Animation Festivals Directory

An annual animation festival that runs each November at the Globe Cinema in Calgary, Alberta, GIRAF celebrates the spirit of independent, underground, and experimental animation, showcasing Canadian animators and presenting diverse animations from around the globe.

Presented by the Quickdraw Animation Society, a non-profit dedicated to the art of animation, GIRAF is committed to creating greater awareness for animation as an art form. We do this through interactive activities including workshops, artist talks, installations, live performances, and visiting artists (recent guest artists include Renee Zhan, 24MemesPerSecond, Anna Firth, Christiane Cegavske, MidKnife Films, Phil Tippet, Amanda Strong, Sean Buckelew, Amy Lockhart, Kirsten Lepore, Caleb Wood, among many others), and through thoughtfully curated screenings. Our programming is aimed at promoting animation to animation fans, local filmmakers and a general audience; we do not have an industry focus or marketplace.

Our festival focuses on presenting works that push boundaries through the development of new techniques, hybrid forms of creation, and challenging subject matter, and love discovering artists and films that have been missed by other festivals. Mostly, we are looking for independent and artful animated films to share with our audience in Calgary. That can mean abstract or narrative, hand-drawn or computer-generated, student films or well-established professionals, or somewhere in between. We want films we can be excited about, films that are pushing forward what animation can do, and films that make us feel things (even if that feeling is just “oh my gosh, this is ridiculous”).

Year established: 2005

Is this festival exclusively animation?: Yes - this is exclusively an animation festival

Is there a marketplace at this festival?: No

Physical event or online?: Physical & Online Festival