defended the programming.[8] The festival faced a similar protest in 2024.[9] Keepsake plans a human voice cast and hand-built hero shots, which is the strongest position available. What remains is a clear written record of what makr.ai made and what people directed.

03 · Cost

What a finished minute costs

Budgets for festival shorts are rarely published, so the data here is thin. We use the few public figures there are and label everything we derived.

The deck’s three options, per finished minute of a 12-minute film

Cost per finished minute of the deck's three production optionsRange bars in US dollars per minute: makr.ai-led with handmade inserts 7.5 to 13.3 thousand; hybrid stop-motion 23.3 to 35 thousand with the working budget at 28.75 thousand; full stop-motion 62.5 to 100 thousand. makr.ai-led, handmade inserts · $7.5k–$13.3k Hybrid stop-motion (recommended) · $23.3k–$35k ▲ working budget, $345k ÷ 12 = $28.75k Full stop-motion · $62.5k–$100k $0$25k$50k$75k$100k
The deck’s totals divided by 12 minutes. For comparison: Screen Ireland’s Frameworks scheme funds €13,000–€14,500 a minute;[26] The Wrong Trousers is roughly £47,000 a minute in today’s prices (our CPI estimate);[20] Laika’s features cost about $600,000 a minute.[21, 22]

Where the benchmarks land

Screen Ireland’s Frameworks scheme is one of the few public rate cards. It funds 2–5 minute animated shorts at €13,000–€14,500 per minute.[26] An alumnus, John Kelly’s Retirement Plan, was a 2026 Oscar nominee.[26, 41] The Wrong Trousers cost £650,000 for 30 minutes in 1993.[20] Estimate Scaled to 12 minutes in today’s prices, that is roughly £560,000, close to the low end of the deck’s $750,000–$1.2M full stop-motion range, depending on the exchange rate. Crowdfunding figures cover only parts of films: Phil Tippett raised $124,156 in 2012 for about 12 minutes of Mad God.[31]

Why hybrid is the right lever

Laika mixes methods too. Kubo built a record 16-foot skeleton puppet by hand but made its water, crowds and wide vistas digitally,[22, 24] and it was nominated for Visual Effects as well as Animated Feature.[22] Keepsake’s plan to shoot faces, hands and paper by hand and extend the wides digitally follows the same logic. The Girl Who Cried Pearls shows a second lever: spend only where the audience is looking. It had just three minutes of mouth animation in a 16-minute film.[14]

Estimate Checking the practical animation line. About 40% of shots are practical, so assume roughly 4.8 minutes, or about 288 seconds, of hand animation. Laika averaged 3.31 seconds per animator per week on Kubo.[23] If simpler close-ups reach 5 seconds a week, the practical shots need 58–87 animator-weeks. At the U.S. Animation Guild’s journeyman animator minimum of $2,597.60 a week (August 2026 to July 2027),[37] that comes to $151,000–$226,000, compared with $85,000 in the deck for animators and camera crew together. Non-union or overseas crews cost less, and close-up shots may be shorter than 40% of the running time. The line may still work, but it is the one to re-bid first.

04 · Funding

Who pays for animated shorts

Grants are real but small. Recent stop-motion nominees were financed by stacking several countries’ public funds.

  • National funds. BFI NETWORK gives £5,000–£25,000 for shorts up to 15 minutes by early-career teams based in England, funding about 30 of an expected 1,000 applications.[27] Frameworks funds only 2–5 minute films.[26] Wander to Wonder needed money from four countries,[16] Beautiful Men from three,[18] and Pearls came from the NFB, Canada’s public producer.[13]
  • Institutes. Sundance’s 2026 Ignite x Adobe Short Film Fund gave five grants of $35,000, open only to alumni of its fellowship.[28] Film Independent’s Sloan grants support stories with a scientist or engineer as the lead character,[29] which fits Eleanor, but its listed programs are labs for features and series. Worth a query, not a plan.
  • Markets. Mifa, Annecy’s market, runs a short-film pitch track for projects in development. The 2026 deadline was 22 January, with a €20 fee and partner prizes.[5] A January 2027 entry would fit the financing window.
  • Crowdfunding. Anomalisa raised $406,237 from 5,770 backers in 2012 as a planned 40-minute stop-motion short, then grew into an $8M feature.[30] Robert Valley raised $64,279 to finish Pear Cider and Cigarettes, which was later Oscar-nominated.[32, 33] Crowdfunding tends to cover a finishing slice, not the whole budget.
05 · Audience

Who watches, and where

Festivals are the first audience, and prizes lead to a wider one. The 2026 theatrical release of the Oscar-nominated animated shorts played in up to 349 theaters and grossed $2.09M in the U.S., shared among five films and their distributors and exhibitors.[34] After the festival run, prize-winners usually go free online. Wander to Wonder debuted on a distributor’s YouTube channel in July 2026,[17] and Beautiful Men went to Short of the Week,[19] which says it reaches millions of viewers and has featured more than 2,000 films since 2007.[36] Vimeo’s editors choose Staff Picks by hand; there is no submission form.[35] A short’s return is mostly attention: for its director’s next film, for its partners, and here for the Memri app.

