The awards season gets an early start this year with many of animated feature and short contenders making their Los Angeles premieres at the wonderful Animation Is Film Festival. The prestigious event, which was started nine years ago by GKIDS President Eric Beckman, has become the perfect launching pad for hot indie titles and studio favorites ahead of the Oscar and Annie Award nominations frenzy. It has also become a great way to meet the auteurs behind some of the best movies and shorts of the year before award season exhaustion kicks in!
This year’s eclectic lineup features Annecy favorites such as Arco and Little Amelie or the Character of Rain, Mamoru Hosoda’s eagerly anticipated Scarlet, Spanish auteur Alberto Vazquez’s latest effort Decorado and acclaimed indies such as Lesbian Space Princess and Mexico’s well-received first stop-motion feature I Am Frankelda. It will also offer attendees the chance to discover the Chinese blockbuster Nobody, the country’s highest grossing animated feature of all time (with over $208.6 million in box office sales) and to check out a preview of Disney’s holiday offering, Zootopia 2.
“Animation Is Film has been around since 2017,” says the festival’s dedicated director, Matt Kaszanek. “It’s still just a kid compared to the Annecys and Ottawas of the world, but it’s old enough to have some history. Mamoru Hosoda opened AIF with Mirai in 2018 (my first festival!), returned with Belle in 2021, and he’s back this year with Scarlet. Alberto Vazquez’s Birdboy premiered at the very first AIF, returned with Unicorn Wars in 2022, and in 2025 has the stunning Decorado for us.”
He says the festival feels like being reunited with old friends, and he loves to see what everyone has been up. “I also love making new friends. Arco, Little Amelie or the Character of Rain and Lesbian Space Princess are all feature animation debuts [for their directors]. I love the opportunity of introducing these artists to a new audience and I love the idea of riding a rainbow five years into the future and being excited with what they return to us with!”
Beyond all the indie gems and international favorites, Kaszanek says the festival is always a great place for rediscovering some of the best animated highlights of the year. “I doubt any of Animation Magazine’s readers have even heard of this one, but there’s a panel on Sunday about this film called KPop Demon Hunters and I think it’s gonna be pretty big,” he jokes.
“Many of my favorite films in the lineup have had earlier bows at the Berlinale, Cannes, Annecy, Venice, Toronto, etc., so ‘undiscovered’ doesn’t seem quite apt,” he points out. “Earlier I mentioned ‘old friends’ in the context of filmmakers, but it applies to audience too. Every year I see familiar faces — standing in line, in their seats before the lights do down — and I think to myself, ‘Hey, I know that guy, he comes every year!’ But after last year’s festival, we did a survey of ticket-buyers and discovered an excitingly high number of people who had just experienced the festival for the first time. So for the people that applies to in 2025, I like to think that Animation Is Film Festival, as a whole is the ‘big, undiscovered gem!’”
When asked about his take on the state of animation worldwide, Kaszanek responds, “I truly don’t believe that end-of-year awards are everything, but it’s noteworthy that after a nearly quarter century run of U.S. studio dominance on Oscar night, the international animated features are now elbowing their way into the discussion like never before. What’s interesting and exciting will be to see how the American films respond to that. The culture is at its best when the films are engaging with one another and pushing one another to tell stories differently. What an awesome time to be a fan of this stuff!”
Animation Is Film takes place at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood (Oct. 13, 17-19). For the full schedule and ticketing information, visit animationisfilm.com.
AIF 2025 Schedule at a Glance
Monday, Oct. 13
7 PM The Twits (special preview)
Friday, Oct. 17
6:30 PM Shorts! Best of Annecy (in partnership with Women in Animation)
7:00 Scarlet (opening night film)
8:30 Lesbian Space Princess
Saturday, Oct. 18
Noon ChaO
Zootopia 2 (filmmaker panel)
2 PM ParaNorman (newly restored in 3D, with new short The Thrifting)
2:30 Shorts Program 2
3:00 ChaO Live Talk & Drawing (with Hirokazu Kojima)
4:15 All You Need Is Kill
5:00 A Story about Fire
6:00 Arco (centerpiece film)
7:00 Decorado
8:30 Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc
Sunday, Oct. 19
10:30 AM Bluey (episode selection from Ludo Studios)
Noon I Am Frankelda
Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to Be a Magical Girl (work-in-progress & filmmaker panel with Kiana Khansmith)
1:45 PM Shorts Program 1
3:00 Little Amelie or the Character of Rain
3:30 KPop Demon Hunters (filmmaker panel)
5:30 Nobody
Shorts Program 3 (student showcase)
8:00 Scarlet (encore)
