Festival of Animation Berlin 2026: Industry Program

The 9th edition of Festival of Animation Berlin (8-11 October 2026) promises a vibrant programme for both films and events related to animation. The screening and thematic programme (with a tribute to stop-motion animation and horror) accompanies the film festival competition selection.

Yet, the festival will once again create a space for networking and exchange with the Berlin Animation HUB. Self-described as " bringing together a diverse range of events centered on exchange, knowledge sharing and collaboration". It is aimed at industry professionals, newcomers to the field, commissioners and commissioned artists and studios, and helps strengthen Berlin’s position as an international center for animation and production.

The professional programme is complemented by the free-to-access 6th FAB Dimensional Exhibition, which presents animation beyond the cinema screen—in interactive, installative and immersive forms.

Here are more animation industry details

Berlin Animation HUB: Formats and Guests

A total of 12 talks and presentations covering everything from stop motion to 2D animation, and from short films to series, will be presented.

Guests include director Josef Brandl—who also worked as a production designer on 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and 'The Phoenician Scheme', alongside his animation team, which was responsible for the animated sequence in his tragicomedy 'Superbuhei' starring Oliver Korittke, due to be released in cinemas on 11 November. Studio monströös will also offer a behind-the-scenes look at the animated series 'Neon & Bor', based on the books by Marc-Uwe Kling and Jan Cronauer.

Talks (Selected)

• Cosmonauts: Case Study: Leo Černic on his queerky space opera
• Juliet and the King: Animation Between Art and Challenge: Ashkan Rahgozar on the making of a hand-drawn animated film in Iran

Cosmonauts

3 Workshops

• Mop-Stotion Storytelling: A Queer Exquisite-Corpse Filmmaking Workshop by Daniel Sterlin-Altman, whose queer and exuberant 'Carrotica' became an unexpected hit,
• Sketching in Motion: Natalia Mirzoyan, whose many award-winning films include 'Winter In March', tells the story of Russian dissidents fleeing their country to Georgia. 
• Visual Storytelling Lab: Where creativity meets collaboration, turning simple shapes and ideas into powerful visual narratives by  Saman Aboutalebi
  
  
  

Carrotica, Daniel Sterlin-Altman

4 Meet the Experts Sessions

• Go with the Flow: Animate with a Silly Plan in Mind, Jon Frickey (Cat Days, Zoopticon, Ploo)
• Finding a Visual Language for your story: Breaking through a creative block (hopefully): Kiana Naghshineh, author of the ITFS-awarded 'Im Auto Tapes Und Butterbrot' animation film
• From Book to Screen:  Patrick Volve (Petit Malabar seasons 1 & 2) on adapting picture books for animated series
• Mutating Matter – Body Horror and Clay Motion: An exploration of raw, unpolished transformation approaches in animation: Jannis Esselbrügge, Michel Esselbrügge

The HUB will be complemented by a range of networking formats, including the PanAnimation Get-Together and the newly launched FAB Jam Session. The festival’s own FAB Pitch will also take place, with eight teams presenting their animation projects currently in development.

6th FAB Dimensional Exhibition Free of Charge at silent green

For the sixth time, animation will meet sculptural approaches, games and installations. This year’s FAB Dimensional Exhibition, held in the Betonhalle at silent green, will once again present international artistic positions that make animation accessible in a wide variety of spatial forms and invite interaction

Four of the artists explore the fleeting nature of moments and nature's transformation. They include Lynn Tomlinson, Josh Dorman and Jacob Garcia-Buñuel, whose work 'Obliquity of the Eclipitc' (Season's Lament) consists of four immersive collage animations.

Also featured is Berlin-based animation director Betina Kuntzsch (HALMASPIEL, WEGZAUBERN), whose work 'Strom' repeatedly creates new animation loops across two large-scale projections. Hallie Bahn will present her miniature waiting room 'Good Girl', which challenges traditional gender roles.

Good Girl by Hallie Bahn, A miniature waiting room becomes a stage: drawn frame by frame, the work challenges conformist role models and our unconscious complicity with our own immobility.

Festival of Animation Berlin will take place from 8 to 11 October 2026. Regular tickets can be purchased for almost all events, while workshops are subject to a participation fee. The FAB Dimensional Exhibition will be free to visit throughout the festival period. The opening reception will take place on 8 October from 7 pm to 10.