Watch ‘Retirement Plan Short Film’ (2024) – John Kelly’s animated short film. A heartwarming tale about aging, dreams, and second chances. Don’t miss it!
🎬 Retirement Plan Short Film (2024) 🇮🇪✨
Watch Retirement Plan Short Film (2024), John Kelly’s animated short film—whimsical storytelling meets heartwarming retirement dreams. 🎬✨
📋 Quick Facts
- Year: 2024 🗓️
- Runtime: 7 minutes ⏱️
- Country: Ireland 🇮🇪
- Genre: Animated Short Film 🎨
- Director: John Kelly 🎥
- Co-writer: Tara Lawall ✍️
- Voice Cast: Domhnall Gleeson as Ray 🎭
- Status: Oscar-shortlisted, multi-award winner 🏆
Watch the Trailer
Watch the Shorts
🎭 Synopsis
Retirement Plan Short Film (2024); Meet Ray, a middle-aged man drowning in his overstimulated, energy-poor midlife 😫. Instead of living in the present, he compulsively fantasizes about retirement—building endless to-do lists that all start with “I will…” 📝.
From mundane tasks to life-changing goals, Ray’s elaborate future plans gradually reveal a deeper portrait of who he is right now. This minimalist animated short is a humorous yet surprisingly poignant exploration of procrastination, dreams, and the human tendency to postpone living 💭⏰
💡 Director’s Inspiration
Retirement Plan Short Film (2024); John Kelly was struck by the overwhelming number of things he wanted to do while simultaneously feeling he had no time to do them. He wanted to flip the typical memoir perspective—instead of looking backward, Ray looks obsessively forward: “Would I die before clearing my internet reading list?” 📚😅
🏆 Major Awards & Festivals
- SXSW 2025: Grand Jury Award + Audience Award 🎉
- Palm Springs International ShortFest: Best of the Festival Award 🌴
- Indy Shorts International Film Fest: Best Animated Short 🥇
- Bali International Film Festival: Best Animated Short 🌺
- Foyle Film Festival: Best Animated Short Film 🏆
- Oscar Shortlist: 98th Academy Awards (2026) 🎬
🎨 Animation Style
Intentionally minimalist and still, inspired by Roy Andersson and Wim Wenders. Kelly wanted to avoid unnecessary flourish, allowing the narrative to breathe. Despite the stripped-down approach, the film required over 100 individual shots created with animators Marah Curran and Eamonn O’Neill 🖌️
🎭 Voice Performance
Domhnall Gleeson delivers a grounded, nuanced performance—conveying Ray’s hope, anxiety, and self-deprecating charm with remarkable precision. You can hear the emotional layers in every line 🎵
🤔 Key Themes
- Procrastination & postponed dreams ⏳
- Midlife crisis & temporal anxiety 😰
- The illusion of “having time later” 🔄
- Carpe diem / living now ⚡
- Universal human experience 🌍
🔥 Critical Reception
- “A nail on the head short film that surely many will relate to” 👏
- “Devastating yet optimistic piece of poetry” 📖
- “The perfect balance between humor and emotional depth” 😂💖
- “Prompts self-reflection with grace” 🤍
- “Proof you don’t need world-class animation when you’ve got a good story” 💯
📺 Where to Watch
- Online: Premiered on The New Yorker Screening Room 📰
- Streaming: Select VOD platforms
- Official Site: retirementplanfilm.com 🌐
Bottom Line: Retirement Plan Short Film (2024); This 7-minute animated gem is a thought-provoking, universally relatable meditation on how we postpone living. With Oscar buzz and a perfect voice performance from Gleeson, it’s a must-watch reminder to stop waiting for retirement and start living now! ⏰✨