ITFS Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film

Festival Description

Founded in 1982, ITFS ranks among the world’s most important events for animated film in all its aspects, and with its intersections with visual effects, architecture, art, design, music, science, games, et al. Every year, it attracts up to 100,000 visitors and industry professionals from all over the world with the best of high-quality animations and interactive works.

ITFS is organised by Film- und Medienfestival gGmbH established in 2000, which have made it their business ever since to promote high-quality media content and create outstanding film and media events, so as to achieve a sustainable strengthening of the creative industries in the Stuttgart region.

ITFS is an Oscar-qualifying festival that offers directors, production companies and distributors as well as talent and all further professionals from the animation and games industries a platform to present their films, interactive and transmedia works as well as VR and AR projects to an interested, wide audience and a large number of industry representatives. The competitions and film programmes screened at Innenstadtkinos are the heart of the festival. A total of up to 90,000 € in prize money is awarded by international expert juries in currently twelve competition categories.

2026 Festival Coverage

Call for Entries (Archive)

Animated films completed after October 1, 2024 can now be submitted for the main competitions of the Festival. Only Animated Films of up to 30 minutes in length are admitted for entry in the International Competition, the Student, the Trickstar Nature Award and in the children’s film competition Tricks for Kids.

Short Film Competitions

International Competition: International animated short films up to 30 minutes in length (fee: € 10.00 for each submission).
Student Competition: Animated short films by students or graduates of a film, art or media university up to 30 minutes in length. (fee: € 5.00 for each submission)
Tricks for Kids: Animated short films and series episodes for children up to 12 years of age, up to 30 minutes in length (fee: € 5.00 for each submission)
Trickstar Nature Award: Animated short films on climate protection, biodiversity, the environment and sustainability up to 30 minutes in length. (fee: € 5for each submission)

AniMovie: Animated feature films with a running time of at least 60 minutes that have not been distributed commercially in Germany (fee: € 10.00 for each submission).

Festival Regulations
Submit via ShortFilmDepot
Deadline: 15 November 2025 (all categories except for AniMovie competition), 15 January 2026 (AniMovie Competition)

2025 Festival Coverage

2024 Festival Coverage

'27', 'Sirocco' in the 2024 ITFS Winners

2023 Festival Coverage

With the motto “Animation connects!” we invite you to come to Stuttgart from April 25 to 30, 2023 to celebrate animated film and the 30th ITFS edition together with animation fans, artists, and professionals from all over the world.

From Best-of to Artificial Intelligence

Travel back in time with us to the beginnings of great filmmakers and moments that shaped animated film. In various curated best-of programmes, we will be showing works by outstanding animation artists who have left their mark not only on the ITFS. Tributes (e.g., to Gil Alkabetz) and shows of works by Izabela Plucinska (Germany, Poland) or Sander Joon (Estonia) complete the anniversary programme.
But dare to take a look into the future with us too: The wide range of topics, the endless creativity of the filmmakers and the essence of the latest and best animated short and feature-length films can be seen in the various competition categories. Future issues such as artificial intelligence (AI) are also part of the programme in presentations and lectures.

Country Focus South Africa

With short films, studio presentations, and a delegation of South African animators, the festival celebrates South Africa in this year’s country focus. The collaboration between Triggerfish, the Cape Town International Animation Festival, the ITFS, the Animation Production Days (APD) and the FMX is supported by Employment and Skills Development in Africa (E4D), a programme funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

2022 Festival Coverage