Manchester Animation Festival 2025

Manchester Animation Festival returns for 2025 with another stacked line-up of previews, special guests, talks, networking opportunities, shorts films and classic screenings. The festival has become a regular highlight in our cinematic calendar here at Creative Tourist. It brings together animation fans, industry folk and families with a consistently first-class line-up that gathers top names from the world of animation, along with talented newcomers, independent innovators, and exciting work plucked from the archive and presented back on the big screen.

This year’s edition features a visit from the team at Walt Disney Animation who will provide some behind the scenes insight into the production of Zootropis 2, Industrial Light and Magic look back on fifty years that includes everything from Star Wars to Rango, while director Alex Woo discusses his Netflix feature In Your Dreams alongside a preview screening. There’s also a visit from the Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea) team who collect a Fellowship Award, a chance to catch up with the creators of the latest Julia Donaldson BBC Christmas special, and a screening of the award-winning sci-fi Arco, which counts Will Ferrell, America Ferrera and Mark Ruffalo amongst its cast.

For fans of animation looking for something new or a little outside of the mainstream, MAF have you covered too

For fans of animation looking for something new or a little outside of the mainstream, MAF have you covered too. There’s the UK premiere of I Am Frankelda, an extravagant stop motion feature from Mexico. Riotous sci-fi comedy Lesbian Space Princess screens following rapturous reviews out of 2025’s Berlinale. From Japan, director Baku Kinoshita will be present for a Q&A following his drama The Last Blossom, about a prisoner looking back on his life as a yakuza, plus there’s a special introduced 40th anniversary screening of writer-director Mamoru Oshii’s (Ghost in the Shell) lesser-seen Angel’s Egg.

The industry side of the festival (open to all) is as strong as ever. From events that tackle pressing issues such as ethics and artificial intelligence, gender inequality and a visit from Aardman Animation to talk about neurodiversity in the industry, to technical sessions explaining animating with Unreal, breaking through on YouTube, and a panel of early-career professionals explaining how to kick start your own career in animation — there’s something here to interest all levels of the business. That’s without mentioning the range of networking events, parties, quizzes and award ceremonies on offer too.

Of course, families and children are also well catered for — this is an animation festival after all. Short film programmes cater for children and teens, while a special curated BBC Family Boxset screening is brimming with kid-friendly favourites, plus some cult classics for the parents too. Feature film Hola Frida is a beautifully rendered look at the childhood of Frida Kahlo, which invites audiences of all ages to discover one of the twentieth century’s most beloved artists. Then there’s a look to the future, with the Young Animator of the Year award, featuring a talk by stop-motion director and puppet-maker Laura Tofarides, sure to inspire any budding animators in the audience.