Job, Joris & Marieke’s ‘QUOTA’ Wins Oscar®-Qualifying Animation Award at Aspen Shortsfest | Mercedes Milligan, Animation Magazine
April 9, 2025
In an awards presentation held on Saturday, April 5, Aspen Film announced the winning films from its 34th Aspen Shortsfest — one of only five Oscar-qualifying festivals in the U.S. strictly dedicated to short films. This year’s edition featured 68 short films from over 29 countries, including 11 world premieres, across 10 thematically diverse programs.
Aspen Film’s Shortsfest Competition Jury awarded films in six categories: Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Short Short (films 10 minutes in length or under) and Student Short. Winning films in all but the Student Short category become qualified for the 2026 Academy Awards. Awards were also presented by the Youth Jury, comprised of students from the Aspen area, and our Ellen Jury, which presented an award in honor of Aspen Film’s founder and longtime executive director, Ellen Kohner Hunt, who passed away in January 2021. An Audience Award, voted on by Shortsfest viewers, was also presented at the ceremony. Shortsfest award winners will receive cash prizes of $1,250 or $2,500.
“I could not be more ecstatic about our 34th Shortsfest,” says Aspen Film’s Executive & Artistic Director, Susan Wrubel. “Our programming team’s curation landed so well with the audience; the theater was packed throughout the week with people returning to see additional programs; our filmmakers equally raved about being in the company of such incredible talent and having the ability to engage with each other and our fantastic industry guests. The educational sessions that the filmmakers presented to students at area schools up and down the valley were moving and informative, and our panel conversations gave insight into the film industry today. We are grateful for the local partnerships around Aspen that helped make Shortsfest the community-wide event that it was, and we can’t wait to showcase our award winners along with both a Spanish-language and a family program this coming weekend at the Isis Theatre, as well as in Rifle at the Brenden Rifle 7 Theatres.”
The winner of the Oscar-qualifying Animation prize was Quota by the Netherlands directing team of Job, Joris & Marieke (Job Roggeveen, Joris Oprins and Marieke Blaauw). The filmmakers have previously been nominated for the animated short Academy Award in 2015, for A Single Life. They have also won an International Emmy Kids Award in 2019 for Heads Together (Kop Op).
In Quota, when every global citizen is mandated to participate in a program that tracks their CO2 emissions, it makes little impression. Until they discover what happens when their designated quota has been reached. The short had its world premiere at TIFF 2024.
“Only in animation can a short where every single character’s head explodes also deliver a deeply prescient message about climate change,” stated the Jury. “Among so many wonderful animated films at the festival, the jury believes that this one encapsulates all that makes animation one of the most powerful and boundless mediums for storytelling due to its spectacular animation style, bonkers humor, and impactful message.”
A Special Mention was awarded to the Canadian short Wildflowers (Les Fleurs sauvages), directed by Thierry Sirois and Rodolphe Saint-Gelais. The monochrome 2D piece is set to a detailed voicemail in which a man explains how to use his lawn tractor so that the caller can mow his garden in his absence.
The jury comprised Coco Francini, producer and partner in Dirty Films; Phillip Domfeh, producer; and Selin Sevinc, programming director of BendFilm Festival.
