Sunday 2 September is Father’s Day in Australia, a time to honour the fathers and grandfathers in our lives.

It’s also a time to commemorate their absence. The fathers in these autobiographical animated shorts are not physically around for their children but have a strong presence regardless.

A Korean boy emulates his missing soldier father in Birthday Boy. Sejong Park’s first 3D animation was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 2004 Academy Awards.

Recalling some fatherly (and grandfatherly) advice saves a young Australian man in Jordan in Winging It.

The son of a Lithuanian refugee tries to understand why his father walked out on the family in Father, narrated by Joel Edgerton.

A young girl and her mother make tape letters for the girl’s father in Mother Tongue. He has left Korea to start a new life in Australia and they are preparing to join him.

The dazzling stop-motion animation Dad’s Clock symbolically portrays a father dying of cancer while mementos bring to life a deceased father in Episodes in Disbelief (pictured above left).

You can watch Winging It, Father, Mother Tongue and Dad’s Clock in full by clicking on the links below.

See all titles on ASO tagged fathers.