LAFM’s Animation Today Returns With New Don Hertzfeldt Short

The Los Angeles Festival of Movies (LAFM) has unveiled additional programming for its 2026 edition, with animation taking a prominent place in the lineup through the return of its Animation Today showcase. The festival runs April 9–12 across Eastside Los Angeles venues.

Curated by filmmaker Sean Buckelew and presented by indie studio/distributor Cartuna, Animation Today spotlights six independent shorts that emphasize the art form’s formal and stylistic range. The program is anchored by the West Coast premiere of Paper Trail, the latest film from two-time Oscar nominee Don Hertzfeldt.

2026 LAFM Animation Today Lineup

• Acid City — Jack Wedge, Will Freudenheim
• The Gnawer of Rocks — Louise Flaherty
• Lethe — Liang-Hsin Huang
• More Than Happy — Wei Keong Tan
• Paper Trail — Don Hertzfeldt
• Une Fugue — Agnès Patron

In its programming notes, Buckelew presents this year’s selection as a defense of animation as an artist-driven form:

Animation is a special medium within the spectrum of filmmaking, an artistic avenue where truly anything is possible. It can be made collaboratively with big teams, and can adhere to traditional narrative filmmaking principles, or it can be made by a single person and truly eschew any rules. It can make manifest the imaginary while also showing its own handmade analog craft in every frame.

Beyond screenings, LAFM will host an artist talk featuring BoJack Horseman production designer and Tuca & Bertie creator Lisa Hanawalt in conversation with filmmaker Josephine Decker, signaling the festival’s broader interest in cross-disciplinary dialogue around animation and moving-image culture.

With its second edition, Animation Today positions LAFM as an increasingly notable West Coast platform for independent animation, emphasizing auteur-driven shorts at a time when the human touch is as desired by audiences as ever.