Los Angeles Animation Festival

The festival presents Best of Festival, directing, student and first-time filmmaker awards, alongside awards for features and animation categories. Its 2025 awards include character-based 2D and CGI, dramatic and comedy shorts, stop motion, children's media and education, music videos, experimental work, humanitarian films, motion design/PSA, mixed media, series episodes, documentaries and screenplays; several categories have student and international divisions and silver or bronze distinctions. Jury, founders and partner awards also feature in the awards programme. For the 2026 submission cycle, sponsor prizes, awards and benefits are subject to confirmation and are not guaranteed. Winning features are offered an opportunity for distribution through Filmfest Distribution.

2026 submission cycle Eligibility and entry: films from any production year are eligible; animation must be made by humans, and AI work is excluded. Films and screenplays are submitted digitally only through FilmFreeway. Multiple entries are permitted. Fee waivers are unavailable; fees are non-refundable, entries are not returned, and selection decisions are final. Language and files: non-English films require English subtitles. Selection uses a digital screener through FilmFreeway; screenplays require a digital PDF through the same platform. Publicity: submission authorizes LAAF to use excerpts for festival promotion and marketing. Rights and liability: entrants must have undisputed legal authority to submit the work, including music rights, with no pending or threatened litigation. Entrants release LAAF and its owners, management, juries, subsidiaries, agents, sponsors and affiliates from entry-related liability. They must defend and indemnify the festival and its directors, officers, employees, contractors, consultants, volunteers, judges and agents against claims, demands, actions and lawsuits connected with screening the film, performing its music or displaying its art. Changes: LAAF may, at its sole discretion, change dates or venue when necessary or unavoidable, or hold the festival entirely online. Category conditions: • Character-Based Short: character work in any medium; under 50 minutes. • Experimental Short: experimental work in any medium; under 50 minutes. • Short From a Series: one episode from a television, web, theatrical or other series, in any medium; under 50 minutes. • Comedy Short: comedy in any medium; under 50 minutes. • Motion Design: any subject or medium; under 50 minutes. • Music Video: animated music videos, including those with live action, in any medium or subject; under 50 minutes. • Documentary Short: documentary in any medium; under 50 minutes. • Combination Animation and Live Action: a combination of both forms in any medium or subject; under 50 minutes. • Commercials, Promos & PSAs: any subject or medium; under 50 minutes. • Feature: animated features in any medium or subject; over 50 minutes. • Unproduced Screenplay: any unproduced screenplay, with no length limit. • Unfinished Masterpiece: unfinished films and works in progress. • Children's Media: shorts or episodes for children younger than 11. • Dramatic Short: fiction about human relationships, excluding comedy. Dates: opening 8 December 2025; earlybird deadline 18 April 2026; regular deadline 25 September 2026; late deadline 7 November 2026; notification 28 November 2026; festival 5–6 December 2026. Entry fees (USD; each triple lists Standard / Student / FilmFreeway Gold): Character-Based Short, Experimental Short, Short From a Series, Comedy Short, Motion Design, Music Video, Documentary Short, and Combination Animation and Live Action: earlybird $16 / $13 / $13; regular $26 / $21 / $19; late $36 / $31 / $29. Commercials, Promos & PSAs, Unproduced Screenplay, Unfinished Masterpiece, Children's Media, and Dramatic Short: earlybird $16 / $13 / $13; regular $26 / $21 / $19; late $41 / $36 / $31. Feature: earlybird $26 / $22 / $22; regular $41 / $36 / $33; late $66 / $56 / $51.