Recognise that feeling when you're so bored at work that you'd rather play online solitaire? The first block of international non-competitive films will take you deeper into the burning desire for touch, the impossibility of stepping out of a circle drawn in chalk on the ground, and the surreal experience of having flower petals for dinner – which then transform into stars.

Robin spends her days at the hostel reception, playing online chess to the droning lobby music. But as eccentric guests create ever more bizarre chaos, she too gets swept up in the absurdity.

Mom always braided my hair tightly, creating a visible path on my head, but one day, she cut off my braids. As I stepped forward alone, I felt the unbreakable bond between us and the uncharted journey of female growth we weren’t ready for.

In a blank room, a bug, a car, and a humanoid search for escape from the control of invisible cyberspace entities, feeling exhaustion and fear. BUGs is a sci-fi animation exploring cyber presence, loneliness, and burnout, where three characters from humanity, technology, and nature desperately seek freedom and connection despite their differences.
The film explores a young woman’s struggle to balance motherhood and creativity. Through polorelief clay animation, the film poignantly depicts her world crumbling, mirroring a clay sculpture falling apart in her hands.

O Nobly-Born, your breathing is about to cease. Listen with full attention, without being distracted. O Nobly-Born, go forward, you have been in a swoon. The film was inspired by the book titled “Tibetan Book of the Dead” (1927).

An intimate look at a symbiotic relationship between Happy Green, a little green turtle, and an elusive black flower.
With a lot of humor, love and sarcasm, Mabel Lozano tells us in first person about her journey with a cancer-chickpea in her left breast. Although this is not just Mabel's story, it is also that of millions of women.

The girl draws a circle on the ground. Passersby step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people, struggling to stay within. Once the girl returns and erase the circle, people start heading their way.

Six-year-old Diego overextends his screen time and develops square eyes, unleashing strange phenomena through the building’s screens. When officers Kim and Mike respond to a noise complaint, they’re thrown into a chaotic clash with fiction come to life.

A child sneaks out at night in rubber boots and enters the undergrowth, where a curious beast leads him to the forest’s nocturnal creatures. Not wanting to be alone again, the beast tries to delay his departure as long as possible.
Best of Fest Anča 2024 presents a curated collection of award-winning short animated films from last year’s Fest Anča International Animation Festival, selected from over 1,100 submissions. An international jury awarded prizes in four categories – and now you can watch the very best: standout short animations, exceptional student films, creative music videos, and captivating films for children.

Battery Mommy works at various stuffs. During the children's nap time, she finds out the Christmas tree in the nursery is on fire. She urgently runs to the fire alarm to safely rescue sleeping children...
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Animated short about sparkledogs, werewolves and other things that are JUST drawings.

During a performance in the Moscow underground, the group IC3PEAK invoked an evil entity: Kim Dracula, in the form of a giant worm.

Music Video for Cécile Mclorin Salvant. The lore of Melusine.

Bob the plumber is hired to fix a broken pipe & lands to his surprise in a gay fetish club.


In a farmhouse a woman tries to lure the resident house spirit – a mischievous Nisse – with offerings of food. Spring is just around the corner, but a winter's chill still lingers.
In the heart of the seabed, between rocks and corals primitive seaweed ripples, cradled by the muffled sound of roiling currents. Up there, on the surface of the water, something extraordinary has just appeared: a voice.

Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her fire-breathing twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky, who is full of grit and lust for life. From Academy Award-winning® animation writer and director Adam Elliot, Memoir of a Snail is a poignant, heartfelt, hilarious chronicle of the life of an outsider finding her confidence and silver linings amongst the clutter of everyday life. The film was nominated for both an Academy Awards and a Golden Globe.

The island off Ireland is bustling with activity as hundreds of new monks arrive, having lost their homes to the storms. Una and her little brother Baba make new friends, like Isabelle, Phoenix and Marvin. When the last monk egg is lost and a storm approaches, they must all work together to save the egg before danger arrives.
While microsleeping on a long overnight bus journey, a giant lizard from a children’s book comes to say goodbye in the second block of non-competitive shorts. You’ll also find yourself in a meadow full of dichotomies, where traditional Chinese opera is remixed into something entirely new.

