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No 2020 Oscar category can boast a higher level of quality — or diversity, for that matter — than the animated shorts, and though the five nominees are among the least-seen, film buffs would do well to track them down all the same. This also happens to be the category that scales best to smaller screens, and which can be watched in increments ranging from seven to 15 minutes apiece, so do yourself a favor and seek them out. Despite the range of origins and animation styles represented, , and so on, with a fifth short about an unlikely pairing of pets thrown in for good measure.

In ShortsTV’s theatrical lineup, the first short is the likely winner, “Hair Love,” written by Matthew A. Cherry, a former NFL wide receiver who made his directing debut with the live-action football drama “The Last Fall.” Here, Cherry imagines an instantly engaging — if somewhat emotionally manipulative — way...

An Oscar-nominated stop-motion short made within the CalArts Experimental Animation Program, Siqi Song’s Sister is a somber meditation on the lives affected by China’s one-child policy, informed by the director’s unique coming-of-age experience.

The rare second child, living in a country that banned them—between 1979 and 2015—Song was keenly aware from a young age that per the laws of her country, she shouldn’t exist at all. The only one of her friends to grow up with a brother, the director recognized what a gift this was for her, and also how tragic it was that so many other Chinese children would never get to experience the sibling bond.

Interestingly, while Song placed herself within Sister, she didn’t make herself the film’s central character. Setting it in China in the 1990s, the director anchored it instead in the memories of a man, as he reflects...