Hair Love

Hair Love is a 2019 American animated short film written, produced, and directed by Matthew A. Cherry. It follows the story of a man who must do his daughter's hair for the first time. The film was produced after a 2017 Kickstarter campaign, and was also released as a children's book in May 2019, with illustrations by Vashti Harrison. Hair Love received a nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.

Production
In 2017, Cherry created a Kickstarter campaign for a short animated film called Hair Love. The film is about an African American dad who is attempting to style his young daughter Zuri's hair for the first time. The campaign surpassed its initial goal of $75,000 and raised over $300,000. According to Kickstarter, that exceeds the amount raised by any other short film project on the platform. He co-directed the film with Everett Downing and Bruce W. Smith, with Peter Ramsey and Pixar animator Frank Abney serving as executive producers.

Release
On March 20, 2019, Sony Pictures Animation announced that they had picked up Hair Love, which was slated to be released theatrically later that year. The film was also adapted into a children's book by Dial Books, written by Cherry and illustrated by artist Vashti Harrison, which was released on May 14, 2019. The book was on the New York Times Book Review Children's Best Sellers list. The film was shown in theaters alongside The Angry Birds Movie 2 on August 14, 2019, and was later uploaded to YouTube four months later on December 5.