As the people of a medieval village celebrate the beginning of summer, the Royal Family experiences an identity crisis. The King thinks he's made of glass, the Princess dreams of becoming the king, and the Prince is trapped in the body of a donkey.

The film is an experimental short exploring emotional pain through poetic text and haunting visuals. It captures loss, helplessness, and the tension between decay and growth, embodying a dark, pulsing femininity on the brink of destruction.

Strawberry is a very busy fruit, she has a lot on her plate. Her friend Flower is always around to remind her to do her very best ! But Strawberry is getting tired of always doing her very best.

Anxious teenager Ūla is taken on an unexpected adventure during her swimming practise, through which she grows-up and learns to see her body anew.

Having finished reading the last instalment of a wonderful saga featuring pirates and a giant lizard, Lou has to get back to everyday life – but reality is sorely disappointing.

In a cave, a lifeless puppet awakens and absorbs vitality from the world around it. As it blurs the boundaries between itself and nature, it comes to understand the cycle of life and death.

A girl and her pet fish share a love-hate relationship. After a conflict caused by a misunderstanding, the girl impulsively throws the fish into a river. Filled with regret and longing, she eventually returns to the river.

Set to rhythmic music and traditional Chinese opera, the film explores dualism, truth, and illusion through recurring contrasts like life and death or fire and water. The protagonist drifts through a dreamlike state, while "hope" emerges as both a promise of liberation and a fragile illusion amid chaos.

At a midnight highway rest area, the weary travelers each quietly relax their minds. A brief moment spent with complete strangers is lonely yet somehow comforting.
2025 is the Year of the Serpent – symbolizing the shedding of old skin, transformation, and new beginnings. But what lies beneath those discarded layers? Butterfly wings or fish scales? In this section, you'll enter stories of friends whose bodies begin to shift with puberty, and witness the unexpected transformation of a Minotaur that fractures the binary. From coming-of-age to body horror, these tales push the boundaries of physicality, love, and life itself.

Nerozlučné najlepšie kamarátky trávia posledné letné prázdniny detstva zábavou v dome. Počas leta sa ich telá začínajú meniť a ich kamarátstvo je zrazu trápne. AKoby bola puberta odhodlaná preťať ich puto.

Exploration of masculinity begins with the Minotaur, a mythical creature Picasso used to portray himself in his etching print series. The Minotaur goes through a violent struggle between being male and female. Finally, lines blur and boundaries of sexes disappear.

A lonesome xylophone player finds a viciously growing tumor under his arm. In his attempts to get rid of the tumor he discovers that it has some unconventional qualities.

Carol panics after Ray’s sudden proposal, and things spiral when she wakes in an apocalyptic world — where Ray has turned into a butterfly. As reality unravels and tensions rise, Carol fears losing her… but loving someone fully might come at a cost.
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The film explores growing anger and frustration in a heroine who loses control. Through animation, it depicts suppressed rage and imagined violence, reflecting intense emotions. The style uses organic lines and expressive color, with natural sounds heightening the emotional impact.

The animated short is about anxiety as a consequence of expanding consciousness through the implantation of new media.

Fish Boy, a half-boy, half-fish teenager, struggles with rejection in a fishing village. His father wants him to become a fisherman, but his differences create tension in relationships, leading to a deeper internal conflict.

"Hélène, 40 years old, comes to visit her aging mother in the french countryside. But her mother isn't being her usual self. She seems to have formed a strange bond with the plants, insects, and the old oak tree at the end of her garden..."

Adam is a 15-year-old teenager who has the strange peculiarity of having a body that changes, in based on the mockery and negative comments he receives from those around him. The accumulation of its physical changes only adds a layer of complexity to those already present in his life. The summer when Ange, his grandmother, dies, he has to work to develop his autonomy. He maintains the huge house of the family of Kevin Brousseau, a haughty teenager who left in summer vacation. He also has to maintain Mr. Bibeau's lawn, but he can no longer care for himself, because of his heart operation. In addition to his strange body which deforms without ceases, Adam must learn to juggle summer jobs, his friendship with Timothée, the desire that he feels towards Jeanne, the intimidation he suffers from Glazer's gang, his natural clumsiness, the family complications with his sister Karine, self-discovery and several other facets of teenage life that can be as difficult as it is beautiful.

