OIAF’s Expanded Feature Competition Flaunts Animation’s Emotional Range

The Ottawa International Animation Festival has revealed the seven features selected for competition at its landmark 50th anniversary edition, marking the largest feature lineup in the festival’s history. It may also be one of the festival’s most emotionally devastating competitions, with films exploring grief, memory, illness, trauma, identity, and family across a remarkably diverse range of styles and perspectives.

Feature Animation Competition

• Girlfriends Of Father — Dir. Xi Chen (China)
• Magic Atlas — Dir. Xun Sun (China, Singapore)
• O Filho da Puta (Son of a Bitch) — Dirs. Erica Maradona, Tania Anaya, Otto Guerra, and Sávio Leite (Brazil)
• Tangles — Dir. Leah Nelson (Canada, U.S.)
• The Orbit of Minor Satellites — Dir. Christopher Sullivan (U.S.)
• Mononoke the Movie: Chapter III – The Curse of the Serpent — Dir. Kenji Nakamura (Japan)
• We Are Aliens — Dir. Kohei Kadowaki (Japan)

According to OIAF artistic director and our good friend Chris Robinson:

The strength of this year’s submissions is reflected in our expanded lineup of seven films. Their diversity and depth — across techniques, perspectives and voices — show how much feature animation has evolved since we introduced the competition in 2002, while offering a glimpse of where it might be heading next. It feels especially fitting as OIAF celebrates 50 years of championing distinctive animated voices.

The lineup’s range of heavy themes is striking, with many of this year’s selections grappling with grief, memory, family, trauma, identity, mortality, and the lasting impact of the past. It’s an unusually weighty slate that continues OIAF’s tradition of championing deeply personal filmmaking while highlighting the remarkable breadth of stories and emotional experiences that animation can encompass.

The festival received a record 3,026 submissions across all categories this year. The feature competition will be judged by an all-Canadian jury of Alisi Telengut, Lillian Chan, and Luc Chamberland, with the Grand Prize for Feature Animation to be presented during the awards ceremony on September 26.