Animation (Features)

Animation (Features)

Alongside our Animated Shorts, this collection of animated feature films introduces a selection of international filmmakers working across diverse animation styles, from the minimalist watercolor compositions of Jean-Francois Laguionie’s Louise by the Shore to the intricate stop motion animation of Kihachiro Kawamoto’s The Book of the Dead.

Historical narratives are brought to life by animation in features such as the Spanish Civil War drama Josep, 1980s Czech chronicle Alois Nebel, and imperialist satire This Magnificent Cake. Jan Švankmajer’s Faust and Alice follow inventive retellings of classic literary fables. Additional selections including the celebrated French comedy A Town Called Panic, West African-set coming-of-age tales Adama and Aya of Yop City, and acclaimed Japanese biographical drama Tatsumi give a uniquely global perspective on contemporary independent animation.

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Animation (Features)
  • Vicenta

    Directed by Dario Doria • Animation • 2020 • 69 minutes

    A film as necessary as it is beautiful, Vicenta explores the struggle for the right to a legal, safe, and free abortion.

    Through small clay figurines and live-action news clips, the documentary narrates the real human rights story of Vicen...

  • Louise By the Shore

    Directed by Jean-Francois Laguionie • Animation • With Rance Castel • 2016 • 75 minutes

    On the last day of summer in a small seaside resort town, an older woman named Louise realizes that the last train has departed without her. She finds herself alone in the town, abandoned by everyone. As the ...

  • Sita Sings the Blues

    Directed by Nina Paley • Animation • 2008 • 82 minutes

    Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully ...

  • Josep

    Directed by Aurel • Animation • 2021 • 74 minutes

    During the Spanish civil war, Republican fighters fleeing Franco's dictatorship are imprisoned in concentration camps once they arrive in France. Forced to live in appalling conditions, these refugees barely have access to hygiene, water and food...

  • A Town Called Panic

    Directed by Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier • Animation • 2009 • 75 minutes

    Hilarious and frequently surreal, the stop-motion extravaganza A Town Called Panic has endless charms and raucous laughs for children from eight to eighty. Based on the Belgian animated cult TV series (which was released...

  • The Rabbi's Cat

    Directed by Joann Sfar & Antoine Delesvaux • Animation • With Mathieu Amalric, Hafsia Herzi, François Damiens, Eric Elmosnino • 2011 • 80 minutes

    Set in Algeria in the 1930s, THE RABBI'S CAT adapts Joann Sfar's best-selling graphic tale of a sharp-tongued feline philosopher. When a cat belonging...

  • Adama

    Directed by Simon Rouby • Animation • 2020 • 82 minutes

    ADAMA is a modern and universal story, the coming-of-age tale of a young African boy searching for his brother, just as a new world is about to emerge from the chaos of war.

    12-year-old Adama lives in a remote West African village. Beyond ...

  • This Magnificent Cake!

    Directed by Marc James Roels, Emma De Swaef • Animation • With Gaston Motambo, Jan Decleir, Wilm Willaert • 2018 • 44 minutes

    In the late 19th century, keen to compete with other European imperial powers on the continent, King Leopold II of Belgium proclaimed, “I do not want to miss a good chanc...

  • Wrinkles

    Directed by Ignacio Ferreras • Animation • With Tacho Gonzalez, Álvaro Guevara, Mabel Rivera • 2014 • 90 minutes

    A wonderfully animated and poignant comedy for adults. The story opens with former bank manager Emilio being dispatched to a retirement home by his family. His new roommate is a wily ...

  • Tales of the Night

    Directed by Michel Ocelot • Animation • With Julien Béramis, Marine Griset, Michel Elias, Olivier Claverie • 2011 • 84 minutes

    Every night, a girl, a boy and an elderly technician meet in a little cinema, sharing tales that capture their fancy. Together, they act out magnificent fables from arou...

  • Aya of Yop City

    Directed by Marguerite Abouet, Clément Oubrerie • Animation • With Aissa Maiga, Eriq Ebouaney, Jacky Ido, Pascal N'Zonzi, Jean-Baptiste Anoumon • 2012 • 88 minutes

    Set against the vibrant backdrop of the Ivory Coast in the 1970s, AYA OF YOP CITY is a spirited and hilarious adaptation of the best...

  • The Girl Without Hands

    Directed by Sébastian Laudenbach • Animation • With Anaïs Demoustier, Jérémie Elkaïm, Philippe Laudenbach, Sacha Bourdo, Olivier Broche, Françoise Lebrun • 2016 • 76 minutes

    In this audacious feature debut, acclaimed short filmmaker Sébastien Laudenbach renders a classic Brothers Grimm story wit...

  • The Adventures of Prince Achmed

    Directed by Lotte Reiniger • Animation • 1926 • 80 minutes

    When The Adventures of Prince Achmed premiered to German audiences in 1926, it was hailed as the first full-length animated film. Taken from the tales known as the Arabian Nights, the film tells the story of a young prince tricked by a w...

  • Faust

    Directed by Jan Svankmajer • Drama • With Petr Cepek, Jan Kraus, Vladimír Kudla • 1994 • 97 minutes

    Jan Svankmajer’s Faust is a rendering of the infamous Dr. Faustus fable of temptation and damnation. Borrowing freely from both Marlowe and Goethe and ancient folktales and timeless myths, the sto...

  • Tatsumi

    Directed by Eric Khoo • Animation • 2014 • 98 minutes

    TATSUMI celebrates the life and work of Japanese comics artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi-a manga pioneer who elevated the genre to a new level of creative expression and adult realism. A comics-crazed teenager, Tatsumi began to get published and was ...

  • Alois Nebel

    Directed by Tomas Lunak • Animation • 2014 • 84 minutes

    It is the end of summer, 1989. Alois Nebel works as a train dispatcher at a small railway station in the Sudetenland, a mountainous region on the Czechoslovak border. He is a loner who prefers old timetables to people, and he finds the lone...

  • The Book of the Dead

    Directed by Kihachiro Kawamoto • Animation • 2014 • 70 minutes

    Master animator Kihachiro Kawamoto's tour de force adventure tale of a young noble girl in 8th-century Japan who leaves her home to follow the apparition of an executed prince in this ravishing film of beauty and mysticism.

    As Buddh...

  • Alice

    Directed by Jan Švankmajer • Animation • 1989 • 84 minutes

    When Alice follows the White Rabbit into Wonderland, so begins this dream expedition into the astonishing landscape of childhood, through many dangerous adventures, and ultimately to Alice's trial before the King and Queen of Hearts.

    Cz...