Watch PICK YOUR POISON, a stunning animated short film by Zoe Duong Pham. A thought-provoking story about the difficult choices we make & their consequences.
🎭 PICK YOUR POISON — Animated Short Film by Zoe Duong Pham
A love story that starts like a sugar rush and ends like a slow‑acting venom, PICK YOUR POISON is a 5‑minute, 47‑second burst of color, rhythm, and emotional whiplash. In Zoe Duong Pham’s hands, romance becomes a surreal battlefield where words fail, thoughts scream, and the heart learns the cost of its own cravings, selecting in European Film Academy.
🧭 Overview
- Genre: 2D Animated Narrative 🎨
- Director, Writer, Animator: Zoe Duong Pham
- Music: Matt Perius 🎼
- Sound Design: Zoe Duong Pham & Dylan Smith
- Sound Mixing: Dylan Smith
- Runtime: 5:47 minutes
- Year: 2020
- Countries: USA 🇺🇸 / Vietnam 🇻🇳 (artist’s heritage)
- Festivals & Official Selections:
- Dreamachine International Film Festival 2020
- Alternating Currents Film Festival 2020
- TOFUZI International Animated Film Festival 2020
- Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival 2020
- London International Animation Festival 2020
- TAF Thessaloniki Animation Festival 2020
- Bit Bang International Animation & Digital Art Festival 2020
- Los Angeles Animation Festival 2020
- Cambria Film Festival 2021
- Calcutta International Short Film Festival 2021
- VOID International Animation Film Festival 2021
- Atlanta Film Festival 2021
- Animation Celebration Fest 2021
- ABQ Indie Film Festival 2021
- DePaul Premiere Film Festival 2021
- Nashville Film Festival 2021
- Awards: 🏆
- Best Animated Short Film — Dreamachine International Film Festival 2020
- Student Experimental Short Silver Award — Los Angeles Animation Festival 2020
- Best Color Design — Animation Celebration Fest 2021
- Best Animated Film, Undergraduate Faculty Judges’ Award, July’s Honorable Mentions — DePaul Premiere Film Festival 2021
Watch full short:
📖 Story in Brief
Two people fall madly, recklessly in love 💘. Their world becomes a sealed “love bubble” — a private, intoxicating space where everything feels heightened. But bubbles are fragile.
When it bursts, the air is thick with unspoken thoughts. Their minds — raw, loud, and unfiltered — start speaking louder than their mouths. What was once sweet turns sharp. The film doesn’t just show a breakup; it lets you hear the inner monologues that lovers rarely admit out loud.
🎨 Creative DNA & Style
- Color as emotion: Saturated palettes shift with the relationship’s mood — from warm, honey‑like tones to acidic, toxic hues.
- Fluid 2D animation: Movements stretch, warp, and snap, mirroring the instability of love under pressure.
- Surreal visual metaphors: Hearts morph into dangerous objects, kisses dissolve into smoke, and thoughts spill out as animated shapes.
- Sound as a second narrator: The mix of Matt Perius’s score and layered sound design creates a push‑pull between romance and rupture.
- Experimental pacing: Quick cuts in the “falling in love” phase, lingering shots in the “falling apart” phase — a rhythm that mirrors emotional time.
✅ Pros & ❌ Cons
Pros
- 🌈 Bold color storytelling — every shade has a purpose.
- 🧠 Psychological honesty — inner voices are messy, contradictory, and painfully real.
- 🏆 Festival‑proven craft — multiple awards for animation and design.
- 🎭 Universal arc — anyone who’s loved and lost will feel the sting.
Cons
- ⏳ Short runtime — leaves you wanting more world‑building.
- 🎢 Emotional whiplash — the tonal shift is abrupt (though intentionally so).
🌟 Themes & Resonance
- Love as addiction: The title hints at romance as both pleasure and poison.
- Communication breakdown: How silence and overthinking can corrode intimacy.
- The mind‑heart split: The war between what we feel and what we say.
- Ephemeral beauty: The fragility of perfect moments.
👥 Who Is It For?
- Fans of experimental romance animation like World of Tomorrow or My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea.
- Viewers who appreciate emotional honesty wrapped in surreal visuals.
- Animation students looking for color design inspiration.
💡 Humanized Takeaway
PICK YOUR POISON is a shot glass of love — sweet going down, burning after. Zoe Duong Pham distills the rush and the wreckage of intimacy into a sensory cocktail that lingers long after the credits. It’s a reminder that the same thing that makes your heart race can also make it ache.