Last week, the Animation Is Film Festival (AIF) returned to Hollywood’s TCL Chinese 6 Theatre, opening with Scarlet, the latest feature from Academy Award®-nominated director Mamoru Hosoda (Mirai).
Opening Night Red Carpet
The festival’s red carpet brought together some of the biggest names in global animation, each reflecting on what first drew them to the medium—and why it continues to evolve beyond what many still consider “just for kids.”
The lineup included Mamoru Hosoda, Ugo Bienvenu (ARCO), Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han (Little Amélie or The Character of Rain), Arturo and Roy Ambriz (Soy Frankeida), Ana Ambriz (Art Director, Soy Frankeida), and Shabana Azeez, star of Lesbian Space Princess, known for her work on HBO’s Emmy-winning series The Pitt.
Hosoda’s Scarlet—distributed by Sony Pictures Classics—follows a medieval sword-wielding princess who seeks revenge for her father’s murder, only to uncover a future beyond vengeance. The film blends historical fantasy with Hosoda’s trademark emotional depth, exploring the tension between duty, loss, and the passage of time.
The Spirit of AIF
The Animation Is Film Festival has always stood for one simple but powerful statement: animation is cinema. Since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse redefined what mainstream audiences believed animation could be in 2018, the festival has continued to champion the idea that animation is not a genre—it’s an art form.
Many of the filmmakers echoed this sentiment on the carpet. Whether through hand-drawn, stop-motion, or digital storytelling, animation allows artists to build worlds unrestricted by physics or form. It’s a hybrid of two disciplines—film and drawing—working in harmony to create emotion, imagination, and meaning.
For some, that means chasing artistic possibility. For others, it’s about expanding empathy—seeing the world through shapes, colors, and characters that don’t exist in reality but reflect it all the same. That’s what AIF aims to highlight: that animation is not a children’s medium, but a cinematic language that transcends age and expectation.
Now in its eighth edition, the Animation Is Film Festival continues to position itself as the premier U.S. celebration of animated cinema, produced by GKIDS in partnership with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Tickets and the full festival lineup are available at AnimationIsFilm.com.
Opening Night Pictures
ABOUT ANIMATION IF FILM FESTIVAL: ANIMATION IS FILM (AIF) is a world-class animation festival on par with major events in Europe and Asia, and based in the world capital of animated filmmaking — Los Angeles. By embracing the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form, AIF is an international advocate for filmmakers from around the world who push the boundaries of their work to the fullest range of the medium’s artistic expression. Now in its eighth edition, AIF is produced by GKIDS in partnership with the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival.