A musical allegory using food to express how personal anxieties overwhelm and inhibit my ambitions, made up of layers of stop motion and film elements.

STRIDE & SHINE! is a 2D experimental animation about a character going through a vibrant journey and collecting pieces along the way. It is designed with a container for a head, symbolizing an open and receptive mind. She navigates a world of vibrant colors, abstract characters and shifting environments, shining as she grows through each experience. The film explores the idea of immersing oneself in an ideal, supportive world, embracing the journey where kindness and encouragement guide the character forward. Inspired by the challenges I’ve faced as a foreign student, this piece reflects a hopeful desire to enjoy the process of striding, exploring and experiencing. Through a mixed-media approach that combines digital frame-by-frame animation with hand-painted oil pastels, STRIDE & SHINE! evokes a sense of joy, purpose, and emotional resonance. The vibrant color palette, combined with the rich, tactile textures of oil pastels, enhances the lively, carefree atmosphere of the journey. It encourages viewers to celebrate their progress, value the support they receive, and embrace the joy of self-discovery.

Xinyi Tian is a Chinese artist who has lived in Canada since high school. She specializes in 2D animation, character design, and illustration, and holds a BFA in Experimental Animation from OCAD University (2025).

Xinyi’s work focuses on expressing emotions, character movement, and abstract morphing through vibrant colors, multimedia techniques, and simple yet striking designs. She often works with digital animations, puppet stop-motion and cut-paper animation to bring imaginative worlds to life.

Her artistic goal is to collaborate with other creatives on animation projects exploring themes of time, fantasy, and personal growth. Looking ahead, She hopes to deepen her exploration of narrative animation and experiment with interactive digital media to uncover new ways of blending storytelling with experimental techniques.

Through audio recordings taken in the field and poetic moving images, the film portrays activists who use food as a tool in their anti-consumerist struggle.

Au travers d’enregistrements audio pris sur le terrain et d’images animées
poétiques, le film dresse le portrait d’activistes qui utilisent l’alimentation comme outil dans leur lutte anticonsumériste.

In 2019, Zinia Scorier and Marie Royer completed their animation studies at Albert Jacquard in Belgium by co-directing the short film “Immersion” with Mathis Dubrul. Since then, Zinia and Marie gravitate around Brussels and St Quirin (fr) to give life to their first short film Mealitancy (Plat de résistance).

On a street corner in the city, a heap of dumped garbage surrounds two garbage containers. An old mattress begins to speak sadly: “They say I’m dirty…” Other pieces of garbage join in, sharing the reasons why they have been discarded. Then, a newspaper is picked up by the wind and seems to dance in the spotlight of a streetlamp. Inspired, the waste begins to see themselves positively. Their enthusiasm evolves into a spectacle of song and dance.

On the occasion of the 27th birthday of Minoo, we join her to observe the disorders and mental illnesses of her friends from her point of view. But this is not an ordinary birthday.

Born in Tehran, Iran (1986) Samaneh Shojaei has cultivated her artistic vision through 12 years as a professional animator. Her journey began with a B.A. in Painting. Seeking to deepen her understanding of time-based media, she completed a Master’s in Animation Directing at Tehran Art University. Her 2017 graduation film, “Ascribed Achievements,” achieved significant international acclaim, screening at renowned festivals like Annecy and numerous Oscar-qualifying film festivals. The enthusiastic reception of this film encouraged her to produce “Gray Body” (2019), which win awards at both national and international festivals. Her latest work, the 8-minute psychological drama “Thank You Dr. Farsi,” has completed in January 2025, will be screening in Annecy animation festival 2025 in short competition. Currently, she is enrolled in the Erasmus Mundus Re:Anima program, a joint Master’s degree holding in Belgium, Finland, and Portugal, where she specializes in expanded VR technology to incorporate into her next film.

