Ottawa Animation Festival Announces Selections For Its 45th Edition, Including 7 Animated Features

By Alex Dudok de Wit | 07/16/2021 11:05 am | Be the First to Comment!

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) has announced its official selections for its 45th edition, which will be held virtually from September 22 to October 3.

The festival has chosen 107 short films and animated series from 38 different countries, with 48 of those entries playing in the out-of-competition Panorama strand. There will also be seven features in competition. The vr selections will be announced in August.

The organizers made their selections from 2,528 entries — a record, and a significant increase from last year’s 1,950 (after two consecutive years of falling numbers).

The shorts/series lineup includes Joe Hsieh’s Night Bus, winner of this year’s grand prix at Animafest Zagreb; Špela Čadež’s Steakhouse, whose trailer we recently premiered; and an episode of Death Hacks, whose creator Aaron Augenblick we interviewed last year. It also features the latest work from major talents of today, including Yoriko Mizushiri, Marta Pajek, and David O’Reilly.

The features lineup is reproduced in full below:

Archipelago, dir. Félix Dufour-Laperrière (Canada)
Blood of the Family Tree, dir. Chistine Panushka (U.S.)
Bob Spit — We Do Not Like People, dir. Cesar Cabral (Brazil)
Chicken of the Mound, dir. Xi Chen (Germany/China)
Elulu, dir. Gabriel Verdugo Soto (Chile)
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko, dir. Ayumu Watanabe (Japan)
Mount Fuji Seen from a Moving Train, dir. Pierre Hébert (Canada)

On top of these selections, OIAF has announced several special screenings. They include retrospectives of acclaimed experimental animator Jodie Mack and Mariusz Wilczyński, whose Kill It and Leave This Town won the festival’s feature prize last year.

To explore the full program announced so far, head to the OIAF website.

The festival’s poster was designed by Amanda Bonaiuto and Angela Stempel: