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Ottawa International Animation Festival's Competition Films Revealed for 50th Anniversary


The Ottawa International Animation Festival’s film programming centres on three sections: the Official Competition, out-of-competition programs, and special screenings and retrospectives. Explore the full festival program here.


Every year, the OIAF receives upwards of 2,800+ submissions from countries around the world. From those submissions, the OIAF programming team selects the films for the Competition and out-of-competition programs.


Competition Films


The Official Competition is a festival highlight, showcasing the best new shorts, features, and series from around the world, highlighting fresh voices and bold ideas in animation.


The Competition section consists of works selected by the festival programming team (Chris Robinson, Devin Hartley, Zachary Porter, Keltie Duncan) across eight short film and feature categories.


Films selected for the Animated Short, Commissioned, and Student categories are grouped into five Short Film Competition programs, which screen throughout the five days of the festival.


There are also separate Competition programs for Platform Animation (formerly Animated Series), Young Audiences (7+), Teen Audiences (13+), and the Canadian Student Competition.


The films selected for the Animated Feature Competition each screen separately.


Animated Shorts

  • ちいさなうりぼう (little boarlet) | Atsushi Wada | Japan

  • როცა ზღვა იყო მშვიდი (When The Sea Was Calm) | Mamuka Tkeshelashvili | Georgia

  • A PINT OF BITTER. | Conor Kehelly | Ireland

  • Action Bog | Winston Hacking | Canada

  • Adgwa-Ata | Zsuzsanna Kreif | Hungary, France

  • Antitermitas (Anti-termites) | Alex Rey | Spain

  • Daughters of the Late Colonel | Elizabeth Hobbs | United Kingdom, Germany

  • Eri | Honami Yano | Japan, France

  • Fit Check | Kyle Brooks | United States

  • Five Orphans | Sarina Nihei | France, Japan, Germany

  • How To Walk, A Guide For Fun and Profit | Zachary Margolis | United States

  • Je ne t’aime plus (I Don’t Love You Anymore) | Diane Obomsawin | Canada

  • Jelly Baddies | Ivan Li | Canada

  • Kozmonavti (Cosmonauts) | Leo Černic | Slovenia, Italy

  • Local Squalls | Skip Battaglia | United States

  • Melk | Filip Anthonissen | Belgium

  • Next Step | Tamás Patrovits | Hungary

  • Paper Trail | Don Hertzfeldt | United States

  • Pingviin (Penguin) | Kaspar Jancis | Estonia

  • PLEASE | Anna Mantzaris | Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland

  • Praying Mantis | Joe Hsieh | Taiwan, Hong Kong

  • Roll over and play dead | Gina Kamentsky | United States

  • Street Race | Christopher Rutledge & Daniel Rutledge | United States

  • The End | Niki Lindroth von Bahr | Sweden, France, Denmark

  • The Picture of Dorian Gray | Georges Schwizgebel | Switzerland

  • The Stars Watch from Long Ago | Stacey Steers | United States

  • Uka-uka | Henri Veermäe | Estonia

  • XYZ | Kyle Brooks | United States

  • yellow orange green blue red cut | Peter Millard | United Kingdom


Commissioned

  • A$AP Rocky ‘Helicopter’ | Daniel Streit | United States

  • Anibar Animation Festival ‘WTF?! – 2025 Trailer’ | Joni Männistö | Finland, Kosovo

  • Barber for the Queen ‘My Hang Up’ | Romy Côté | Canada

  • BLON ‘2025 Teaser’ | Nathan Jurevicius | Lithuania, Canada

  • Bump ‘2025 Leader’ | Jonas Wellens & Wouter Medaer | Belgium

  • Juana Molina ‘Desinhumano’ (Juana Molina ‘Uninhuman’) | Dante Zaballa | Argentina

  • Mad Barrowsky ft. Joseph Shabason ‘It Didn’t Really Matter’ | Jordan Minkoff | Canada

  • MOME Anim ‘Friss Kakas Animációs Filmnapok Spot’ (MOME Anim ‘Friss Kakas Animation Film Days Spot’) | Máté Horesnyi | Hungary

  • NBAT2 ‘It’s Ok to Be’ | Francesca Colombara & Matteo Dang | United States, Italy

  • OK Go ‘Impulse Purchase’ | Will Anderson & Lucas Zanotto | United Kingdom, Finland, Netherlands, United States

  • Overwatch 2 x Street Fighter 6 ‘Collaboration Trailer’ | Barry Kelly | United States


Student

  • Ball Face | Laurence Thérien | United Kingdom, Canada

  • Bootstrapping for the Boobied | Stella Chen | United States

  • Cold Bathroom | Eleni Aerts | Belgium

  • Fisheye | Łukasz Rygał | Poland

  • My Good Boy | Sara Priorelli | Hungary, Italy

  • Quantum Jump | Šimon Mészáros | Czech Republic

  • Visiting the Zoo | Maria Zilli | Italy, France

  • 地動き山揺れる時 (When The Mountains Shook) | Daiyu Li | Japan


Canadian Student Competition

  • (in)significant | Jessica Toca | Concordia University

  • Amalgame (Amalgam) | Marielle Boutin & Charlie Guèvremont | Université Laval

  • Ball Face | Laurence Thérien | Royal College of Art

  • Crocodile Tears | Gaoyuan Song | NSCAD University

  • Entiérrame (Bury Me) | Stella Dipieri | OCAD University

  • Everything On Land With Bones Is A Fish | Antonia Novakovich | Concordia University

