‘Tangles,’ ‘Paper Trail’ Win Top Prizes At Animation Is Film

The Animation Is Film Festival (AIF) wrapped its ninth edition in Los Angeles, with Leah Nelson’s Tangles taking the Grand Jury Prize for features and Don Hertzfeldt’s Paper Trail winning the top shorts honor.

Held from October 16–19 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood and the Academy Museum’s David Geffen Theater, this year’s event featured nine features and 18 shorts in its competition sections, alongside special screenings, filmmaker conversations, and studio previews.

2026 ANIMATION IS FILM WINNERS

• Grand Jury Prize: Tangles, Leah Nelson
• Audience Award: Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
• Fumi Kitahara Special Jury Prize: Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
• Grand Jury Prize – Shorts: Paper Trail, Don Hertzfeldt
• Special Jury Prize – Shorts: Please, Anna Mantzaris

Adapted from Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel, Tangles impressed the features jury with its fluid 2D animation and sensitive portrayal of a family navigating a mother’s dementia. According to the jury:

We loved the fluid 2D animation which uses a stark monochrome framing to bring to life the personal story of a family impacted by the mother’s battle with dementia. We were especially impressed with how director Leah Nelson and her perfectly cast voice team were able to remain faithful to Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel which tackles a serious, painful subject with great beauty, honesty, and a gentle touch and also offers a great flashback to 1990s-era San Francisco.

This year’s feature competition jury included producer and incoming Women in Animation president Jinko Gotoh, Tonko House co-founder and The Dam Keeper co-director Dice Tsutsumi, and Animation Magazine editor-in-chief Ramin Zahed.

Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy picked up both the Audience Award and the Fumi Kitahara Special Jury Prize, named in memory of the beloved publicist and AIF champion who died in 2025. The jury praised the film’s watercolor-like and Chinese ink-brush visuals, along with its portrayal of a boy’s physical disability and strained relationship with his father, inspired by Clichy’s memories of growing up in rural France.

Iron Boy is pure beauty from the medium we all love. Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy was an easy stand-out thanks to its beautifully crafted water-color-like and Chinese ink-brush style visuals and how it told a story inspired by the director’s own memories of growing up in rural France. We also admired the way Clichy conveyed a world of emotions with his impressionistic visuals as well as his depiction of a young boy’s personal struggles with a physical handicap and the heartfelt portrayal of a strained father-and-son relationship which avoids sentimentality and the pitfalls of a traditional coming-of-age story.

In the shorts competition, Hertzfeldt’s Paper Trail earned unanimous praise for its distinctive visual language and approach to narrative and form. Jurors called it “unique and profoundly moving” and a film that “stayed with us.”

Anna Mantzaris’s Please received the Special Jury Prize for shorts, with jurors highlighting its felt-puppet stop-motion craft, whimsy, and characterization. The jury described it as “a wonderfully made, funny, and tender film that captures the absurdity and very human longing for connection.”

The shorts jury included City of Ghosts creator Elizabeth Ito, animation historian and Cartoon Brew co-founder Jerry Beck, and actor and director Rachel House, whose voice credits include Moana and Soul.

“Animation Is Film is a festival, but it is also an argument: animated films should never be lumped together under the broad heading ‘Animation,’” said festival director Matt Kaszanek after this year’s event had wrapped. “Animation is drama and comedy, musical and horror; features and shorts, documentary and fiction, narrative and experimental.”

Beyond the competition, highlights included the first big-screen presentation of Dana Terrace’s Knights of Guinevere, a special screening of Laika’s Wildwood with Travis Knight, a behind-the-scenes look at Disney’s Hexed, and a work-in-progress presentation of Matt Braly’s Clara and the Below.

The festival also hosted a Wolfwalkers screening with Cartoon Saloon founders Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey, and Paul Young, and the inaugural live edition of The Hollywood Reporter’s Animation Roundtable.