The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF), the largest and oldest animation film festival in North America, has announced is competition selections for this year’s edition, taking place in September.

One hundred films from 20 countries were selected from a record-setting 2,469 entries.

“The films this year are remarkably diverse, mature and provocative,” says Chris Robinson, OIAF artistic director. “It really speaks to the many social and cultural challenges facing us today.”

The festival has separate competition categories for narrative and non-narrative animation, a smart thing to do since non-narrative work is almost always overlooked by jury members when it competes against narrative work. Other competition categories include student films, shorts for 6-12, shorts for preschool, and virtual reality. For the full listing of films in competition, visit the festival website.

For the OIAF feature competition segment, seven full-length films were selected:

  • North of Blue by Joanna Priestly and Jamie Haggerty (USA)
  • This Magnificent Cake! by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels (Belgium)
  • Seder-Masochism by Nina Paley (USA)
  • On Happiness Road by Hsin-Yin Sung (Taiwan)
  • Captain Morten and the Spider Queen by Kaspar Jancis (Estonia)
  • Virus Tropical by Lison Hervé (Colombia)
  • Ville Neuve by Felix Dufour-Laperriere (Canada)

The international jury this year is comprsied of Steve Subotnick, Chintis Lundgren, Chel White, Kelly Sears, Nicolas Brault, and Igor Prassel.

The OIAF runs from September 26-30 in Ottawa, Canada. For details on how to attend, visit animationfestival.ca.

(Pictured at top: “This Magnificent Cake” by Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels, screening in the feature competition)

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