  • Expo Inferno | A. John Yates | Concordia University

  • Insomn | Min Kim | Emily Carr University of Arts + Design

  • Mortal Lace | Lucas Piperias | OCAD University

  • Seeing Hands | Penakee Das | OCAD University

  • Sing to the Wind | Yaffa Aboudib Husseini | Munster Technological University & Algonquin College

  • Skinless Symphonies | Rose Rousseau | St. Clair College

  • The Maggots | Amberia Keke Li | Emily Carr University of Arts + Design

  • Thief of Night | Yoonji Nam | Sheridan College

  • Western Blot! | Ashlee Gonsalves | Concordia University


Animated Features

  • 『劇場版モノノ怪 第三章 蛇神』 (Mononoke the Movie: Chapter III – The Curse of the Serpent) | Kenji Nakamura | Japan

  • Girlfriends Of Father | Xi Chen | China

  • Magic Atlas | Xun Sun | China, Singapore

  • O Filho da Puta (Son of a Bitch) | Erica Maradona, Tania Anaya, Otto Guerra & Sávio Leite | Brazil

  • Tangles | Leah Nelson | Canada, United States

  • The Orbit of Minor Satellites | Christopher Sullivan | United States

  • We Are Aliens | Kohei Kadowaki | Japan, France


Animation for Platforms

  • Adult Swim’s The Elephant | Pendleton Ward, Ian Jones-Quartey, Rebecca Sugar, Patrick McHale, Mike L. Mayfield, Humberto Irigoyen, Remus Buznea & Kyriaki Kyriakou | United States

  • Glen: Wrestler | Travis Pelto, Joe Hingelberg & Shawn Golden | United States

  • Kevin ‘Fourth of July’ | Angelo Hatgistavrou & Sarah Seember Huisken | United States

  • Mating Season ‘The Truth About Canada’ | Henrique Jardim | United States

  • Qui on croit et pourquoi? L’injustice testimoniale (Who Do We Believe, and Why? Testimonial Injustice) | Martine Frossard | Canada

  • TedEd ‘Can Saunas Make You Live Longer?’ | Noam Sussman & Ali Kellner | Canada, United States


Animation Made for Young Audiences 7-12

  • ? | Anastasia Shtolko | Ukraine

  • Bats & Bugs | Leah Von Döhren | Switzerland

  • Candy Caries | Tomiki Misato | Japan

  • Dance Film | Kelly Gallagher | United States

  • En, ten, týky! (Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe!) | Andrea Szelesová | Czechia, Slovenia

  • Hondenleven (A Dog’s Life) | Sophie Olga de Jong & Sytske Kok | Netherlands

  • Land of No Man | Muling Tzai & Olivia Lin | United States, Taiwan

  • O Jardim Mágico (The Magic Garden) | Carlon Hardt & Naira Carneiro | Brazil

  • Owsiankowy potwór (Porridge Monster) | Izabela Plucińska | Poland, Germany, Azerbaijan

  • Pingvinas ir Balandis (Backstreet Birds) | Gertrūda Nemčauskaitė | Lithuania


Animation Made for Teen Audiences 13+

  • Birds of Paradise | Nikita Greer & Abbey Collings | USA

  • Blue Flavored | Jett Ulysses | USA

  • Cabbage Daddy | Grace An | Canada

  • Dekle, ki se ni balo medvedov (The Girl Who Wasn’t Afraid of Bears) | Lea Vučko | Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia

  • Fish in My Stomach | Yehor Holovkov | Ukraine

  • La comète (The Comet) | Julie Charette | Canada

  • Srcolom (Heartwreck) | Luka Vucić | Croatia

  • The Sky Was Candy | Anh Tu Nguyen | Germany

  • Welcome to Starmart | Caz Shen, Vanessa Buice & Vinny Wang | United States

  • Wolpie Of The Woods | Kat Messing | United States


About OIAF 2026


The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading animation events providing screenings, workshops, and entertainment since 1976. OIAF is an annual five-day event bringing art and industry together in a vibrant hub, attracting artists, producers, students, and animation fans from around the world.


From September 23 – 27, 2026, the OIAF will transform the ByTowne Cinema, Arts Court, Club SAW, Strathcona Park, the National Arts Centre, and the Ottawa Art Gallery into the epicentre of animation. Sample a few events like the variety of films in short competitions, hands-on animation workshops at All Ages @ OIAF, Animation Exposé for behind-the-scenes insights, and parties aplenty or indulge in them all during our 50th anniversary at OIAF 2026!







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