06 · Checking the deck

Where the research supports the deck, and where it complicates it

No figure in the financing deck is contradicted by a source. One line is at risk, and four assumptions need tightening.

The deck saysWhat we foundVerdict
Annecy in June; Cristal and Jury Award qualify for the OscarsConfirmed, along with the eight other awards the deck lists.[2, 4]Supported
Hybrid, $280k–$420k; working total $345kAbout $29k a minute: above a public short-film rate and below The Wrong Trousers in today’s money.[20, 26]Supported
Full stop-motion, $750k–$1.2MNear the low end of this range on the inflation-adjusted Aardman benchmark (estimate).[20]Supported
$85k for stop-motion animation and camera crewOutput-rate math at union scale suggests $151k–$226k for animators alone (estimate).[23, 37]Flag
12 months to an Annecy 2028 premiereEntries close in mid-February, or mid-May for a work in progress, so financing must close by early to mid 2027. Comparable shorts took 3–8 years.[4, 16, 20]Complicates
Grants, pre-sales or a brand partnerGrants are small and national; co-production is the usual structure. The Academy excludes advertising films, so the Memri tie-in must stay a story element.[1, 27, 28]Complicates
Recoupment terms to be agreedShorts rarely recoup. The value to partners is credit and visibility.[34]Complicates
Made with makr.ai, honestlyIt is eligible in principle, but the Academy may ask for details, and part of the audience is hostile.[3, 8]Complicates
07 · Conclusion

What this means for Keepsake

Five recommendations

  1. Keep the hybrid plan and Annecy as the first target. The comparables support the look, the method and the per-minute cost.
  2. Work backward from February 2028. Close financing by early 2027, pitch at Mifa in January 2027, and plan for Ottawa in September 2028 if Annecy slips.[4, 5, 10]
  3. Re-bid practical animation first. Ask the line producer for animator-weeks and a weekly rate, and hold the 10% contingency against this line.
  4. Look for a co-producer abroad. One European or Canadian partner opens national funds that a U.S.-only structure cannot reach.[16, 18]
  5. Write the AI record now. List shot by shot what was built, what was generated and who directed it, and enter the Official competition rather than Young Audience.[2, 3]
Sources

Sources

Opened 29 September 2026. Figures derived from these sources are labelled as estimates.

