Animation Is Film 2023 To Open With ‘The Boy And The Heron,’ Close With ‘Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget’

L.A.’s Animation Is Film (AIF) festival, founded by distributor GKIDS in partnership with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Variety, has unveiled its competition lineup, special events, and presentations for this year’s five-day celebration which will run October 18-22.

AIF will open with Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, The Boy and the Heron, screening at the TCL Chinese Theater IMAX. Five days later, the festival will finish with Sam Fell’s Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, an Aardman-produced Netflix original that will hit the platform on December 15. Following the Dawn of the Nugget screening, Fell and Aardman co-founder, filmmaker, and executive producer Peter Lord will host an audience Q&A.

In a release, AIF executive director Matt Kaszanek said:

Animation Is Film is not just the name of our festival; it is its mission. 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.

Marcel Jean, Annecy artistic director, and Mickael Marin, Annecy CEO, added:

For its sixth edition, Animation Is Film is back with a great program featuring the films that received the main awards in Annecy last June. 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.

In addition to its feature and short film lineups, this year’s AIF will host special events for Warner Bros.’s 100th anniversary – a program of Looney Tunes shorts and artist Q&A; Disney’s 100th anniversary – a screening of the new Disney short Once Upon a Studio and early footage of the upcoming animated feature Wish; and the North American premiere of The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story – a short film set in the world of the Spider-Verse franchise.

Animation Is Film 2023 Program

Feature Competition Lineup

• Art College 1994 – Liu Jian (China)
• Chicken for Linda! – Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach (France, Italy)
• The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store – Yoshimi Itazu (Japan)
• Mars Express – Jérémie Périn (France)
• Phoenix: Reminiscence of Flower – Shôjirô Nishimi (Japan)
• Robot Dreams – Pablo Berger (Spain, France)
• Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds – Benoît Chieux (Belgium, France)
• The Summer – Han Ji-won (South Korea)

Short Films

• The Day I Became a Bird – Andrew Ruhemann (U.K.)
• Starling – Mitra Shahidi (U.S.)
• Rosemary A.D. (After Dad) – Ethan Barrett (U.S.)
• Letter to a Pig – Tal Kantor (Israel, France)
• Our Uniform – Yegane Moghaddam (Iran)
• Le Grande Arche – Camille Authouart (France)
• The Miracle – Nienke Deutz (Belgium, Netherlands, France)
• 27 – Flóra Anna Buda (France, Hungary)
• La Perra – Carla Melo Gampert (Colombia, France)
• Nun or Never – Heta Jaalinoja (Finland)

Special Screenings

• Trolls Band Together – Walt Dohrn (U.S.)
• The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story – Jarelle Dampier (U.S.)
• Once Upon a Studio – Dan Abraham, Trent Correy (U.S.)

Work In Progress Presentations

• Wish – Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn (U.S.)

AIF will also host a selection of short films from the festival’s educational partners: California Institute of the Arts; University of Southern California; California State University, Long Beach; and California State University, Fullerton. The list of titles will be released soon.

Tickets for this year’s Animation Is Film are available now on the festival’s website.