Chester Animation Festival 2026

CHESTER ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2026 PROGRAMME

On Hold 7 mins Switzerland Delia Hess
A young woman is stuck in the waiting line of a telephone hotline. A surreal episodic short film about the absurdities of urban life and the feeling of paralysing stagnation.

Azkena 9 mins Spain Anne Inés Landeta/Lorea Lyons
Lorea’s reference points are her mother and her grandmother. Through these two generations she observes the bond that women have experienced around motherhood. Now it is up to her to decide whether or not to become a mother herself and to look for answers to pending questions.

I Am A Rebel 5 mins UK Martin Pickles
A hand-drawn comic documentary in which veteran British animator and Oscar-winner Bob Godfrey describes how he got started in Animation and the losses of one era ending and the excitement of a new one beginning. Bob’s narration is taken from an interview he gave in 2006 in his Acme Studio in South London. I Am A Rebel was animated entirely in Flash/Animate and is the successor to an earlier film, What Is Animation?

Small Hours 11 mins UK Oscar Wyndham Lewis
A hand-painted animation about addiction, and the importance of showing up for those in need. Narrated by the wonderful Robert Bathurst (Downton Abbey, Cold Feet, Toast of London). An artist (Jackson) in the end stages of alcoholism lives a solitary, isolated life but one day reaches out to a long-lost childhood friend. It is a final call for help. The film captures those critical moments in life – the forks in the road that lead us down wildly different paths. Here the two men are followed side by side, as one makes the trip down to see the other. What happens to a person that leads them to such despair? and can anyone really help?

Immigrant 2 mins Iran Nilram Ranjbar
This film is a animation about a woman who is forced to be an immigrant due to her love for her country and family.

Cell Buddies 5 mins Netherlands Melle Windig/Hidde Alberts/Miguel Reyes/Jurgen de Smit/Arjen van der Plas
Sam, a grumpy raccoon is stuck sharing a cell with Bob, a sweet but dim manatee. In their chaotic jailbreak Sam’s hardened edges soften as Bob’s loyalty shines. Will they escape? Maybe. But together, they’ve already cracked something bigger: trust.

I Wish I Was There 10 mins UK Flora Martyr
Whilst relaxing abroad on a solo holiday, a woman receives a series of phone calls from the hospital. She decides to ignore these in effect to enjoy her vacation, but her imagination gets the better of her. An unpleasant time ensues, with the growing realisation that she needs to confront her fears.

Action Bog 2 mins Canada Winston Hacking
A feverish stasis collapses into infinite distraction, spinning on the axis of an algorithm. Each pulse, an uncertain tone, breathes electricity into a half-alive world. Time stretches like soft polymer; metamorphoses creep forward frame by frame, suspiciously slow, as if the film were watching me back. Photographic fragments are transferred onto clay, not quite sculpture, not quite collage, but something in between: a Tonermorph. Figures emerge mid-gesture, faces unsealed yet never whole, suspended within the patterns of their own skin. They falter, caught in an action bog of their own making, or perhaps mine. A work of non-narrative cinema, the piece is guided by a score from electroacoustic and musique concrète composer Andrew Zukerman. Created during a 2025 summer residency at the Toronto Animated Image Society, with production funding support from the Society.

Fake ID 2 mins UK Ruben Oliver Gibbons
This comedic hand-drawn short animation follows an anthropomorphic bouncer outside a dingy night club as he decides who and who isn’t permitted to enter.

There Once was a Tiger 12 mins Russian Federation Marina Verik/Dmitry Mosyagin
The story of an extraordinary friendship between a tiger and a goat in the zoo, and how a playful goat helped a bored tiger gain freedom. Based on a true story that happened in 2015 with the tiger Amur and the goat Timur in a safari park in Primorye in the Far East of Russia.

2025 WINNER: The Pearl (Let’s Make Peace) 6 mins Iran Abdollah Alimorad
Afandi and Pashandi are two neighbors that just can’t stand each other. When they’re not trying to sabotage each other’s plans, they’re usually plotting to get revenge. But when push comes to shove, they cast aside their differences and join forces to vanquish the dragon, fend off the wolves, and save the princess—you know, the usual.