  1. 1Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — Rule Eight: Special Rules for the Animated Short Film Award (98th Awards). 2025 · primary. https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/2025-04/98th_aa_animated_short.pdf
  2. 2Academy — 99th Academy Awards Short Films Qualifying Festival List. updated 2026-04-10 · primary. https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/2026-05/99AA_Shorts%20Qualifying%20Festivals.pdf
  3. 3Academy Press Office — Awards rules and campaign promotional regulations approved for 99th Oscars. 2026 · primary. https://press.oscars.org/news/awards-rules-and-campaign-promotional-regulations-approved-99th-oscarsr
  4. 4Annecy International Animation Film Festival — 2026 Terms and Conditions, Short Films. 2025-11 · primary. https://www.annecyfestival.com/sites/default/files/2025-11/Annecy_Festival_2026_Short_Films_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf
  5. 5Annecy Festival — Submit a project in development (Mifa Pitches). accessed 2026-09-29 · primary. https://www.annecyfestival.com/en/take-part/submit-project-development
  6. 6Cartoon Brew — ’The Violinist’ wins Annecy 2026 feature Cristal: winners list. 2026-06 · trade press. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/festivals/annecy-winners-2026-violinist-iron-boy-paper-trail-263799.html
  7. 7Zippy Frames — ‘Paper Trail’ (2026) by Don Hertzfeldt: Annecy film review. 2026 · trade press. https://www.zippyframes.com/shorts/paper-trail-2026-by-don-hertzfeldt-annecy-film-review
  8. 8Cartoon Brew — Hope, AI, and indies: the contradictions that defined Annecy 2026. 2026-06 · trade press. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/festivals/annecy-2026-festival-wrap-263908.html
  9. 9Screen Daily — Annecy director Marcel Jean addresses AI-made film booing controversy. 2024-06-09 · trade press. https://www.screendaily.com/news/annecy-head-addresses-ai-booing-controversy-my-job-is-to-show-what-is-made/5194473.article
  10. 10Cartoon Brew — ‘We Are Aliens,’ ‘Praying Mantis’ win top prizes at OIAF 2026. 2026-09 · trade press. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/festivals/oiaf-winners-we-are-aliens-praying-mantis-267198.html
  11. 11Sundance Institute — What to know about the 2027 Sundance Film Festival. 2026 · primary. https://www.sundance.org/blogs/what-to-know-about-the-2027-sundance-film-festival/
  12. 12Asian Film Festivals — 49th Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival: call for entry 2027. 2026-05-12 · listing. https://asianfilmfestivals.com/2026/05/12/clermont-ferrand-international-short-film-festival-call-for-entry-2027/
  13. 13Wikipedia — The Girl Who Cried Pearls. accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Cried_Pearls
  14. 14NFB Blog — Anarchists of animation: how the creators of The Girl Who Cried Pearls broke every rule. 2025-12-11 · producer. https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2025/12/11/anarchists-of-animation-how-the-creators-of-the-girl-who-cried-pearls-broke-every-rule-and-made-magic/
  15. 15Cartoon Brew — The offbeat production methods of the NFB’s stop-motion film The Girl Who Cried Pearls. 2025 · trade press. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/the-offbeat-production-methods-of-the-nfbs-stop-motion-film-the-girl-who-cried-pearls-247646.html
  16. 16Directors Notes — Nina Gantz, Wander to Wonder. 2024-11-30 · interview. https://directorsnotes.com/2024/11/30/nina-gantz-wander-to-wonder/
  17. 17Bubbleblabber — Award-winning stop-motion short Wander to Wonder makes its YouTube debut. 2026-07 · press. https://www.bubbleblabber.com/2026/07/award-winning-stop-motion-short-wander-to-wonder-makes-its-youtube-debut/
  18. 18Wikipedia — Beautiful Men. accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Men
  19. 19Short of the Week — Beautiful Men, a stop-motion short film by Nicolas Keppens. 2026-02-06 · curator. https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2026/02/06/beautiful-men/
  20. 20Wikipedia — The Wrong Trousers. accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wrong_Trousers
  21. 21Wikipedia — Coraline (film). accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coraline_(film)
  22. 22Wikipedia — Kubo and the Two Strings. accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubo_and_the_Two_Strings
  23. 23Post Magazine — Kubo and the Two Strings (production figures). 2016-08 · trade press. https://postmagazine.com/blog/daily-news/2016/08/kubo-and-the-two-strings/
  24. 24Gizmodo — How Kubo and the Two Strings mixes stop-motion and technology. 2016 · press. https://gizmodo.com/kubo-and-the-two-strings-mixes-stop-motion-and-technolo-1782837158
  25. 25Wikipedia — Isle of Dogs (film). accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Dogs_(film)
  26. 26Screen Ireland — Frameworks animated short film scheme open for applications for 2026. 2026-03 · primary (funder). https://www.screenireland.ie/news/screen-irelands-flagship-animated-short-film-scheme-frameworks-is-now-open-for-applications-for-2026
  27. 27BFI — BFI NETWORK England short film funding. accessed 2026-09-29 · primary (funder). https://www.bfi.org.uk/get-funding-support/bfi-network/bfi-network-england-short-film-funding
  28. 28Sundance Institute — 2026 Sundance Institute Ignite x Adobe Short Film Fund. 2026 · primary (funder). https://apply.sundance.org/prog/2026_sundance_institute_ignite_x_adobe_short_film_fund/
  29. 29Film Independent — Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grants. accessed 2026-09-29 · primary (funder). https://www.filmindependent.org/programs/grants-and-awards/alfred-p-sloan-foundation-grants/
  30. 30Wikipedia — Anomalisa. accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anomalisa
  31. 31Cartoon Brew — Report: animators are raising big money on Kickstarter. 2012-09-10 · trade press. https://www.cartoonbrew.com/ideas-commentary/report-animators-are-raising-big-money-on-kickstarter-69628.html
  32. 32Kicktraq — Pear Cider and Cigarettes, the animated movie, by Robert Valley. 2016 · campaign data. https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/395550245/pear-cider-and-cigarettes-the-animated-movie/
  33. 33Wikipedia — Pear Cider and Cigarettes. accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pear_Cider_and_Cigarettes
  34. 34Box Office Mojo — 2026 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation. 2026 · box-office data. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl4069752833/weekly
  35. 35Vimeo Help Center — What are Vimeo Staff Picks?. accessed 2026-09-29 · company. https://help.vimeo.com/hc/en-us/articles/12426104864017-What-are-Vimeo-Staff-Picks
  36. 36Short of the Week — About. accessed 2026-09-29 · company. https://www.shortoftheweek.com/about/
  37. 37The Animation Guild, IATSE Local 839 — 2024–27 wage rates. 2025-01-02 · primary (union). https://animationguild.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/2024-27-Local-839-The-Animation-Guild-Wage-Rates_2025-01-02.pdf
  38. 38befores & afters — A Q&A with Alberto Mielgo on The Windshield Wiper. 2021-12-15 · interview. https://beforesandafters.com/2021/12/15/sometimes-the-characters-they-are-still-and-they-basically-breathe-a-little-bit-and-thats-good-enough/
  39. 39Colossal — João Gonzalez’s animated short Ice Merchants. 2023-01 · press. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/01/joao-gonzalez-ice-merchants/
  40. 40Directors Notes — Tal Kantor, Letter to a Pig. 2024-02-09 · interview. https://directorsnotes.com/2024/02/09/tal-kantor-letter-to-a-pig/
  41. 41Wikipedia — Retirement Plan (film). accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement_Plan_(film)
  42. 42Wikipedia — The Windshield Wiper. accessed 2026-09-29 · reference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windshield_Wiper