ASIFA-East Festival And Cartoon Brew Announce Exclusive Media Partnership

We’re pleased to announce a new partnership between Cartoon Brew and ASIFA-East, naming Cartoon Brew the Exclusive Media Partner for the 56th Annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival.

As part of this collaboration, Cartoon Brew will work closely with ASIFA-East in the coming months to spotlight and celebrate the filmmakers and films featured in this year’s festival. The partnership also introduces a new distinction at the festival’s Awards Ceremony: The Cartoon Brew Award for Excellence in Filmmaking. This honor reflects a shared commitment to artistic innovation, craftsmanship, and meaningful contributions to the global animation community.

According to ASIFA-East organizers:

Cartoon Brew has long been a vital platform for animation news, trends, and insight, elevating both emerging voices and established artists across the industry and around the world. We are honored to partner with an organization that shares ASIFA-East’s commitment to the animation community.

For our part, we couldn’t be happier to collaborate with an organization that brings the history, credibility, and enduring impact of ASIFA-East. Founded in 1969, the event is one of the longest-running animation festivals in the U.S. and remains a vital showcase for both groundbreaking independent work and premium commercial animation. Each year, short films from filmmakers around the globe are juried by ASIFA-East members and honored at a spring awards ceremony and theatrical screening that brings together artists, industry professionals, and animation fans to celebrate the best of the art form.

The 56th Annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival will continue its long-standing tradition of presenting a diverse slate of animated films from around the world later this year. Filmmakers should note that the regular submission deadline is February 1, after which the festival will move into a late submission period.

Here are the rules and regulations for this year’s submissions:

ELIGIBILITY:

• Film must have been produced after July 1, 2024, and must be received no later than Feb. 14th, 2026, accompanied by a completed entry form and all entry fees.
• Film must not have been entered in previous ASIFA-East festivals. Films must be received by the deadline to be considered.
• At this time, we are only accepting entries from the United States of America, as our festival focuses on the Northeast of our country.
• Films longer than 22 minutes will be asked to provide an excerpt of 5-10 minutes.
• Student Films
  • In order to highlight local talent, we are only accepting student films from the Northeast region of the USA, specifically the following states:
    • New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and Pennsylvania.
  • Student Films longer than 7 minutes will be asked to provide an excerpt of 5 minutes.

Submissions can be made here.