Ottawa International Animation Festival, one of the most important events on the animation calendar, took place recently. As well as screenings, panels and other events, the festival also included the traditional giving out of awards. The Awards were all announced at the Festival's Award Ceremony on September 27 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
OIAF awarded the top honour of The Grand Prize For Feature Animation to La mort n’existe pas (Death Does Not Exist) directed by Félix Dufour-Laperrière. Il burattino e la balena, directed by Roberto Catani, was awarded The Grand Prize For Short Animation.
La mort n'existe pas (Death Does Not Exist), is the latest feature from Quebec animator Dufour-Laperrière, and made its festival debut earlier this year as part of the Cannes Directors' Fortnight selection. The film's dreamlike visuals explore the consequences of strong convictions in a world flooded with moral ambiguity.
With its OIAF win, Il burattino e la balena qualifies for the Best Animated Short award at the 2026 Academy Awards. The Prize winner follows the story of a puppet discovering his humanity, echoing Pinocchio but with Catani's signature emotional depth and visual poetry.
The CFI Award For Best Canadian Animation went to The Girl Who Cried Pearls directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. The film, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) showcases the Oscar-nominated duo's talents in stop-motion and storytelling. The Hélène Tanguay Award for Humour was awarded to Poor Marciano, directed by Alex Rey, for its humorous character study.
The Wacom Public Prize was awarded to S the Wolf, from director Sameh Alaa. Exploring masculinity through one man's struggle with hair loss and his relationship with his barber. Alaa was also presented with a Movink 13 Drawing Tablet from Wacom as part of their prize. Rakugaki (The Graffiti) from director Ryo Orikasa, won the Animation Mentor Award For Best Narrative Animated Short for bringing to life the poetry of Makoto Takayanagi to life.
This year's OIAF Jury was made up of Winston Hacking (Canada), Gina Kamentsky (USA), Magdelena Zira (Cyprus), Miriam Kandelaki (Georgia), Chris Lavis (Canada) and Honami Yano (Japan), who judged this year's official competition. The Kid's jury was made up of Ottawa-area children aged 8 to 12, and selected the winner of the Young Audience 7+ competition. The Teen Audiences 13+ competition was decided by the Teen Vote public prize.
As per tradition, the 2025 OIAF Prize Statues were designed by local artist Tick Tock Tom. What's more, the statues are working phénakisticopes featuring an animation by New York artist George Griffin.
The Complete Competition Prize Winner List
Grand Prize for Short Animation
Winner: Il burattino e la balena (dir. Roberto Catani)
Jury Comment: For the Grand Prize for Short Animation, we selected this film for its ability to work with image, movement and sound in equal partnership while leaving room for the viewer to engage with its ideas. The film works with an iconic character to pose important questions about conformity and society while remaining open-ended in its approach. Everything in this film is essential, with the film employing an inventive use of animation and sound to immerse the viewer in an unforgettable experience.
Grand Prize for Animated Feature
Winner: La mort n’existe pas (Death Does Not Exist) (dir. Félix Dufour-Laperrière)
Jury Comment: An exploration of the personal cost of our convictions through sublime animation in which the presence of the natural world adds a second layer of poetic weight and profound meaning.
Honourable Mention: La gran historia de la filosofÃa occidental (The Great History of Western Philosophy) (dir. Aria Covamonas)
Jury Comment: From a unique perspective and visionary director, a challenging film that deserves its day of honour in the great Dadaist tradition.
Wacom Public Prize
Winner: S the Wolf (dir. Sameh Alaa)
CFI Award for Best Canadian Animation
Winner: La jeune fille qui pleurait des perles (The Girl Who Cried Pearls) (dirs. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski)
Comment: For its extraordinary animation and its startling fairy tale narrative, which combines a searing, astute critique of human greed with a plea for love and personal integrity, the Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation goes to The Girl Who Cried Pearls, by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.
Honourable Mention: We're Kinda Different (dir. Ben Meinhardt)
Comment: For its clever, entertaining, and impassioned affirmation of difference as a source of strength, an Honourable Mention goes to We're Kinda Different, by Ben Meinhardt.
