Monstra - Lisbon Animation Festival
Category
ANIMATION & FILM FESTIVALS
Dates
12/03/2027 - 22/03/2027
City
Lisbon, Portugal
Email
Website
Edition
26
Final submission deadline
2025-12-12
Submission/Registration Fee
No
Festival Description
MONSTRA | Lisbon Animation Festival is an event where animated films meet other media and arts, aiming to present, disseminate, experiment and discuss ideas, crossing over new artistic approaches and forms, on which animated film is the narrative and aesthetic expression. The Festival’s main goal is to present and promote the best animated films made all over the World.
2026 Festival Coverage
2026 Call for Entries (Archive)
For the purposes of this regulation, animated films are those made image by image, using any animation technique. Animated sequences must make up more than 60 per cent of the entire film. Films that fulfil the following
conditions will be admitted to the competition:
- Completion date for all categories: after 1 January 2024.
- Have not been submitted to the competition in previous years.
MONSTRA accepts animated films without any thematic or aesthetic restrictions, in the following categories:
- Feature Film Competition - Only films longer than 40 minutes.
- Long Shorts Competition - Only films between 15 and 40 minutes.
- Short Film Competition - Only films between 2 and 15 minutes long.
- Super Short Film Competition - Only films of less than 2 minutes (excluding credits).
- Student Competition - Only films produced in a university context.
- Portuguese Competition - Any film produced in Portugal as long as the director has a Portuguese NIF and has lived in Portugal for at least 1 year.
- Short Film Competition for Children and Young Audiences (MONSTRINHA) - Any film with content aimed at children and young audiences.
- Festival regulations
- Submissions via FilmFreeway
- Deadline: 12 October 2025 (international competition), 12 December 2025 (National Portuguese Competition).
2025 Festival Coverage
2024 Festival Coverage
2023 Festival Coverage
2022 Festival Coverage
2021 Festival Coverage
For its 20th edition, Monstra is celebrating the animation cinema from Belgium.
Belgium is the home country of one of the most important names in animation in Europe, Raoul Servais, and the motherland of one of the oldest animation festivals in the world, ANIMA Brussels, who is this year celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Moreover, in 2021 Belgian animation is also celebrating its centenary.
Indeed, it was in 1920-21 that the Brussels-based Houssiaus family started producing the first animated films for advertising. And yet, only more than a decade later, Ernest Genval would direct his first film “Plucky en Egypte”, and between 1935 and 1937 the Vanpepestraete brothers would make the first animated series with puppets: “Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise”, and “Couchés dans la foin”. It was during the Nazi occupation that Paul Nagant founded the first animation studio in Liège, where he produced among others “Zazou chez les nègres”.
These were but the first steps in a great history that MONSTRA will revisit with screenings of short and feature films, exhibitions and training courses showcasing the best of Belgian animation in one of the biggest retrospectives ever made.
2020 Festival Coverage
After the postponement of MONSTRA, the festival prepared to present #MONSTRAatHOME, an online edition of the Festival, from May 25th to 31st , celebrating the 20th anniversary, streaming the short films competitions.
2019 Festival Coverage (20-31/3/19)
- Report: Monstra Animation Festival Started Well!
- Short Film Competition
- Feature Film Competition
- National Film Board of Canada Retrospective
2018 Festival Coverage
NB: 2027 Festival Dates are tentative
Event Dates
- From 12/03/2027 to 22/03/2027
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