The N. American premieres of Naoko Yamada’s The Colors Within, Peter Browngadt’s The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie and the L.A. premiere of Adam Elliot’s Memoir of Snail are among the highlights of the 2024 edition of the Animation Is Film Festival, which takes places Oct. 18-20 at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
The seventh edition of the festival will also feature animated features which have taken home top prizes around the world, including Flow (Cannes’ Un Certain Regard), Ghost Cat Anzu (Directors Fortnight in Cannes), Percebes (Annecy’s Cristal for Best Animated Short), Boys Go to Jupiter (Tribeca), and Sultana’s Dream (San Sebsatian).
Other AIF highlights include the North American Premiere of the documentary, Miyazaki, Spirit of Nature, well as the U.S. premiere of the anticipated Mononoke The Movie: Phantom In The Rain. Animation Is Film is also celebrating the 15th anniversary of the seminal anime title, Redline, with a special screening. There will also be panels and masterclasses on high-profile studio releases, including Pixar’s Inside Out 2, Disney’s Moana 2, Paramount’s Transformers One, DreamWorks The Wild Robot, and David Lowery’s An Almost Christmas Story.
“Animation Is Film is very happy to be back in Los Angeles, celebrating another year of extraordinary titles from some of cinema’s greatest international artists,” said Matt Kaszanek, Director of AIF. “To be among the first in a city, the country or even a continent to see a new work of art is a unique thrill. We are immensely proud of this year’s lineup, and delighted that Ms. Yamada and others can present their films in-person.”
Other highlight programming at year’s AIF, which was founded by GKIDS and the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival are “Work-In-Progress” sneak peek of the upcoming release of Chibu Okere and Zack Fox’s Yoppaman, the festival’s popular shorts showcase presented in partnership with Annecy and Women In Animation (WIA) highlighting the best of female-directed animated films, and the annual student film program. AIF will post its 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.
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 and Australia, with both juried and audience prizes.
2024 ANIMATION IS FILM SLATE
In Competition
- Boys Go to Jupiter. (dir. Julian Glander/ USA/ West Coast Premiere)
- The Colors Within. (dir. Naoko Yamada/ Japan/ North American Premiere) Opening Night: In-person: Director Naoko Yamada
- Flow. (dir. Gints Zilbalodis/ Latvia-Belgium-France/ West Coast Premiere) In-person: Director Gints Zilbalodis
- Ghost Cat Anzu. (dir. Yoko Kuno & Nobuhiro Yamashita/ Japan-France/ West Coast Premiere)
- Memoir of a Snail. (dir. Adam Elliot/ Australia/ Los Angeles Premiere) In-person: Director Adam Elliot
- Sultana’s Dream. (dir. Isabel Herguera/ Spain-Germany/ West Coast Premiere)
SPECIAL SCREENINGS & STUDIO EVENTS
- The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (dir. Pete Browngardt/USA/North American Premiere) In person: Peter Browngardt
- Miyazaki, Spirit of Nature. (dir. Leo Favier/ France/ North American Premiere)
- Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain. (Kenji Nakamura/ Japan / US Premiere)
- Takeshi Koike’s Redline. Special 15th anniversary screening
- An Almost Christmas Story. (David Lowery). In-person: David Lowery (Director) & Alfonso Cuarón (Producer)
- Inside Out 2. Filmmaker panel/Masterclass. In person: Meg Lefauve and Dave Holstein (Screenwriters)
- Moana 2: Filmmaker Panel. In person: TBD
- Transformers One. In-person: Josh Cooley (Director), Jason Scheier (Production Designer), Steven King (Animation Supervisor), & Amy Christensen (Lead Character Designer)
- The Wild Robot. Filmmaker Panel In person: Chris Sanders
- Yoppaman: Work in Progress. In person: Zack Fox & Chibu Okere (Creators)
- Invincible Fight Girl. In person Juston Gordon-Montgomery
SHORTS PRESENTATIONS
Animation Is Film is once again proud to shine a spotlight on some of the year’s most extraordinary animated short films in three separate Short Film presentations.
Award-Winning Shorts. A collection of Oscar-qualifying short films from around the world, including:
- Beautiful Men (France-Belgium-The Netherlands / Nicolas Keppens)
- A Crab in the Pool (Canada / Jean-Sebastien Hamel & Alexandra Myotte)
- Nube (France-Mexico-Hungary / Christian Arredondo & Diego Alonso Sanchez de la Barquera Estrada)
- Wander to Wonder (The Netherlands-Belgium-France-UK / Nina Gantz)
- Yuck! (France / Loic Espuche)
THE BEST OF ANNECY, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WOMEN IN ANIMATION
A collection of extraordinary short films from Annecy, curated by our partners at Women In Animation (WIA)
- I Died in Irpin (Czech Republic-Slovakia-Ukraine / Anastasia Falileieva)
- In the Shadow of the Cypress (Iran / Hossein Molayemi & Shirin Sohani)
- Maybe Elephants (Norway-Canada / Torill Kove)
- Percebes (France-Portugal / Laura Gonçalves & Alexandra Ramires)
A showcase of films from the next generation of artists, courtesy of our Educational Partners – California Institute of the Arts; University of Southern California; California State University, Long Beach; and California State University, Fullerton.
Additional Animation Is Film announcements will be coming in the days and weeks ahead. For more info, visit animationisfilm.com
