Nine Animated Films Compete in Hollywood. Opening Night Is a TV Show.

Dana Terrace's series "Knights of Guinevere" opens the ninth edition at the TCL Chinese 6, the first series to do it.

Nine animated features will compete at the ninth edition of Animation Is Film, the Los Angeles animation showcase. The festival runs October 16 to 19, 2026, at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood. The 2026 slate was published September 22, 2026, as first reported by IndieWire, which described several of the competition titles as among the year's animated Oscar contenders.

For anyone tracking that race without a studio badge, it's four days on Hollywood Boulevard to see the films in a theater rather than on a screener link. The same auditoriums turn over quickly: AFI Fest takes the Chinese 6 the week after.

Opening night breaks the festival's own habit. Animation Is Film has never launched with a series before, and this year it starts with the first two episodes of Dana Terrace's "Knights of Guinevere," a screening the festival bills as a "world-first theatrical premiere," following the online debut of episode 1.02.

Festival director Matt Kaszanek called Terrace the artist behind "one of the most beloved animated series of this decade," IndieWire reported, framing the screening as her return to showrunning.

The competition is stacked with prize winners from the European circuit. Louis Clichy's "Iron Boy" took the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at Cannes plus the Jury Award and the Audience Award at Annecy, and arrives in Hollywood after playing Toronto and New York. Leah Nelson's "Tangles" premiered at Cannes. "Julián" is the newest feature from Cartoon Saloon, the Irish animation house.

The rest of the field: "Jim Queen," a queer favorite at Cannes and Annecy; "Ghost — End of Night," getting its North American premiere; the hand-drawn Brazilian feature "O Filho Da Puta (Son of a Bitch)"; "The Violinist," which won the Cristal at Annecy; "Viva Carmen!"; and "Cherry and Virgin."

That's a lineup assembled from Cannes, Annecy and Kilkenny more than from Burbank. The one Los Angeles studio on the marquee is Walt Disney Animation, and it isn't in competition — the festival is hosting a behind-the-scenes look at "Hexed," which hasn't been released.

The sidebar programming runs to studio presentations, filmmaker talks, retrospectives and works in progress. Cartoon Saloon's founders will sit for a conversation about the studio's 25 years. Paramount's 2026 hit "Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender" gets a rare theatrical showing, and Yoshiaki Kawajiri's 2000 cult title "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" returns to a screen. Matt Braly's "Clara and the Below" appears as a work in progress.

The full slate is posted on the festival's website. The run starts October 16, 2026.

Source: indiewire.com, retrieved September 23, 2026.