The Selfish Giant is an animated short film adaptation of the short story by Oscar Wilde. The story has symbolic religious themes and may be considered a work of allegory in Christian literature. The film was produced in 1971 by the Canadian-based Potterton Productions and by Pyramid Films. It earned a 44th Academy Award nomination in the Animated Short Subject category. One of the film's animators was Micheline Lanctôt. The King's Singers provided the vocals after having formed only a few years before.

The film first aired on Canadian television in November 1972 on CTV. It aired in the United States on CBS on March 28, 1973.