Best of Ottawa: Wiz-Art 2026

The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) is one of the world’s leading animation events, providing screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment since 1976. OIAF is an annual five-day festival bringing art and industry together in a vibrant hub. The festival is proud to be an avenue for everything from the popular to the eclectic, strange, and obscure, showcasing a range of work, from analogue hand-drawn animation to groundbreaking computer rendering.

Each year, OIAF curates a selection of short films, both award winners and audience favorites, for our Best of Ottawa Program. The Best of Ottawa Program highlights achievements in the art of animation and represents the myriad of styles, techniques, and perspectives that animation is uniquely capable of realizing.

More information about the festival can be found at animationfestival.ca.

OIAF 2025 SIGNAL FILM // 45”, Torill Kove, Canada

Torill Kove’s Signal Film features a grumpy owl sitting atop a phenakistoscope, a 19th-century animation device. Small less-burdened owls take flight around it.

FUSION // 3′, Richard Reeves, Canada

Investigating the interplay and love affair between sound and image. An abstract experimental animation experience produced by drawing both sounds and pictures directly onto 35mm film.

POOR MARCIANO // 7′, Alex Rey, Spain

The name you are given at birth can mark your destiny. Marciano knows a lot about that, who only wants a friend to sing with… But the universe always conspires to make your dreams come true.

EVACUATIONS // 7′, Lili Carré, USA

Painted formless figures haunt recent photos of empty public spaces, expressing a helpless, frantic energy felt in our current moment. They become displaced from their locations, as their environments dissolve and their printed record evaporates.

GREEN LUNG // 3′, Lili Carré, USA

In the cradle of the Industrial Revolution, workers turn towards nature to heal from the conditions of the mill. A hand-printed film about Britain’s first public park.

DESI OON // 8′, Suresh Eriyat, Canada

The film explores the deep connection between Deccani wool, the land, and its people, highlighting its cultural, spiritual, and ecological significance. It delves into the resilience of the Deccani sheep, the traditions of shepherding, and the sacred

THE GRAFFITI // 12′, Ryo Orikasa, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine

The moment the first gleam of sunlight trickled in gently stirring the folds of a shallow sleep—that was when the graffiti appeared . . .

S THE WOLF // 10′, Sameh Alaa, Egypt, France

A man recounts his capillary peregrinations from adolescence until now – from the barber’s trauma to his first love to the loss of his hair and eventually of the most important person in his life