VLZQUES is a music journalist and DJ from Slovakia. As editor-in-chief of Swine Daily magazine, he focuses on discovering new artists and labels, particularly from South America. His selections blend gences such as experimental baile funk, reggaeton, RKT, and dembow.
This section showcases the very best of world animation — get ready for a bizarre tale about a boy who wins a giant fish-shaped candy but refuses to share it, an investigative stop-motion uncovering the hidden layers of street graffiti, and an animated documentary reconstructing the events of 24 February 2022.

On a rainy day, two schoolgirls from opposite boarding schools meet. Under the immobile gaze of two giant statues, they begin to lose track of time, as the rain seems never to stop...

Minsu wins a giant fish-shaped candy but refuses to share, only to be swallowed by a giant fish from the sky. After being expelled through its poop hole, he finds himself drained of all nutrients in a bizarre scene.

SKRFF_ology explores the hidden cultural and political history embedded in public graffiti walls through an investigative excavation. Using stop-motion animation, artists activate the layers of history, blending archaeology with sgraffito sculpture to question if the past can ever be fully remembered.

On February 24, 2022, my boyfriend and I fled Kyiv to Irpin, surviving 10 days in the blockaded city before escaping on the last convoy. Though I survived, the feeling that I died in Irpin never left me—this film reconstructs that experience.

A young woman is stuck in the hold queue of a telephone hotline. A surreal episodic short film about the absurdities of urban life and the frustration of a paralysing standstill.

Sam, a bold flower-person artist, prepares for a transformative final act while their mother struggles to accept their choice. A tense yet heartfelt day at a flower spa leads to understanding, culminating in a powerful performance of self-acceptance and love.
A man searches for the shortest thing in Tokyo, discovering it's a syllable spoken by a dying man. Koji Yamamura's Extremely Short, part of the Bungaku Bideo series, adapts Hideo Furukawa's story, narrated by the author.


Not really into K-pop, thrash metal, or rock? No worries. This year’s music video selection goes way beyond genres – from a giant worm of capitalism to a hybrid creature adapting to an uncertain future. Expect visuals inspired by the eerie atmosphere of Murnau’s Nosferatu, as well as raw reflections on the current reality in Mexico.
One person's futile struggle to turn back time in a form of a music video / animated short film.

Official music video for Jules Ahoi's song ICARUS. Directed and animated by Julia Jesionek.

A music video depicting a nation's decline, following a lonely man trapped in mediocrity, surrounded by crime, corruption, and poverty. The lyrics urge listeners to rise and fight against the growing evil.
The instrumental piece "Minimal 2.0" is translated into video and stop-motion. The video explores the mental chaos of a traffic jam, where inactivity triggers obsessive thoughts. A man, stuck in his own mind, becomes a passenger in his head, trapped existentially.

The Quicksand video symbolizes self-loathing and anxiety that can't be escaped. The mouse represents a part of the protagonist she wants to reject, embodying dark emotions that grow relentlessly, eventually consuming her despite her attempts to escape.

The protagonist in a park loses and regrows their senses, from the microscopic to overwhelming reality. As their body regenerates, they transform into a hybrid, adapting to an uncertain future. The video, with charcoal, watercolor, ink, and microscope footage, explores adaptation and the search for connection.

Au cœur du son is an artistic journey and daydream where Marie and Lucas embody visual codes, much like Murnau's Nosferatu, conveying the intense attraction and tragic fate of the protagonists without words.

Official music video for legendary German thrash-metal band, TANKARD, created by animation students at RMIT University in Melbourne Australia.

Music video for the song “Ye Kou Si Kuo” by musicians Naive New Beaters and Star Feminine Band.

Music video for "Autopollo" by HPTA MENDEZ.

Caroline, who has a trauma about rabbits, experiences bizarre hallucinations in a mental hospital.

Henry wanders through Wyrmlands, England destroyed by capitalism’s giant worm. In his despair, he remembers saving an injured worm as a child. Perhaps salvation lies in reconnecting with his inner child.

