Billy's Balloon is a silent animated short film by animator Don Hertzfeldt that has won 32 awards at various film festivals around the world. The film was his last of the four animated student films he made at the University of California, in Santa Barbara. Hertzfeldt uses a minimalist stick figure technique to produce very iconic characters in a nondescript world. By submitting these characters to gratuitous abuse by seemingly innocent balloons, Hertzfeldt creates a very comedic animation about the secret lives of balloons.