‘Winter In March,’ ‘Death Does Not Exist’ Take Top Honors At Animafest Zagreb 2026

Animafest Zagreb wrapped its 36th edition on Saturday after six days of screenings, exhibitions, masterclasses, and industry events across the Croatian capital. Founded in 1972, the festival remains one of animation’s most important gathering places and the second-oldest animation festival in the world.

The festival’s top honors went to two politically charged titles that approached serious subject matter through distinctive visual styles. In the shorts competition, Natalia Mirzoyan’s Winter in March claimed the Grand Prix, while Félix Dufour-Laperrière’s Death Does Not Exist took the feature film Grand Prix. Other winners included Conor Kehelly’s A Pint of Bitter, which received the Golden Zagreb Award, and Sam Kuwa’s So He Grabbed the Knife, winner of the Dušan Vukotić Award for best student film.

This year’s winners list showed off how international the competition field was. Awards were distributed across productions from Armenia, Estonia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Croatia, and China.

Beyond the competition lineup, this year’s Animafest also celebrated two figures whose work has helped shape animation culture and scholarship. British animator Joanna Quinn received the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was honored with a retrospective, exhibition, and masterclass dedicated to her work. Across a career spanning more than four decades, Quinn has become one of animation’s most distinctive artistic voices through films including Girls Night Out, Body Beautiful, Dreams and Desires: Family Ties, and the Oscar-nominated Affairs of the Art.

The festival also presented its Award for Outstanding Contribution to Animation Studies to Cartoon Brew co-founder Amid Amidi, one of the medium’s most prominent journalists and historians. Amidi, who has spent three decades writing about animation and documenting its history, delivered the keynote address at the festival’s Animafest Scanner symposium.

Below is the complete list of winners from Animafest Zagreb 2026.

Short Film Competition

• Winter in March, Natalia Mirzoyan (Armenia/Estonia) — Grand Prix
• A Pint of Bitter, Conor Kehelly (Ireland) — Golden Zagreb Award
• The Shy God, Jocelyn Charles (France) — Zlatko Grgić Award
• Autokar, Sylwia Szkiladz (Belgium/France) — Special Mention
• Ivar, Markus Tangre (Norway) — Special Mention
• Water Girl, Sandra Desmazières (France/Netherlands/Portugal) — Special Mention
• A Taste of Beer, Xie Li (China) — Special Mention
• Glasses, Yumi Joung (South Korea) — Special Mention

Feature Film Competition

• Death Does Not Exist, Félix Dufour-Laperrière (Canada/France) — Grand Prix
• Son of a Bitch, Erica Maradona, Otto Guerra, Sávi Leite & Tania Anaya (Brazil) — Special Mention

Student Film Competition

• So He Grabbed the Knife, Sam Kuwa (Japan) — Dušan Vukotić Award
• Time Flies, Tommaso Zerbi (Portugal/Belgium/Finland/Italy) — Special Mention
• Things That I Was Gathering, Ekaterina Zhuzhleva (Finland/Belgium/Portugal) — Special Mention

Croatian Film Competition

• School Show, Ana Horvat (Croatia) — Best Croatian Film
• Heartwreck, Luka Vucić (Croatia) — Special Mention

Films for Children Competition

• On the Other Side…, Mingyu Wang (Japan) — Grand Prix
• Battery Grandma, Seungbae Jeon (South Korea) — Special Mention

Films for Youth Competition

• The Scarlet Tamagotchi, Francisco Visceral Rivera (Chile) — Jury Award

Audience Awards

• Please, Anna Mantzaris (Sweden/France/Czech Republic/Norway/Finland) — Best Short Film
• Samurai Ballerina: L’étoile de Paris en fleur, Goro Taniguchi (Japan) — Best Feature Film

Video Game Competition

• Time Flies, Michael Frei (Switzerland) — Best Video Game Art Direction