Anima Festival 2026: Selection Results

Dog Ear, Péter Vácz at Anima Festival competition

176 animation shorts were selected for the celebrated Anima Festival (20 February – 1 March 2026). The festival’s international competition (94 films altogether) brings together films from 38 countries, including 22 in Europe; we see Theodore Ushev’s parable ‘Life with an Idiot’, the PÖFF Shorts awarded ‘Because Today is Saturday’ by Portuguese animation filmmaker Alice Eça Guimarães

NFB films are present: ‘The Girl Who Cried Pearls’ and ‘Bread Will Walk’, two quirky films in their own right, are included here.

This year’s National (Belgian) selection features 27 short films, including Levi Stoops’ ‘Klonter’ and the Animator festival-awarded ‘Autokar’, a story of migrants by Sylwia Szkiladz.

International Short Films

Amarelo Banana, Alexandre SOUSA / Portugal

Balconada, Iva TOKMAKCHIEVA / Bulgaria

Because Today Is Saturday, Alice Eça GUIMARÃES / Portugal

Bread Will Walk, Alex BOYA / Canada

Dog Alone, Reis Andrade / Soura Ribeiro MARTA / MARTA, Portugal

Dollhouse Elephant, Jenny JOKELA / Finland

Earthquake, Lorenzo LATROFA and Massimiliano DI LAURO / Italy

Edu’sfear, Bruno MAZZILLI and Tiago JUDAS / Brazil

Fačuk, Maida SRABOVIĆ / Croatia

Fusion, Richard R. REEVES / Canada

God Is Shy, Jocelyn CHARLES / France

Kosmogonia, Karolina CHABIER / France

Kutyafül (Dog Ear), Péter VÁCZ / Hungary

Les Bêtes, Michael GRANBERRY / United States

Life with an Idiot, Theodore USHEV / France

Murmuration, Janneke SWINKELS and Tim FRIJSINGER / Netherlands

My Gut Friend, José Manuel LO BIANCO and Mariano Andrés BERGARA / Argentina

Off-Time, Nata METLUKH / Ukraine

S the Wolf, Sameh ALAA / France

Silent Cinema, Krste GOSPODINOVSKI / Republic of North Macedonia

Sulaimani, Vinnie Ann BOSE / France

The Girl Who Cried Pearls, Chris LAVIS and Maciek SZCZERBOWSKI / Canada

The Weaver, Yiorgos TSANGARIS / Cyprus

To the Woods, Agnès PATRON / France

With Tapes and Toasts in the Car, Kiana NAGHSHINEH / Germany

Dog Alone Marta Andrade animation film

International Student Films

A Sparrow’s Song, Tobias ECKERLIN / Germany

A Tale for Mohsen, Mojtaba TARAKI / Iran

Atlante, Massimo VAGLIVIELLO, Filippo BIASIOTTO and Gabriele CAROLLO / Italy

Better Man, Eliška JIRÁSKOVÁ / Czech Republic

Death’s Peak, Willy FAIR / United Kingdom

Double or Nothing, Tokay SIRIN / Switzerland

Featherbrain, Paul CHARFF / France

Floating, Jelena MILUNOVIC / Serbia

Fried!, Lizzie WATTS / United Kingdom

Gauze, Noran FIKRI ALEZABI, Arujah NICHOLAS, Xinyue MA, Yulin YUE and Xiaonan ZHOU / France

Keijo on the Go, Katrina OLL and Alex TOODU / Estonia

Niccolò, Clémentine DI PRIZIO, David FLORIAN, Axelle GRANET, Hugo MICHALET, Sirui LIU and Njolai PACHOMIUS / France

Q, Masataka KIHARA / Japan

Sensual, Tanja NUIJTEN / Germany

Stone of Destiny, Julie ČERNÁ / Czech Republic

The Crooked Heads, Jakub KRZYSZPIN / Poland

The Rossini Garden, William BURGER, Siméon JACOB, Garance MONDAMERT, Tara REWAL, Mathilde VERGEREAU, Arthur WONG and Odelia LAINE / France

The Undying Pain of Existence, Oscar JACOBSON / Germany

Zootrope, Léna MARTINEZ / France

International Short Films for Young Audiences

Bidouille, Morgane HOLSTERS and Emi INOHANA / Belgium

Born to Be, Björk VIJGEN / Belgium

Camille & Chameleon, Lucie NICHELMANN / Germany

Charli & the Wolf, Gwenaëlle DE VILLE / Belgium

Cold Bathroom, Eleni AERTS / Belgium

Composition for Processing Distance, Nathan PIERARD / Belgium

Down in the Dumps, Vera VAN WOLFEREN / Netherlands

Dreaming of Flight, Elena WALF / Germany

First Flight, Adrián JAFFÉ / Germany

Forevergreen, Nathan ENGELHARDT and Jeremy SPEARS / United States

Full Nest, Elena WALF / Germany

I Found a Box, Eric MONTCHAUD / France

Konigiri-Kun Super Machine? Mari MIYAZAWA / Japan

La Légende du colibri, Morgan DEVOS / France

Missing Ticket, Elisa DE KUYSSCHER and Kelvin JANSSEN / Belgium

One Little Big Day, Nara ARAGÃO and Renata Roberta AZEVEDO / Brazil

Pietje, Jef CLAES / Belgium

Poisson nuage, Noé GARCIA / France

Polo sans bobo, Sophie CASTAIGNEDE / France

Resonance, Lex MONTENY / Belgium

Symbiosis, Marie ROMBAUT, Eliott DELBECK, Dylan VAN INGELGEM and Louis PIRSON / Belgium

The Casting, Camille BRITTE / Belgium

The Day I Licked a Pebble, Flavie ELIÉZER, Chloé BERNUCHON, Goli ATEFI, Maud KOLASA, Nathan JAUZE and Marie PIJOLLET / France

The Motherless Egg, Elena WALF / Germany

The Peel, Nantung LIN / Belgium

Things That I Was Gathering, Ekaterina ZHUZHLEVA / Belgium

Tumbleweed, Marie HAREUX, Arthus MARIET, Masha MORAN, Louis CREUZET, Wilson HINH and Johanna BOUAOUICHE / France

When the Tide Comes, Fêt-Nat BAILLY / United Kingdom

Wolfie, Philippe KASTNER / Czech Republic

Woodland, Vanessa CHU, Jim OBMANN and Emil POGOLSKI / Germany

National (Belgian) Short Films

Autokar, Sylwia SZKILADZ / Belgium

Ce que je vois, Maï CALON / Belgium

Clot, Levi STOOPS / Belgium

Flowers, Mathieu LABAYE / Belgium

Hugs, Nicolas FONG / Belgium

La Petite Reine blanche, Mathieu GEORIS and Théo HANOSSET / Belgium

Le Marais Wiels, Charlotte PION, Martine JANSSENS, Christine FLASSCHOEN, Aurore WOLLER, Marie FONTAINE, Catherine LE GOFF and Claire POINAS / Belgium

Like a Beast, Bruno TONDEUR / Belgium

Loading Nouns Gets Down, Chris ULLENS / United Kingdom

My Name is Lilith, Leoluna ROBERT-TOURNEUR / Belgium

Stuck, Matthias DE CLERCQ / Belgium

The Bird with No Name, Gijsemans BEN / Belgium

The Great Dreamscape, Rémi DURIN / Belgium

The Wisp, Denis DE WIND / Belgium

Autokar Polish animation film

National (Belgian) Short Student Films