What are you going to do when I am no longer here? A question that is thrown into the air as a message that flies over a photographic nostalgia of what has been lived and still to live.
O!PLA FOCUS ON POLAND vol.12 - a unique program presenting the winners and movies of the 12th O!PLA Animation Festival (2024). As always, the only Jury at O!PLA was the audience, in 2024, from 30. cities in Poland (O!PLA means „Oh! Polish Animation”, but also: “Oh! People Love Animation”). O!PLA FOCUS ON POLAND is an annual prestigious selection; an amazing mix of techniques, styles, and emotions showing what happens in modern Polish animation.

The film explores the raw pain of losing a child—an intimate portrait of grief, anger, and isolation. It shows a world no one is prepared for, where familiar reactions no longer apply.

A journey through the subconscious, the visions are surreal interpretations of hidden fears. The ego, fearing disintegration, tries to resist it.

A woman battles creative block, wine in hand, as fear of failure—embodied in deep red—haunts her. This ink animation mirrors her inner struggle with self-doubt and lost confidence.

A short story tackling the issue of eating disorders. As the main character gets smaller, her alter ego floating in a teacup grows.
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When Cranes lead the Man into a world of beauty and dance, he must choose his priorities. As he drifts away, the Woman fights her trauma for one last chance, the Child sinks into nightmares—and the Cranes keep dancing.

In this film party animals go wild. A girl heads out hunting—and ends up having the wildest night of her life.

Out of breath on the stairs? Tired of your slim figure? No time for the gym? Turbo Chicken is for you! Packed with protein, testosterone, and more—tastes like Silesian roulade! Eat and grow! The rest of the leaflet is unreadable.

Inert figures lie deep in the ocean, waiting for the sun that may bring escape. A painted animation about fear and the uncertain hope for better times.

Landscapes loosing friends collage getting tinnitus synthesizers climate crisis generator the end.

It is a short but very intense journey into the depths of the ocean. What we know well becomes something completely different.

Film is a poetic animated story about an elderly couple, Bronka and Zygfryd, facing isolation and the woman's illness. As reality fragments, they experience regret, pain, and repulsion, yet strive to remember their once-lasting love.

The Great Spideress collects sunlight in a jar and creates the first Man, raising him like a son. As he matures and the jar fills, she takes him to a secret cave, marking the moment when their paths must part. The story explores the evolving bond between mother and child.
The Best Animated Films for Children 2024 brings you a hand-picked selection of the finest contemporary short films for kids – films you won’t find anywhere else. Curated by the team behind Fest Anča International Animation Festival, this programme is designed to give children and their parents unforgettable storytelling and visual experiences from the world of animation. This international collection is packed with fun, educational value, and creative diversity. It showcases distinctive authorial voices, imaginative art styles, and original animation techniques – everything that makes auteur animation such a rich and inspiring experience for young audiences.

After a forest fire caused by humans, a young bark beetle girl loses her family, suffers burns to her hand, and must navigate the perilous human world alone.

In an ocean full of big, bad fish, the pufferfish is trying to seem as big and strong as possible.

In the spin cycle of the washing machine, a sock initially fears being lost until it discovers other garments, testing its friendships. Ultimately, the sock couple learns to embrace their differences. The film highlights themes of friendship and openness.

Rainboy, an unconventional gardener who cultivates clouds from drops, accidentally injures the vain sun but ultimately collaborates with the clouds to restore the sun's spirits despite a grim prognosis.

A community of garden creatures all contribute to the flow of life, using water from a fountain. When a butterfly gets stuck in the fountain, they’re faced with an unfamiliar situation.

Tyrano, playing tennis alone, encounters Brachi, but their attempts to play together are hindered by Brachi's frequent falls. Despite Tyrano's efforts to protect Brachi from harm, Brachi's diminishing interest in tennis raises questions about their compatibility as partners.

Battery Mommy works at various stuffs. During the children's nap time, she finds out the Christmas tree in the nursery is on fire. She urgently runs to the fire alarm to safely rescue sleeping children...
How is hair loss connected to losing a father? Why has a girl named Candice been exploding two or three times a day for the past three months? And what happens when a young raver gets caught in a freak accident and takes refuge in a mysterious tavern amidst the Argentine pampas? A vibrant and breathtaking selection of shorts will reveal the answers.

