Animation Is Film Reveals Soaring Program Bookended by ‘The Boy and the Heron,’ ‘Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget’

Animation Is Film (AIF) has announced the lineup for the 6th edition of its animated cinema festival, featuring a slate of theatrical presentations, special events and shorts screenings taking place over five days, October 18-22, in Hollywood. Organizers also unveiled the official 2023 poster, designed by artist Sophia Du.

AIF’s Opening Night on Wednesday, October 18 launches with a GKIDS presentation of Studio Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron, the latest film from legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX. This marks the first time the festival will host a premiere in IMAX at this Hollywood landmark.

Closing Night celebrates the Los Angeles Premiere of Aardman’s Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, presented by Netflix and followed by a Q&A with Oscar-nominated director Sam Fell and executive producer and Oscar-nominated director of the original Chicken Run (2000), Peter Lord.

This year, AIF continues its mission to champion animation as a cinematic artform, while recognizing and acknowledging the importance of curating successful and critically-acclaimed films from around the world. As part of the feature film lineup, two prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival prize winners, Neon’s Robot Dreams (Spain / France) and GKIDS’ Chicken for Linda! (France / Italy) will make their West Coast and U.S. debuts, respectively. Phoenix: Reminiscence of Flower (Japan) will make its theatrical North American Premiere, and DreamWorks Animation will host a special presentation of its latest film, Trolls Band Together.

Other highlights are the North American Premiere of Sony Pictures Animation/Sony Pictures Imageworks’ The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story, the debut short film created as part of the LENS storyteller development program, and a special theatrical presentation of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ narrative short, Once Upon a Studio, featuring iconic voices from Disney Animation’s past, including Dwayne Johnson, Paige O’Hara, Jodi Benson and Josh Gad.

“‘Animation Is Film’ is not just the name of our festival, it is its mission,” said Matt Kaszanek, Executive Director of AIF. “New films from Studio Ghibli and Aardman are seismic cinematic events, and a reason for movie lovers of any medium to rejoice. Joining these titles is a collection of some of the most audacious, genre-defying, and critically acclaimed films of the year. We are so proud to present them in Los Angeles.”

This year’s AIF also features a “Work-In-Progress” sneak peek at Walt Disney Animation’s upcoming feature release Wish, centennial celebrations of Walt Disney Animation and Warner Bros. Animation, the festival’s popular shorts showcase presented in partnership with Annecy and Women In Animation highlighting the best of female-directed animated films, the annual student film program and an Aardman Animations-hosted workshop where kids can make their own clay models.

“For its sixth edition, Animation Is Film is back with a great program featuring the films who received the main awards in Annecy last June,” said Annecy Festival artistic director Marcel Jean and CEO Mickael Marin. “Chicken for Linda! (Cristal for a feature film), Robot Dreams (Contrechamp Award) and 27 (Cristal for a short film) are among a great selection of films and again we are proud to be associated with this celebration of the best in animation.”

Industry organizations returning as Animation Is Film Sponsors and partners for the 2023 film festival are: ASIFA- Hollywood, Cartoon Network Studios, Crunchyroll, Dreamworks Animation, ELMA, Fathom Events, Illumination, LAIKA, Locksmith Animation, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Paramount Animation, Pixar Animation Studios, Shout! Factor, Sony Pictures Animation, UniFrance, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Warner Bros. Animation. Animation Is Film, founded by GKIDS and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, presents a selection of new animated feature films from Asia, Europe, South America and North America, with both juried and audience prizes.

AIF will post their full schedule of films and programs to their website, AnimationIsFilm.com, and will be adding additional films, programs and sneak peeks ahead of the festival.

Read more about this year’s inspiring edition in the November ’23 issue of Animation Magazine, available soon.

AIF 2023 Film Slate

OPENING NIGHT: The Boy and the Heron(Japan | United States IMAX Premiere)

CLOSING NIGHT: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (United Kingdom / United States / France | Los Angeles Premiere)

COMPETITION SECTION:

• Art College 1994 (China | West Coast Premiere)
• Chicken for Linda! (France / Italy | United States Premiere)
• The Concierge (Japan| United States Premiere)
• Mars Express (France | United States Premiere)
• Phoenix: Reminiscence of Flower (Japan / North American Premiere)
• Robot Dreams (Spain / France | West Coast Premiere)
• Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds (Belgium / France | Los Angeles Premiere)
• The Summer (South Korea | North American Premiere)

• Special Screening of DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls Band Together
  • Director Walt Dohrn, co-director Tim Heitz and producer Gina Shay in-person
• North American Premiere of Sony Pictures Animation/Sony Picture Imageworks’ The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story
  • Panel with Jarelle Dampier (director), Khaila Amazan (writer), Clara Chan (VFX supervisor),
    and Joe Darko (animation supervisor), moderated by Michelle Raimo-Kouyate and David Schulenburg
    (Producers/LENS Program Creators)
• Special Screening & Panel of Wal Disney Animation’s Once Upon a Studio and early footage of Wish
  • Filmmaker in-person
• Warner Bros. 100: A Special Celebration of Warner Bros. Animation
  • Q&A with Looney Tunes Cartoons series creatives and screening of never-before-seen shorts
  • Special Presentation of Daffy in Wackyland

SHORTS PRESENTATIONS:

• Award Winning Shorts (Oscar qualifying films)
  • The Day I Became a Bird (U.K. / Andrew Ruhemann)
  • Starling (U.S. / Mitra Shahidi)
  • Rosemary A.D. (After Dad) (U.S. / Ethan Barrett)
  • Letter to a Pig (Israel, France / Tal Kantor)
• The Best of Annecy, in Partnership with Women in Animation
  • Our Uniform (Iran / Yegane Moghaddam)
  • Le Grande Arche (France / Camille Authouart)
  • The Miracle (Belgium, Netherlands, France / Nienke Deutz)
  • 27 (France, Hungary / Flora Anna Buda)
  • La Perra (Colombia, France / Carla Melo Gampert)
  • Nun or Never (Finland, Heta Jaalinoja)
• Student Showcase (CalArts, USC, Cal State Long Beach, Cal Stat Fullerton)