Investigating the interplay and love affair between sound and image.
An abstract experimental animation experience produced by drawing both sounds and pictures directly onto 35mm film. (2024)

Richard is a kinetic film scratcher, visual music maker, animated traveller of time and space, light sensitive, spinner of zoetrope’s, looper of loops and collector of projection bulbs for enlightenment.
He is best known for creating animations by drawing both sound and picture directly onto film and has produced award winning films that have screened around the world.
He is an honorary member of the Quickdraw Animation Society and previously worked at QAS as Film Production Coordinator.
He mentored workshops at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School for 10 years and taught animation courses across Canada, Europe and South America.
Richard has collaborated with artists often involving dancing human projection screens, interactive animation installations, online animation jams and large outdoor projections.
He has attended Artist in Residence programs at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá Colombia and Iris Film Collective in Vancouver BC.
Richard continues to explore animation as a visual music time and space art form.

A journey through the pages of my mother’s old Chinese-English dictionary, feat. tigers, socialists and roundabouts. Combining ink drawings on paper with direct animation on 35mm film, various definitions of the Chinese character for ‘walk’ take on meanings in turn literal, historical, personal and abstract.

An experimental animated short about language, meaning and moving through the world (one drawing at a time).

Hannah Wu is an artist and animator from London. With a focus on materiality, her work explores ideas around identity, language and cross-cultural exchange.

Whereabouts is a riso-printed animated short following a woman’s journey through NYC—unfolding through small, intimate moments. An observation on presence, connection, and the quiet magic of simply moving through the world.

Suejee Lee is an award-winning Korean American animator and illustrator based in Brooklyn.
Her art practice is rooted in a commitment to sequential art and telling human stories, guided by a DIY, independent approach. Her work is sensitive, tender, and intimate—often poetic in nature, inspired by the emotional landscapes of everyday life.
Her films have screened at festivals and animation showcases around the world. With a diverse portfolio spanning commercials, television, and live show visuals, she has collaborated with clients including Google, Netflix, Riot Games, and HBO. She also contributed animation and storyboards to an Emmy-nominated docuseries, is a recipient of the 2024 Anthem Award and was a RisoLAB Artist-in-Residence for Spring 2025.

Three strange cats, having a good old medieval time! A tapestry of silly and absurd moments inspired by the fascinating world of animals in medieval art. An hommage to the colourful way characters are depicted in ancient manuscript, in their perfect imperfection.

I’m a stop-motion artist based in Montreal. Throughout my career, I’ve had the opportunity to create animations for clients such as Netflix and Adult Swim. My experience also includes animation for various short films, series, and commercials, particularly at the NFB and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios. My artistic approach is based on an intuitive method, where I strive to convey emotions through my work. I enjoy incorporating an improvisational dimension into the art of stop motion, which is generally very precise.

Plants foraged in Tkaronto’s Kensington Market and Parkdale are brought to life in this experimental film by Anivides (Cristal Buemi and Francisca Duran).

Cristal Buemi is a Puerto Rican-Canadian award-winning multidisciplinary artist (stop motion animation, video art/installation, collage and digital design). Her work pushes frame by frame boundaries by exploring the diaspora through land and its relation to the body, materiality and inherent beauty found in the minutia. Through a mindful, feminist, experimental, and ecological lens, Cristal focuses on abstract storytelling, sustainability and texture. Her works have been exhibited worldwide including: The New York City Independent Film Festival, Yonge-Dundas Square, Animac, Harbourfront Centre’s CoMotion Festival, Fashion Art Toronto, Venus Fest, Sommets du cinema d’animation, Cardiff Animation Night and broadcasted on AMC, MTV, BellMedia and HBO.

Francisca Duran is a Chilean-Canadian experimental media artist who creates films, video installation, and 2D, photo-based, mixed-media works about history, memory and violence. Duran has exhibited internationally at film festivals and venues including Edinburgh International Film Festival, International Film Festival at Rotterdam, HotDocs, Arkipel, Anthology Film Archives, Los Angeles Film Forum, John Hansard Gallery and Gallery 44. Duran holds an M.F.A. from York University and a B.A.H. from Queen’s University and continues her professional development through artist mentorships and artist-run centres. Currently, she serves as sessional faculty at York University and conducts plant-based-processing and phytography workshops internationally.

