The Animation Is Film Festival (AIF) wrapped its ninth edition in Los Angeles, with Leah Nelson\u2019s Tangles taking the Grand Jury Prize for features and Don Hertzfeldt\u2019s Paper Trail winning the top shorts honor.<\/p>\n
Held from October 16\u201319 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood and the Academy Museum\u2019s David Geffen Theater, this year\u2019s event featured nine features and 18 shorts in its competition sections, alongside special screenings, filmmaker conversations, and studio previews.<\/p>\n
2026 ANIMATION IS FILM WINNERS<\/p>\n
Grand Jury Prize: Tangles, Leah Nelson
\nAudience Award: Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
\nFumi Kitahara Special Jury Prize: Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
\nGrand Jury Prize \u2013 Shorts: Paper Trail, Don Hertzfeldt
\nSpecial Jury Prize \u2013 Shorts: Please, Anna Mantzaris<\/p>\n
Adapted from Sarah Leavitt\u2019s graphic novel, Tangles impressed the features jury with its fluid 2D animation and sensitive portrayal of a family navigating a mother\u2019s dementia. According to the jury:<\/p>\n
We loved the fluid 2D animation which uses a stark monochrome framing to bring to life the personal story of a family impacted by the mother\u2019s battle with dementia. We were especially impressed with how director Leah Nelson and her perfectly cast voice team were able to remain faithful to Sarah Leavitt\u2019s graphic novel which tackles a serious, painful subject with great beauty, honesty, and a gentle touch and also offers a great flashback to 1990s-era San Francisco.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s feature competition jury included producer and incoming Women in Animation president Jinko Gotoh, Tonko House co-founder and The Dam Keeper co-director Dice Tsutsumi, and Animation Magazine editor-in-chief Ramin Zahed.<\/p>\n
Louis Clichy\u2019s Iron Boy picked up both the Audience Award and the Fumi Kitahara Special Jury Prize, named in memory of the beloved publicist and AIF champion who died in 2025. The jury praised the film\u2019s watercolor-like and Chinese ink-brush visuals, along with its portrayal of a boy\u2019s physical disability and strained relationship with his father, inspired by Clichy\u2019s memories of growing up in rural France.<\/p>\n
Iron Boy is pure beauty from the medium we all love. Louis Clichy\u2019s Iron Boy was an easy stand-out thanks to its beautifully crafted water-color-like and Chinese ink-brush style visuals and how it told a story inspired by the director\u2019s own memories of growing up in rural France. We also admired the way Clichy conveyed a world of emotions with his impressionistic visuals as well as his depiction of a young boy\u2019s personal struggles with a physical handicap and the heartfelt portrayal of a strained father-and-son relationship which avoids sentimentality and the pitfalls of a traditional coming-of-age story.<\/p>\n
In the shorts competition, Hertzfeldt\u2019s Paper Trail earned unanimous praise for its distinctive visual language and approach to narrative and form. Jurors called it \u201cunique and profoundly moving\u201d and a film that \u201cstayed with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna Mantzaris\u2019s Please received the Special Jury Prize for shorts, with jurors highlighting its felt-puppet stop-motion craft, whimsy, and characterization. The jury described it as \u201ca wonderfully made, funny, and tender film that captures the absurdity and very human longing for connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shorts jury included City of Ghosts creator Elizabeth Ito, animation historian and Cartoon Brew co-founder Jerry Beck, and actor and director Rachel House, whose voice credits include Moana and Soul.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnimation Is Film is a festival, but it is also an argument: animated films should never be lumped together under the broad heading \u2018Animation,\u2019\u201d said festival director Matt Kaszanek after this year\u2019s event had wrapped. \u201cAnimation is drama and comedy, musical and horror; features and shorts, documentary and fiction, narrative and experimental.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond the competition, highlights included the first big-screen presentation of Dana Terrace\u2019s Knights of Guinevere<\/a>, a special screening of Laika\u2019s Wildwood with Travis Knight, a behind-the-scenes look at Disney\u2019s Hexed, and a work-in-progress presentation of Matt Braly\u2019s Clara and the Below.<\/a><\/p>\n The festival also hosted a Wolfwalkers screening with Cartoon Saloon founders Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey, and Paul Young, and the inaugural live edition of The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s Animation Roundtable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Animation Is Film Festival (AIF) wrapped its ninth edition in Los Angeles, with Leah Nelson\u2019s Tangles taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397],"class_list":["post-657633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}