Special Screenings & Exhibits
Curated by the OIAF programming team and members of the international animation community, the Special Screenings and Retrospectives programs highlight the best of the past and present, showcasing the endless potential animation has to offer.
Special screenings and exhibits bring together themed programs, showcases of specific animation techniques, premieres, and spotlights that offer unique ways to experience animated storytelling.
Retrospectives delve into the work of influential creators, studios, and movements, offering audiences the opportunity to rediscover classics and explore how they continue to shape animation today.
O-Town Animated, a project by OIAF, the Ottawa International Animation Festival
O-Town Animated is a free, outdoor public art and animation initiative presented as part of Bytown’s 200th Anniversary celebrations in 2026, supported by the Ottawa Tourism Animation Fund. The project will showcase original animated works that reinterpret Ottawa’s early Bytown history while also celebrating contemporary local animation. It will run for six months as part of the downtown Public Art Trail, activating multiple high-traffic sites and encouraging visitor movement through the city core.
Animators:
- Beccs Champagne & Jessie Moore
- Brennan Bova
- Andreas Fobes
O-Town animé, un projet de OIAF, le Festival international d’animation d’Ottawa
O-Town animé est une initiative gratuite d’art public et d’animation en plein air présentée dans le cadre des célébrations du 200e anniversaire d’Ottawa en 2026, soutenue par le Fonds d’animation touristique d’Ottawa. Le projet présentera des œuvres d’animation originales qui réinterprètent les débuts de l’histoire de Bytown, tout en célébrant l’animation locale contemporaine. Il se déroulera pendant six mois dans le cadre du parcours d’art public du centre-ville, animant plusieurs sites très fréquentés et encourageant les visiteurs à se déplacer dans le centre-ville.
Animateurs:
- Beccs Champagne & Jessie Moore
- Brennan Bova
- Andreas Fobes
50 in 50: OIAF’s Favourite Canadian Animated Shorts
After 50 years and over 700 Canadian films, the OIAF programming team has picked out their 50 favourites.
Friday, September 25, 9:00 pm
Arts Court Theatre
Saturday, September 26, 1:00 pm
Arts Court Theatre
Animated Materials: Pastel Dreams
This curated screening celebrates the luminous world of pastel animation. From the dusty brilliance of chalk pastels to the creamy malleability of oil pastels, animators have long been drawn to the medium’s vibrant hues, soft edges, and tactile responsiveness. Together, these films use pastel textures and colours to transport viewers into dreamlike, atmospheric realms. Guest curator Alla Gadassik, founder of the Animate Materials Workshop, will introduce the program with a brief history of pastels in animation.
ByTowne Cinema
Forgotten Island
Rating: All Ages
Your best friendship is worth fighting for.
DreamWorks Animation, the studio that brought you unforgettable bonds between a boy and a dragon in How to Train Your Dragon, an ogre and a donkey in Shrek, and a robot and a gosling in The Wild Robot, now welcomes a dazzling and emotional story about two lifelong best friends who must come together before they drift apart in Forgotten Island.
The new original film is written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado and is produced by Academy Award® nominee Mark Swift, the filmmaking team behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
Grammy and Academy Award® winning supernova H.E.R. and Liza Soberano (Lisa Frankenstein, Alone/Together) star as high school graduates Jo and Raissa, who have been best friends since grade school but are now about to embark on separate life paths.
While celebrating their last night together, Jo and Raissa stumble upon a mysterious portal that transports them to the fantastical island of Nakali, packed with magical and mythological creatures they grew up hearing stories about from their Filipino families.
Some of these figures will become friends, some foes. Joined by well-meaning-but- hapless weredog Raww (Dave Franco) and a small-but-mighty pack of pals, Jo and Raissa must face The Dreaded Manananggal (Tony winning icon Lea Salonga), the most feared creature on the island. When they discover that the memories of their entire friendship are the price for returning home, Jo and Raissa will race to find a way to leave the island before they forget each other forever.
The film’s all-star voice cast also includes Emmy nominee Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Dying for Sex), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place, Top Gun: Maverick), BAFTA nominee Dolly de Leon (Triangle of Sadness, Ghostlight), global comedy superstar Jo Koy (Haunted Mansion, Jo Koy: Live from Brooklyn) and Emmy winner Ronny Chieng (The Daily Show, M3GAN).
DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island is distributed by Universal Pictures.
Friday, September 25, 9:00 pm
National Gallery of Canada: Auditorium
Lost in Starlight
Netflix’s first Korean original animated feature offers stunning visuals and a romantic tale about following your dreams. The OIAF screening is a rare chance to see this inventive film on the big screen and immerse yourself in its beautifully animated retro-futurist vision of Seoul. Music plays a key role, with a standout soundtrack featuring some of Korea’s most exciting indie and pop artists.
2026 Annie Award Nominee for Best Independent Feature
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Jiwon HAN and Producer Seung Min BYUN of Climax Studio.
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Le premier long métrage d’animation original coréen de Netflix offre des images époustouflantes et raconte une histoire romantique sur la poursuite de ses rêves. La projection à l’OIAF est une occasion rare de découvrir ce film original sur grand écran et de se plonger dans sa vision rétro-futuriste de Séoul, magnifiquement animée. La musique y joue un rôle clé, avec une bande originale exceptionnelle réunissant certains des artistes indie et pop les plus prometteurs de Corée.
Nominé aux Annie Awards 2026 dans la catégorie Meilleur long métrage indépendant
La projection sera suivie d’une séance de questions-réponses avec la réalisatrice Ji-won HAN.
Friday, September 25, 5:00 pm
Ottawa Art Gallery: Alma Duncan Salon
Sunday, September 27, 1:00 pm
Arts Court Theatre
Time Flies – The films of Sumito Sakakibara
Sumito Sakakibara’s films unfold like drifting memory: calm, hypnotic, and quietly devastating. From the haunted single-camera pan of Iizuna Fair (2022), winner of the Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Best Non-Narrative Animation award, to the looping, bird’s-eye vision of Flow (2005), his work draws us into worlds where time folds, lives overlap, and emotion lingers between images. Rooted in personal history, rural landscapes, Buddhist thought, and a lyrical sense of place, Sakakibara creates visual poems that resist easy explanation while leaving a powerful emotional trace. His films move fluidly between animation, installation, and intimate self-expression, revealing an artist preoccupied with memory, family, loss, and the coexistence of multiple selves. This retrospective offers a rare chance to experience the rich, multilayered cinema of one of animation’s most distinctive and quietly visionary filmmakers.
Arts Court Theatre
The National Film Board and Ottawa Animation 1939 to 1956
During the OIAF, McWilliams will present a screening focused on The War Years. Attendees can also engage with 3 other unique presentations that will screen as part of the Frame by Frame exhibition co-curated by the OIAF and the Ottawa Art Gallery.
Arts Court Theatre
Philip Ragan and Pictographic Animation
All in all, Philip Ragan and his pictographic animation is an intriguing byway in the history of animation.