Medieval Catholic mystic Hildegard von Bingen reconciles the virgin/whore dichotomy in a psychedelic, erotic vision. Hildegard was known for her waking visions of the divine, her musical compositions, and her extensive medical encyclopedias. The animated imagery in this film is inspired by her surviving transcriptions, which suggest a departure from the mainstream views of her culture. In this speculative fictional tale, Hildegard has a vision in which erotic dancers appear to her as embodiments of the divine. The narration is strategically selected and collaged from Hildegard’s texts.

A nude model is posing with statuesque stillness for an elite drawing class – until an unfortunate mosquito bite challenges his self-control. Driven to madness by the itch, he’s caught between the ruthless demand for perfection and his most unhinged, animalistic impulses.

Born in Sweden and brought up in Switzerland, Oscar Jacobson was drawn to artistic creation at an early age. Many of his formative years he spent thinking up different characters and worlds. After training as a graphic designer at an advertising agency, he studied Animation at the Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, where he graduated in 2024.
During this time he developed greatly as an animation- and concept artist, as well as a director.

Three generations of women sit around a table as the granddaughter begins asking questions about the past. A small spark reveals inherited family memories of conflict and struggle in Northern Ireland. Images emerge, marked by the profound absence of words.

Meg is an animation director from Northern Ireland. Having graduated from the University for the Creative arts in 2019, she received a British Animation Award for her undergraduate film Border/Line. Most recently, she completed her MA at the National Film and Television School and is currently living in Bristol.

A yellow and blue day in the life of a little child.

Anh Tú Nguyen (*1998) is a visual artist, animator and animation from Germany. After school he worked as an intern and freelancer at Studio FILM BILDER. In 2023 he graduated from the ABK Stuttgart with a diploma in communication design. Since 2023 he‘s studying animation directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. Since 2024 he’s teaching analogue animation at the ABK Stuttgart.

Robin Riad’s short hand-drawn analogue film ostensibly teaches the pronunciation of the Arabic Alphabet in 28 easy steps. In actuality, the hand-drawn letters were printed using a laser jet printer onto the optical soundtrack of 16mm film, and what you hear in the film is the projector reading the letters, and interpreting them into sound. Riad uses humour to play with and sit with her mother tongue, offering a ‘false’ lesson in pronunciation. A response to a digital form of anti-Arab hate that Riad witnessed online coming out of the genocide in Gaza, Abgad Hawaz is a way for her to hold close to her language, culture, and roots. – Tara Hakim, Toronto Queer Film Festival (2024)

Robin Riad is an experimental filmmaker, film programmer, and visual artist. Robin works with analogue mediums, and enjoys exploring the materiality of film in her work. She has screened in countries such as the United States, Spain, Italy, Germany, India and more. When not making films, Robin spends her time teaching workshops, making potions in the darkroom, and volunteering at local arts organizations. Robin will never say no to a Coke Zero or Kinder Bueno if offered.

Busy Bodies is a hand-drawn animation that combines inkjet and screen printing. Inspired by Rube Goldberg machines, the film explores the undisclosed production journey of easily disposable objects. The images of the film cycle and deteriorate, visualizing the repetition, speed, and destructive nature of the factory method supply chain.

content advisory: Photosensitivity Warning (Rapid Flashing and Strobing Images), Animal Death

A butch lesbian is accosted by a manifestation of their Catholic-school-going, homophobic, younger self.

Mya Van Dyk is a Toronto based artist specializing in animation. They studied Experimental Animation at OCAD University with a minor in Drawing and Painting. They deal with themes of lesbian identity, girlhood, and connection, drawing from personal experiences through a heightened and whimsical lens. Their work centres queer narratives through their own personal experience and lens. With an affinity for explosion and transformation motifs in their work, Van Dyk aims to make captivating short films that utilize the narrative and creative potential of animation.