What is it, exactly, that makes a film award-worthy? If the assumption is that it has something to do with complexity – whether in terms of craft or storytelling – then Retirement Plan offers a compelling counter-argument to this belief. One of the standout success stories of the 2025/26 festival circuit, John Kelly’s animated short has collected accolades at SXSW, Palm Springs ShortFest, and beyond by doing something far ‘simpler’: stripping away excess and trusting restraint.
With stillness and minimalist design at the core of its aesthetic, and anchored by a beautifully measured voiceover performance from Domhnall Gleeson, Retirement Plan resonates through its clarity rather than its spectacle. Its pared-back approach, combined with a deeply relatable premise, has struck a chord with audiences and juries alike, demonstrating the power of understatement in short-form storytelling.
That sense of relatability was very much on my mind when I had the opportunity to speak with Kelly – a filmmaker we’ve followed closely at Directors Notes for many years. Our conversation touched on whether making Retirement Plan proved cathartic in relation to his own thoughts on retirement, ageing, and, ultimately, mortality. We also discussed the crucial role that stillness and colour played in shaping the film, and how working with his own drawings unlocked something unexpectedly youthful, reconnecting him with the instincts of his teenage self.
This is the closest I’ve come to teenage me drawing comics in my room and having the flexibility, trying to make myself laugh.
