Rejected
Rejected is a surrealist animated short comedy film written, directed, and animated by Don Hertzfeldt, released in 2000 as his third independent short film produced under Bitter Films.[1] The nine-minute work depicts an animator pitching increasingly absurd and violent television commercials that are rejected by network executives, leading to a meta-narrative breakdown of the film's own animated reality and the creator's fracturing psyche.[2] Crafted by the then-23-year-old Hertzfeldt using traditional 35mm film photography, cutout animation, and hand-drawn elements, it exemplifies his minimalist yet chaotic style blending dark humor, non-sequiturs, and existential absurdity.[1] The film garnered critical acclaim for its innovative deconstruction of advertising tropes and animation boundaries, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 73rd ceremony in 2001, though it lost to Michael Dudok de Wit's Father and Daughter.[3] It secured 27 additional international festival awards, establishing Hertzfeldt as a prominent independent animator and contributing to his reputation for boundary-pushing work that critiques commercial media while exploring themes of mental instability.[4] Rejected has since achieved cult status, influencing subsequent animators and remaining a staple in discussions of surreal animation, with a 2015 4K restoration highlighting its enduring technical and artistic merit despite the original's labor-intensive production.[5]