Ottawa Animation Festival Picks 64 Shorts From Record 3,026 Submissions For It’s 50th Anniversary Edition

The Ottawa International Animation Festival has unveiled the complete shorts competition lineup for its 50th anniversary edition, selecting 64 films from a record-breaking pool of 3,026 submissions representing more than 100 countries.

The milestone edition reflects both the festival’s growth and the continued vitality of independent animation. This year’s official selections span established auteurs, emerging filmmakers, commercial commissions, and student productions, with competition programs covering Animated Short, Commissioned, Student, and Canadian Student categories. Among the filmmakers with new work in competition are recent Annecy Cristal-winner Don Hertzfeldt, Atsushi Wada, Georges Schwizgebel, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Lizzy Hobbs, Anna Mantzaris, and Skip Battaglia.

OIAF Artistic Director and Cartoon Brew friend and colleague Chris Robinson said if the selection:

Fifty years is a rare and meaningful milestone, but what stands out this year is how alive the field feels. Across this year’s competitions, we’re seeing artists stretch form, tone, technique and subject in ways that feel urgent, strange, funny and deeply personal. Festivals like OIAF remain essential because independent animation still needs a place where risk, experimentation and individual voices are not just welcomed, but seen, discussed and taken seriously

The selected films will compete for the festival’s Grand Prix and other awards, with winners announced during the OIAF Awards Ceremony on September 26 in Ottawa. Below is the complete shorts competition lineup for the festival’s 50th edition.

2026 OIAF Short Film Lineup

Animated Short

• Action Bog (dir. Winston Hacking | Canada)
• Adgwa-Ata (dir. Zsuzsanna Kreif | Hungary, France)
• Antitermitas (Anti-termites) (dir. Alex Rey | Spain)
• Daughters of the Late Colonel (dir. Elizabeth Hobbs | United Kingdom, Germany)
• The End (dir. Niki Lindroth von Bahr | Sweden, France, Denmark)
• Eri (dir. Yano Honami | Japan, France)
• Fit Check (dir. Kyle Brooks | United States)
• Five Orphans (dir. Sarina Nihei | France, Japan, Germany)
• How To Walk, A Guide For Fun and Profit (dir. Zachary Margolis | United States)
• Jelly Baddies (dir. Ivan Li | Canada)
• Je ne t’aime plus (I Don’t Love You Anymore) (dir. Diane Obomsawin | Canada)
• Kozmonavti (Cosmonauts) (dir. Leo Černic | Slovenia, Italy)
• ちいさなうりぼう (little boarlet) (dir. Atsushi Wada | Japan)
• Local Squalls (dir. Skip Battaglia | United States)
• Melk (dir. Filip Anthonissen | Belgium)
• Next Step (dir. Tamás Patrovits | Hungary)
• Paper Trail (dir. Don Hertzfeldt | United States)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray (dir. Georges Schwizgebel | Switzerland)
• Pingviin (Penguin) (dir. Kaspar Jancis | Estonia)
• A PINT OF BITTER. (dir. Conor Kehelly | Ireland)
• PLEASE (dir. Anna Mantzaris | Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland)
• Praying Mantis (dir. Joe Hsieh | Taiwan, Hong Kong)
• Roll Over and Play Dead (dir. Gina Kamentsky | United States)
• The Stars Watch from Long Ago (dir. Stacey Steers | United States)
• Street Race (dirs. Christopher Rutledge, Daniel Rutledge | United States)
• Uka-uka (dir. Henri Veermäe | Estonia)
• როცა ზღვა იყო მშვიდი (When The Sea Was Calm) (dir. Mamuka Tkeshelashvili | Georgia)
• XYZ (dir. Kyle Brooks | United States)
• yellow orange green blue red cut (dir. Peter Millard | United Colour)

Commissioned

• Anibar Animation Festival ‘WTF?! – 2025 Trailer’ (dir. Joni Männistö | Finland, Kosovo)
• A$AP Rocky ‘Helicopter’ (dir. Daniel Streit | United States)
• Barber for the Queen ‘My Hang Up’ (dir. Romy Côté | Canada)
• BLON ‘2025 Teaser’ (dir. Nathan Jurevicius | Lithuania, Canada)
• Bump ‘2025 Leader’ (dirs. Jonas Wellens, Wouter Medaer | Belgium)
• Juana Molina ‘Desinhumano’ (Juana Molina ‘Uninhuman’) (dir. Dante Zaballa | Argentina)
• Mad Barrowsky ft. Joseph Shabason ‘It Didn’t Really Matter’ (dir. Jordan Minkoff | Canada)
• MOME Anim ‘Friss Kakas Animációs Filmnapok Spot’ (MOME Anim ‘Friss Kakas Animation Film Days Spot’) (dir. Máté Horesnyi | Hungary)
• NBAT2 ‘It’s Ok to Be’ (dirs. Francesca Colombara, Matteo Dang | United States, Italy)
• OK Go ‘Impulse Purchase’ (dirs. Will Anderson, Lucas Zanotto | United Kingdom, Finland, Netherlands, United States)
• Overwatch 2 x Street Fighter 6 ‘Collaboration Trailer’ (dir. Barry Kelly | United States)

Student

• Ball Face (dir. Laurence Thérien | Canada, United Kingdom)
• Bootstrapping for the Boobied (dir. Stella Chen | United States)
• Cold Bathroom (dir. Eleni Aerts | Belgium)
• Fisheye (dir. Łukasz Rygał | Poland)
• My Good Boy (dir. Sara Priorelli | Hungary, Italy)
• Quantum Jump (dir. Šimon Mészáros | Czech Republic)
• Visiting the Zoo (dir. Maria Zilli | Italy, France)
• 地動き山揺れる時 (When The Mountains Shook) (dir. Daiyu Li | Japan)

Canadian Student

• Amalgame (Amalgam) (dirs. Marielle Boutin, Charlie Guèvremont | Université Laval)
• Ball Face (dir. Laurence Thérien | Royal College of Art)
• Crocodile Tears (dir. Gaoyuan Song | NSCAD University)
• Entiérrame (Bury Me) (dir. Stella Dipieri | OCAD University)
• Everything On Land With Bones Is A Fish (dir. Antonia Novakovich | Concordia University)
• Expo Inferno (dir. A. John Yates | Concordia University)
• (in)significant (dir. Jessica Toca | Concordia University)
• insomn (dir. Min Kim | Emily Carr University)
• The Maggots (dir. Amberia Keke Li | Emily Carr University)
• Mortal Lace (dir. Lucas Piperias | OCAD University)
• Seeing Hands (dir. Penakee Das | OCAD University)
• Sing to the Wind (dir. Yaffa Aboudib Husseini | Munster Technological University)
• Skinless Symphonies (dir. Rose Rousseau | St. Clair College)
• Thief of Night (dir. Yoonji Nam | Sheridan University)
• Western Blot! (dir. Ashlee Gonsalves | Concordia University)