Event Description:

ATHENS ANIMFEST is organized by the Center of Animation, Audiovisual and Performing Arts (Ars Anima), a non-profit organization that aims to bring the younger generation closer to the secrets and fascination of the art of animation and its diverse applications in the small and big screen, in multimedia, the Internet, and education in general. The Festival gives special emphasis to European animation films, regardless of techniques, themes, language, nationality and artists' age, style and aesthetic trends, thus demonstrating the common cultural heritage of the peoples of Europe.

Athens Animfest Call for Entries 

Athens Animfest welcomes only short (short, student, experimental) animated movies. To be eligible, films must have been completed since 1 January 2024 and be 30 minutes or less in duration.

• Festival rules and submission via FilmFreeway
• Deadline: 22 January 2026 (Earlybird), 26 February 2026 (Regular) 
  

Past Animfest Coverage

The following is a compact summary of Zippy Frames' early coverage of the Animfest Athens International Animation Festival.

2011: At the 6th Animfest Athens, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann's Oscar-winning 'The Lost Thing' took first prize in the international short-film competition. SAM's Spanish stop-motion film 'Vicenta' won second prize as well as the Audience Award, while Patrick Jean's 'Pixels' placed third. In the student competition, Erick Oh's 'Heart' won first prize, followed by 'Les Bourbier' and Leonid Shmelkov's 'Dog-Walking Ground'; Tariq Rimawi's 'Missing' received the student Audience Award. The Greek competition was headed by Voula Koutsoumani's object-animation film 'Lilly's Dress', followed by Effie Pappa's '1.2 Million Children' and 'Mr. Tetelin' by L. Kontodima.The closing ceremony and festival atmosphere were intimate and almost family-like despite the sizeable audience.

2012: The 7th Animfest Athens awarded its Grand Prix Athena to Australian filmmaker Jonathan Nix's 'The Missing Key', a Venice-set story combining music, art and a rivalry between composers. Katarína Kerekesová's puppet film 'Stones' took second prize, while Javier Mrad's 'Teclopolis' was third. The shorter-film categories recognized Ivan Ramadan's 'Kiyamet' and Manuel Matos Barbosa's 'The Lagoon, the Water, the Men...', while the student competition was won by 'Partition' by Eleonora Berra, Delia Hess and Shami Lang-Rinderspacher. In the Greek competition, Panagiotis Rappas won first prize for 'Fountain of Youth', with 'Abeyance' and 'Anima Periplanosa' sharing second place. 

NB: 2027 Festival Dates are tentative