The 10 shortlisted films in the Oscars Best Animated Short category include four from major U.S. studios (two Pixar, one DreamWorks Animation and one Netflix) and a number of international entries.

The category also contains a couple of straightforward commercial shorts designed to amuse and charm, and a few experimental ones that at times border on the surreal.

These 10 will be narrowed down to five with the nomination voting from March 5-10. This is the second in TheWrap’s guide to the shortlisted films in all three shorts categories.

“Kapaemahu”
Directors: Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson

“Kapaemahu” takes an ancient Hawaiian folk tale that had been passed down orally for centuries and uses it to explore gender identity as well as history. The eight-minute film tells the story of four mahu, third-gender individuals who are both male and female, who came to Hawaii from Tahiti 700 years ago with great healing powers. (Kapaemahu was the leader’s name.)

The film, one of the shortest of the semi-finalists, is a vividly rendered folk tale, but one whose exploration of gender identity also feels timely rather than simply mythic. Among this year’s shortlisted films. Pixar’s “Out” has gotten more attention for its handling of LGBTQ issues, probably because it’s from Disney, but “Kapaemahu” puts those issues in an intriguing context. Plus it’ll send you to the internet to see if those four boulders left by the mahu really are sitting on Waikiki Beach.