When the film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, producer Kristina Reed began throwing paper airplanes adorned with lipstick marks off the balcony where she was seated. She was escorted out of the theater by security, but was allowed to return 10 minutes later after a short protest.
Upon its victory at La 85e cérémonie des Oscars (2013), Paperman (2012) became the first Disney animated short film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 43 years since C'est pas drôle d'être un oiseau (1969), as well as the first Disney animated film (feature-length or short film) made by Walt Disney Animation Studios to win an Academy Award since Tarzan (1999).
Meander, a vector-based drawing program developed by Walt Disney Animation Studios, was first tested in this short to give it the hybrid 2D/3D look.
The only color used in the film is the red lipstick on the girl's lips and the mark it makes on the paper.