Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) Renames & Redefines Animated Series Competition for 50th Anniversary
Skwigly
The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) has renamed its Animated Series competition to the Platform Animation competition as part of its 2026 Official Selections, reflecting on the changing ways animated works are developed, distributed and watched. The update comes as OIAF marks its 50th anniversary this year.
Formerly known as the Animated Series competition, the expanded category recognizes animated works created for or shaped by broadcast, streaming, web, educational, editorial, and studio contexts. Eligible entries include pilots, episodes, series, instalments, and standalone shorts developed for platform-driven audiences.
The six works selected for this year’s Platform Animation competition include:
- Adult Swim’s The Elephant (dirs. Pendleton Ward, Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey, Patrick McHale, Mike L. Mayfield, Humberto Irigoyen, Remus Buznea, Kyriaki Kyriakou, Joe Hingelberg, Shawn Golden | United States)
- Glen: Wrestler (dir. Travis Pelto | United States)
- Kevin ‘Fourth of July’ (dirs. Angelo Hatgistavrou, Sarah Seember Huisken | United States)
- Mating Season ‘The Truth About Canada’ (dir. Henrique Jardim | United States)
- Qui on croit et pourquoi? L’injustice testimoniale (Who Do We Believe, and Why? Testimonial Injustice) (dir. Martine Frossard | Canada)
- TedEd ‘Can Saunas Make You Live Longer?’ (dirs. Noam Sussman, Ali Kellner | Canada, United States)
Among the selections is The Elephant, a highly anticipated Adult Swim collaboration involving multiple animation creators, including Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time), Rebecca Sugar (Steven Universe), Ian Jones-Quartey (OK K.O.! Let’s Be Heroes) and Patrick McHale (Over the Garden Wall). Qui on croit et pourquoi? L’injustice testimoniale (Who Do We Believe, and Why? Testimonial Injustice), directed by Martine Frossard, and TED-Ed’s ‘Can Saunas Make You Live Longer?’, directed by Noam Sussman and Ali Kellner, are also among the selected works, underscoring the kind of platform-based animation the category was expanded to recognize.
Animation made for audiences outside the traditional festival circuit has changed radically. What we once called series or television animation no longer fully describes the range of work we receive. Some of these projects are not technically series, but they share more DNA with platform-based animation than with the more eccentric independent works in our main competition. Renaming the section Platform Animation is a nod to that shift — to animation now living across Netflix, YouTube, streaming services, social platforms and spaces that barely existed a generation ago. The old world of channels has largely vanished. This category reflects the new, unruly, wide-open landscape.
OIAF artistic director Chris Robinson
The festival receives more than 2,000 entries each year, with a record 3,026 entries for its milestone edition. OIAF will present the Platform Animation winner at its Awards Ceremony on September 26 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.