‘forevergreen’ Brings The Gospel To The Oscars

It’s not every day that a Christian-made, gospel-inspired film gets nominated for an Academy Award. Perhaps the last time it happened was Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life in 2011.

But this year, one of the five Oscar nominees for Best Animated Short Film is a gorgeous example of what faith-driven artistry can look like. It’s called Forevergreen, and the logline is simple: “An orphaned bear cub finds a home with a fatherly evergreen tree, until his hunger for trash leads him to danger.” Ironically, it’s a story that explores a “tree of life” in a literal and symbolic sense.

The 13-minute film, directed by Nathan Engelhardt and Jeremy Spears, features a soundtrack by Josh Garrels and Isaac Wardell that’s every bit as beautiful as the stunning animation. But most beautiful of all is the story Forevergreen tells. It’s about a beneficent pine tree who sacrifices himself—literally bridging a chasm—to save a “prodigal bear” from his self-induced destruction.

Watch the film on YouTube (or embedded below) for a limited time. You’ll see why the Academy honored it with a nomination. You’ll also see a concise, gorgeous meditation on gospel truth.

I recently chatted with Engelhardt and Spears about the making of Forevergreen, how Christian artists tell stories, and what they think of AI’s disruption in the arts.

How did you two end up teaming up creatively?

Both of us have been in the animation film industry for roughly 20 years. We met 15 years ago at Disney Feature Animation, where we still currently work professionally together on films like Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Moana, Encanto, Big Hero 6, Zootopia, and more. As Christian guys, we both had a desire to use our gifts to tell a story that glorified God. We know anyone can glorify God in their vocation without making a film, but we felt a strong calling from God to use the talents he gave us in this unique way.

Where did the idea for Forevergreen originate? What catalyzed the process that got you to an award-winning final product?

Forevergreen began as a shared desire to tell something meaningful about God’s grace and unconditional love toward sinners. Years earlier, Nathan had gone through a difficult season of spiritual darkness where past mistakes left him feeling unworthy of God’s love. During that time, Scripture—and a simple folktale called The Tale of Three Trees—reminded him that God can use broken and humbled things for his purposes. That message planted the seed of a story about undeserved grace and forgiveness.

What began as a loose adaptation of that folktale gradually evolved into an original idea about a tree and a woodsman. Around that time, Nathan invited Jeremy to join him as a codirector so they could develop the story together. As a story artist, Jeremy was excited to find a way to best communicate his own difficult spiritual seasons and eventual faith in Christ through an animated film. Both of us were eager to stretch ourselves creatively and experience the full animation process by making a film from start to finish, in our free time.

While researching and brainstorming, Jeremy came across an image that sparked a breakthrough: a massive fallen redwood spanning a deep ravine with a waterfall behind it. Instantly the symbolism became clear. The fallen tree could represent Christ-likeness in laying down his life to bridge the divide and rescue someone who could never cross on their own. Jeremy imagined the rescued character as a grumpy, undeserving bear—someone difficult to love yet still the recipient of sacrifice and grace.

Instantly the symbolism became clear. The fallen tree could represent Christ-likeness in laying down his life to bridge the divide and rescue someone who could never cross on their own.

What Jeremy didn’t realize was that something similar had already happened in Nathan’s life just days earlier. While explaining the gospel to a coworker, Nathan had drawn the classic Bible-tract illustration of a divide between God and man, with the cross forming a bridge between the two.

So when Jeremy pitched the idea of a fallen tree bridging a canyon, we realized we had both independently drawn the same picture only days apart. In that moment, it felt unmistakable that God was guiding the story we were meant to tell.

How would you summarize the emotional or spiritual effect you hope Forevergreen has on viewers?

Our hope is that Forevergreen would inspire a sense of wonder about what life is about and the God who desires to have a relationship with us. Even in your darkest times of hopelessness, God so desired to have a relationship with you that he reached across an infinite chasm by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to save you and provide hope for your life.

On the website description, it mentions that Forevergreen features ‘never before seen animation techniques.’ Could you describe those new techniques?

We set out to create a film with a tactile, handcrafted aesthetic to reinforce our characters’ relationship. It was important for the bear to appear as if he was carved from the tree, serving as an allegory to reflect man being made in the image of God. Our process combined the tactile charm of hand-carved wooden figures with the precision of computer graphics, capturing the warmth of stop-motion through fully 3D-generated frames that look uniquely crafted.

