Yuck!

It has never been easier for filmmakers with relatively modest budgets to create dazzling animation than it is today. There are a number of visually breathtaking works in the running for the 2025 Oscars – and yet in the shorts category, one simple 2D film blows them all away.

What is its secret? How does one work in a comparatively simple medium like this and yet create something that feels so much more alive? It’s partly in the performances. Director Loïc Espuche cast real children. Their voice work is lively and natural yet utterly committed. It’s partly in the subject matter, superficially playful but many-layered. And it’s partly in the sense of urgency that suffuses the whole thing. It will grab your attention and drag you off on an adventure before you know what’s happening.

There are five children in all, running around in a gang on a campsite, bonding in that intense way that summer holidays make possible. Adults are bonding too, and sometimes – horror of horrors – they kiss! It’s really disgusting. The children express this loudly, interrupting many a romantic moment before they get shooed away. They accuse the adults of being perverts and remark to one another that that sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed. But young Léo (Noé Chabbat) is facing a crisis because even as he does this, he finds himself looking at his friend Lucie (Katell Varvat) and feeling the urge to deliver a kiss himself.

Though the film remains upbeat and entertaining throughout, Espuche uses this premise to explore issues around prejudice and internalised shame. The children mock an older couple, something many viewers are likely to have done, even if they were more discreet. We also see two men who want to kiss but quickly conceal it when a third arrives on the scene. The desire to kiss is made manifest when people’s lips turn a shimmering pink. It’s the only special effect in the film and as such it takes on a magical quality. For Léo it’s terrifying – he knows how the others will treat him if they see it – so he begins to hide away, until two chance discoveries change his perspective.

It’s rare to see these pivotal moments in life depicted with such gusto. Keenly observational, spirited and sweet, Yuck is a triumphant piece of filmmaking.