A man recounts his capillary peregrinations through his adolescence - from the barber’s trauma to his first love to the loss of his hair and eventually his father. Through this, we see a construction of a masculinity in the making.

A woman's ability to give birth to marine creatures, is exploited for commercial purposes.

A data engineer believes multitasking saves time but only creates chaos, leaving his life in disarray. He finds joy only when he lets go of control and time breaks apart.

A distressed woman reflects on "that woman" visiting her city, as inexplicable sensations torment her like the plum rain. She sinks into the reeds growing from the wounds on her finger.

Martín, a young raver, is caught in a strange accident on his way to a party in the Argentine Pampas and takes refuge in a mysterious tavern. As paranoia and unsettling visions take over, he confronts supernatural forces lurking in the night.

Separation, fever dreaming, and a deflated celebration.

Six years old Lily visits her grandmother after grandma had a mastectomy and doesn’t have breasts anymore. At night, Lily finds out that the shadow of grandma has the breasts, Lily follows her and tries to get the breasts back for her grandma.

Stone of Destiny follows the journey of a mystical stone searching for its purpose. Despite settling in a coastal villa, it learns that finding one's path can be beautiful, even amidst uncertainty.

For the past three months, Candice has been exploding every day. Sometimes even 2 or 3 times a day. Her record is seven times. She currently has 192 explosions.
The second collection of films by female directors from Central and Eastern Europe is once again composed of films screened by the members of the Animation Festival Network (Anifilm, Animafest, Fest Anča, Animest and Animateka). This year’s selection was put together by the programme directors of the abovementioned festivals and premiered this February at the Clérmont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival.
The showcase offers various films and different views on the world and animation. It includes, for instance, the acclaimed film I Died in Irpin portraying the director’s personal experiences from bombed Ukraine, and another acclaimed, distinctly stylised and disturbing Polish puppet film Such Miracles Do Happen.

A disturbing near-future tale where people live isolated in tiny homes, lost in a virtual world of endless streaming. They think they’re free—until one person steps outside and discovers the truth their digital overlords want to keep hidden.

On February 24, 2022, my boyfriend and I fled Kyiv to Irpin, surviving 10 days in the blockaded city before escaping on the last convoy. Though I survived, the feeling that I died in Irpin never left me—this film reconstructs that experience.

A community of garden creatures all contribute to the flow of life, using water from a fountain. When a butterfly gets stuck in the fountain, they’re faced with an unfamiliar situation.

A lost soul wanders through the night forest until he finds others like him by a fire. Freed by the night and flames, they're ready to share the stories that led them there.

One day, all the statues in the area come to life. They leave the roadside shrines and pedestals and calmly set off straight ahead, all in the same direction.
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The wise birdwoman sends three birds to guide a girl into the dark unknown landscapes of her inner world.
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In a small town of human-animal hybrids, Paula the lonely centaur pedicurist dreams of having human feet. When she falls for Arnold, a charming crocodile-man, love blooms—until conflict forces her to choose between love and self-acceptance.
Who better to decide who wins the Award for Best Animated Short for Children than kids themselves?! Will it be the bat in a golden dress or the poisonous mushroom who bakes delicious cakes – but everyone is too scared to eat them? The hearts of our youngest visitors will also be contested by a pig on skates who overcomes its fears to befriend a big fish, and a dog with a spike in his bottom.

Every morning, Boris the village baker makes a fresh batch of crusty bread and pastries for all his neighbours until… Achoo! He can’t stop sneezing. He has become allergic to flour. How will he manage to keep baking for everyone in the village?

In the early morning, an architect picks ripe tomatoes from their garden to pack a lunch. Eco-energy from small acts of stewardship powers them as they face the climate crisis again.
Two friends ice-skating in a winter wonderland stumble upon a strange world beneath the ice. They must face it without fear or preconceptions.

The hedgehog is just about to go into hibernation when he notices that one of his spines is missing. It's stuck in Lena's dog's bottom, of all places. Getting it back won't be easy...
Bobel, a poisonous little mushroom, dreams of becoming a cook at his village market. But the prejudices of the villagers will make his task difficult.

Every night, Paulette wishes on a shooting star to find her missing pet rat. As days pass without its return, she wonders what's wrong with her star.