Hélène Tanguay Award for Humour
Winner: Poor Marciano (dir. Alex Rey)
Comment: Hélène loved to laugh, and this award crowns a film whose humour matches her irreverent spirit. While there were—thankfully—more comic films than usual this year, it was very clear to us which film we could imagine Hélène laughing her ass off at. Who on earth thought to combine astrophysics, masturbation, and a one-hit Canadian band that we all—well, at least I do—love to hate, the Crash Test Dummies (I mean, who the hell can be so obsessed with one band?) into one of the most pleasantly strange and hilarious character studies?
Animated Short Competition - Category Prizes
ASIFA International 65th Anniversary Best Non-Narrative Award
Winner: Green Lung (dir. Simon Hamlyn)
Jury Comment: We loved how this film used colour, sound and inventive technique to engulf the viewer in its world. The filmmaker demonstrates how experimental animation can lead to surprising outcomes.
Animation Mentor Best Narrative Short Award
Winner: Rakugaki (The Graffiti) (dir. Ryo Orikasa)
Jury Comment: This film immediately transported us into a story about the disintegration of language. It employs multiple techniques in the representation of a city, which becomes language and then loses it. It left us with the question - what is consciousness without language?
Best Commissioned Animation
Winner: Desi Oon (dir. Suresh Eriyat)
Jury Comment: We loved this film for its playful use of materials, creating an unapologetically over-the-top musical centred on an unassuming subject.
Bento Box Award for Best Student Animation
Winner: Anklebones (dir. Nicole Altan)
Jury Comment: This film takes a self-assured approach to exploring a subject related directly to the filmmaker's heritage. It employs plasticity of line and works with inventive forms, immersing us in an immediate experience
TVPaint Canadian Student Award
Winner: Lullaby for a Deathdream (dir. Charlie Galea-McClure)
Comment: A lyrical meditation on saltwater and remembrance—an atmosphere-driven work whose mixed-media textures linger like a final breath.
Honourable Mention: Music in My Pocket (dir. Veronika Kostyuk)
Comment: A beautifully made, surprisingly mature sand animation skimming an old musician’s memories—growth, exploration, love, passion, war, creation—flashing past with the breathless speed of a life
Honourable Mention: When the Moon Sings (dir. Jesu Medina)
Comment: Ambitious, mysterious, and haunting—poetic, with a tinge of the theatrical.
Animation for Teen Audiences 13+ Competition
Winner: Autokar (dir. Sylwia Szkiłądź)
Animation for Young Audiences 7+ Competition
Winner: Les bottes de la nuit (The Night Boots) (dir. Pierre-Luc Granjon)
Honourable Mention: Omedodeedu (Edu's Fear) (dirs. Bruno Mazzilli and Tiago Judas)
Animated Series Competition
Winner: Eggland (dirs. Cole Kush and Christopher Rutledge)
Comment: For its striking design that mirrors its protagonists’ awkward stillness and for championing an older perspective too often overlooked. With a deliberately languid tempo, it reflects a community’s slow, fractured fade—days blur, time slips, the world feels like a waiting room to the afterlife.
Honourable Mention: Common Side Effects 'Pilot' (dir. Camille Bozec)
Comment: For its deft mix of deadpan and absurdist comedy and its timely critique of a corrupt, profit-over-people system
Animated Short Competition - Craft Awards
Best Script
Winner: S the Wolf (dir. Sameh Alaa)
Jury comment: Truthful, funny, carried by a brutal honesty and an unspoken love communicated through insult. It felt fucking real. The animation doesn’t get in the way here; it allowed the story to shine.
Best Design
Winner: 海星，乌鸦，独角兽 (Crow, Starfish, and Unicorn) (dir. Xiaoxuan Han)
Jury comment: Our selection built a story with its own logic coming directly from the design of its characters. The result was surprising, emotionally engaging and otherworldly.
XPPen Craft Award Prize for Best Animation Technique
Winner: Fusion (dir. Richard Reeves)
Jury Comment: For the XPPen Craft Award Prize for Best Animation Technique, the jury selected a film with a perfect assemblage of sound, movement and colour activating the imagination.
Best Sound Design
Winner: Evacuations (dir. Lilli Carré)
Jury Comment: Sound creates the physical experience in film, moving from its source directly to the body. Our selection employs sound playfully juxtaposed with image and movement to create a whole stronger than its individual parts.
