Dropout Acquires Don Hertzfeldt’s Animated Film Collection

Dropout has picked up a new collection of films. 

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The service has announced that they have acquired filmmaker Don Hertzfeldt’s animated film collection, which includes: 

• Lily and Jim
• Billy’s Balloon
• Rejected
• The Meaning of Life
• Watching Grass Grow
• Wisdom Teeth
• It’s Such a Beautiful Day (feature length)
• World of Tomorrow
• World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts
• World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime 
• On Memory
• ME 
• Paper Trail (9/1 streaming premiere) 

Hertzfeldt had this to say about his films being added to Dropout: 

“After seeing the films scattered across different streaming platforms for so many years, it’s amazing to finally bring them together under the same roof, for the very first time. I don’t know what Dropout is, but I hear it’s all game shows, and who doesn’t love a good game show?” 

Paper Trail is being released to the service at the beginning of next month, and this is huge. The film won the 2026 Annecy Cristal for Short Film, the first American-made film in 22 years to win that award at this year’s Annecy International Animation Festival. 

Paper Trail premiered earlier this year at Sundance and won the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. The 2 other Film Fest Award wins for the film were the Golden Gate Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival & the Audience Award & Best Animated Short Film from SXSW. While waiting for this one, viewers can check out the other projects first.