Last night, Kunio Kato's La Maison en Petits Cubes won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short at the 81st annual Academy Awards. Kato's short is the first anime feature to win an Academy award since Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away won Best Animated Feature in 2002, and the second anime feature to win an Oscar.

La Maison en Petits Cubes is a 12-minute feature that utilizes a mix of paper drawings and two-dimensional CG. The film revolves around an elderly man who lives in a flooded town. To stay dry, the man is forced to add extra levels to his home with bricks ("cubes"). One day, the man drops his favorite pipe to a lower level, and decided to buy a wetsuit so he may dive and retrieve it. On his way down the floors, the man is forced to experience various scenes from his life.

La Maison de Petits Cubes is currently circulating through select theaters as part of The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2009 collection, presented by Magnolia pictures.