Manchester Animation Festival Unveils 2025 Lineup With U.K. Premieres, Previews, And Industry Icons

Manchester Animation Festival (MAF), the U.K.’s largest animation festival and the only Oscar and BAFTA-qualifying animation event in the country, has revealed its 2025 program.

Running November 9–13 across Manchester, the festival promises a mix of global premieres, exclusive previews, and career-spanning retrospectives, bolstered by a new three-year partnership with the University of Salford.

International Feature Competition

• The Last Blossom, Baku Kinoshita
• Arco, Ugo Bienvenu,
• I Am Frankelda, Arturo,Roy Ambriz
• The Square, Kim Bo-sol
• Little Amelie or the Character of Rain, Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han

Other non-competition features at the festival include Australia’s Lesbian Space Princess, directed by Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese, and the 4K remaster of Mamoru Oshii’s 1985 underground classic Angel’s Egg. Adult Swim also returns to Manchester with New, Newer, Newest – a late-night showcase of exclusive content from their upcoming slate.

Among the headline events at this year’s fest, Irish studio Cartoon Saloon will receive the prestigious Fellowship Award, while a retrospective of Industrial Light & Magic marks 50 years of VFX innovation. From Disney, head of animation Chad Sellers and 2D lead Renato dos Anjos will give a first look at Zootopia 2. Director Alex Woo presents his upcoming Netflix feature In Your Dreams, and Magic Light Pictures shares a behind-the-scenes journey into their new Julia Donaldson adaptation, The Scarecrows’ Wedding. BBC Studios Kids & Family also unveils their latest project, Rafi the Wishing Wizard.

Beyond the screenings, MAF continues to spotlight diversity and inclusion with events such as BlackFrame Presents, a shorts showcase amplifying Black voices; Where We Go From Here, a Women in Animation UK-led panel on gender equity; and Neurodiversity in Animation, hosted by Aardman and Flycheese Animation.

Festival director Steve Henderson said in a release:

As we stride into a new decade of MAF, we’re thrilled to bring another packed program of premieres, exclusives, special guests, and more back to Manchester this November. The passion of the animation community is what makes MAF so special, and their energy is what inspires us to aim higher every year.

The annual awards ceremony on November 13, hosted by comedian Alasdair Beckett-King, will honor outstanding achievements across feature, short, student, commissioned, and immersive categories, as well as industry excellence in writing, storyboarding, character design, and character animation.

Alongside the screenings, industry professionals can take part in Animation Nation Forum, marketplace events at Bridgewater Hall, and panel sessions such as The Art of the Ad and Animating in Unreal from Epic Games.