She said "Since the film is mostly silent, they just wanted some vocal 'ambiance' that they could experiment with. We played with lots of different vocal reactions in the session: snorts, gasps, breaths... I think one chuckle made it into the final mix. I'm actually glad they kept it mostly silent—I think it makes the short even more powerful that way." The short film premiered at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June 2012. The short accompanied the theatrical release of "Wreck-It Ralph", which was released on November 2, 2012. Christophe Beck's score was released digitally by Walt Disney Records on December 18, 2012. The complete short was released on YouTube on January 29, 2013, but is currently private. It was later released on Hulu. After being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, "Paperman" was released along with all the other fifteen Oscar-nominated short films in theaters by ShortsHD. "Paperman" made its home media debut on the Blu-ray and DVD releases of "Wreck-It Ralph" on March 5, 2013. "Paperman" was also released on the "Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Films Collection" Blu-ray on August 18, 2015. Film critic Jeff Shannon, writing for Roger Ebert, called the short "brilliant from start to finish" writing that the film proved "yet again that traditional 2-D animation is every bit as expressive as computer-generated 3-D". Leonard Maltin called the short an "amusing and ingenious love story" noting that it was "perfection itself". There is some discussion regarding some similarities in the storyline and concept of "Paperman" and Patrick Hughes' 2008 short film, "Signs". But Hughes himself dismissed the idea of copying, saying "There are similarities, but I really admire the short, I think it's beautiful. Every piece of work I've ever done, I've had someone say the same things about me." "Paperman" was nominated and won both an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 85th Academy Awards and the Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject at the 40th Annie Awards. It was the first Disney short to win an Oscar in that category since 1969.