To avoid the static or “rubbery” look of standard CG texture deformation, we needed surfaces that felt alive, changing subtly from frame to frame as if a unique wood carving were created for every pose of animation. Doing this by hand would have been far too time-intensive, especially for a volunteer passion project, so we needed a repeatable, scalable solution.

One of our crew members, Rich Fallat, developed a texture batching process that automated “wobble” and imperfections across keyframes using a proprietary paint tool to generate texture variations automatically, as well as directionality and variation to avoid repetition so no two textures were the same. This workflow allowed us to achieve our envisioned wood-carved look while maintaining production efficiency.

When did Josh Garrels and Isaac Wardell get involved on the music side? What did that collaboration look like?

We are both fans of Josh’s work, particularly his eclectic style and evocative, moody vocals—perfect for a film set in nature. To ensure the music was integrated from the start, we chose not to use traditional “temp tracks” from other films. Instead, Josh and Isaac were involved early on, providing demos during the preliminary storyboarding phase of production.

These early tracks significantly influenced the sequences and moods we aimed to convey. Our editor, Jeff Draheim, cut these demos into the storyboards, which allowed us to experience the emotional impact of the score alongside the visuals early in the process. In the final phases of the film, Josh and Isaac completed a final polish of the score, adding layers of instrumentation while maintaining the established animation timing. It was a wonderful process to witness.

I don’t think people realize how hard it is to make a standalone short film that feels complete and coherent and packs a thematic punch in a short narrative space. What makes a great short film? For other aspiring short filmmakers, what creative advice would you give?

An acid test for us on whether a story is worthy of our time and attention is to ask the simple question “Does this story need to exist?” If the answer is yes, we know we are onto something and must pursue it. A great film leaves you with something to think about. It stirs your heart and changes something inside you.

Our advice for aspiring filmmakers is to tell a story that is meaningful to you. Don’t let an idea just stay in your mind. Get it out into the real world by writing it down. Once it’s written down you can respond to it, and more importantly others can respond to it. You’ll never be able to show anyone your work if it stays in your mind.

Christians seeking to communicate gospel ideas through art often struggle to do it in a way that achieves clarity without it feeling preachy. But you achieve that balance well in Forevergreen. What advice would you give Christian storytellers seeking to make culturally significant, excellent work that also comes from a distinctly Christian sensibility?

With Forevergreen, we used characters the audience could connect with and ultimately see themselves in. We are this bear, and we know what that bag of chips represents. The reason this story connects with people so broadly is its universal relatability. It isn’t designed to be message-driven or targeted at a specific demographic; rather, the message is directed at everyone! We aim for films to be specific, have a point of view, and resonate with a wide audience.

You want to tap into universal truths, which the Bible is full of. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Forevergreen is a relatable story because it’s a story about all of us.

What are your thoughts on ‘Christian art’ vs. ‘art made as Christians’? Are they distinct categories? If so, which do you think Christians seeking careers in the arts should pursue?

Speaking solely of visual art, both are valuable, although art made by Christians may have the potential to be more disarming. Jeremy has a side business where he makes wood carvings. He tries to make them with excellence because he’s inspired by his Creator, who made everything with excellence.

Forevergreen is a relatable story because it’s a story about all of us.

Even beyond our story being inspired by the gospel message, we think the act of making Forevergreen as artists can point to the Creator. A purposeful film is evidence of a purposeful filmmaker, just like creation is evidence of a purposeful Creator.

The Bible says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” (Eccl. 9:10, NIV). Paul reiterates this point in 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV): “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

I noticed a logo that says ‘human-made’ at the bottom of the film’s website. As artists highly skilled in your craft, what are your thoughts, fears, or worries about AI-made art? How should artists be thinking about the value of human-crafted stories and visual storytelling in a world where AI could one day make quality films in five seconds?

AI is just a tool. It has no POV, no heart, and no soul by definition. This is what separates us from the machine. Stories are innately human. AI can be helpful with repetitive tasks, but it should never remove the human voice or hand of the artists. If saving time and effort became the goal of every artist, we should not be surprised to find some pretty shallow stories in the future. Anything that’s not worth the effort to make is probably not worth anyone’s time. That’s why it’s called a work of art or a labor of love.

There’s a wonderful quote from Chariots of Fire that says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.” Why would you deprive yourself of that God-given pleasure of process in exchange for the easy button of efficiency—especially if the end result is more soulless?

We must not swing the pendulum too far and fear AI or misuse AI. But we should take a measured approach and use our God-given wisdom to know when we have relinquished the part that makes creating art a human, life-giving endeavor.