EXCLUSIVE: Andy Serkis has been set as the narrator for short film Pigeons from director Amos Sussigan (The Cat in the Hat, Animal Farm). The film will world premiere as an Official Selection on Friday (May 8) at the Oscar qualifying Animayo festival in Gran Canaria, Spain. 

Pigeons follows a carrier pigeon who loses his job the day a telephone is installed in his owner’s home. Searching for food, shelter and purpose, the film explores freedom, progress and what gets lost along the way. 

The Swiss-U.S. animated short film was made in collaboration with The Hub Media and BMC films. It was written by Julien M. Wagner (September Babies), Timo von Gunten (La Femme et le TGV) and Sussigan. Sussigan, von Gunten, Samira Sahli and Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Dan Lund produced the film. 

This is the third collaboration between Sussigan and his mentor Lund, who have worked together on Oscar qualifying animated short films Aria for a Cow (2015) and Coaster (2019), featuring drag queen Nina West. Sussigan, who is currently a production designer at Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, recently served as production designer on upcoming animation Animal Farm, which Serkis directs. 

Pigeons counts Sergio Mancinelli (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse) as its art director while Peter Staubli (Skyfall) of Formosa Group is sound designer and re-recording mixer and Shane Harris (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) of Company 3 is senior colorist. 

“Maybe it was the state of the animation industry, but at some point, Pigeons stopped feeling like an idea and started feeling like something we just had to make,” said Sussigan. “Fast. Imperfect. Honest. In a way, a remnant of old days. We never talked to studios. We talked to creatives. What started small turned into 45 artists, working nights and weekends, across the world. In a time where things are generated in seconds, we spent a year making something by hand. Pigeons is not special because of what it is. It’s special to us because of how we made it. It’s a film about purpose. In the end, it became one for all of us.” 

Sussigan recently worked on upcoming title The Cat in the Hat, which is set for a November 6, 2026 release via Warner Bros. Pictures. His next project is the Hello Kitty movie for Warner Bros. Pictures Animation, set for release July 21, 2028. 

Serkis is currently directing Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema’s The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, reprising his role as Gollum. That film is slated for theatrical release on December 17, 2027. 

Animayo runs May 6-9, 2026.