ANIMAFEST ZAGREB IS HERE
Prepare for the 2026 edition by watching past winners. A selection of award-winning short films from Animafest Zagreb, one of the oldest and most prestigious animation festivals in the world. Curated ahead of the 2026 festival edition as an introduction to the competition's history and aesthetic range.
Titles in collection
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A crush gone moldy.
- Coming-of-Age
- Romance
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Good and evil, utopia and dystopia, narrative and post-narrative collide in a mortal battle to entertain the audience.
- Drama
- Abstract
- Experimental
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Man on the chair is tormented and constantly doubts his very own existence.
- Drama
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A surrealist journey through colours and shapes inspired by the poem Romance Sonámbulo by Federico García Lorca. Visual poetry in the rhythm of fantastic dreams and passionate nights.
- Experimental
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While transitioning from male to female gender, Matia struggles with finding a genuine intimate relationship with a heterosexual man.
- Drama
- Coming-of-Age
- Abstract
- Experimental
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On a late-night commuter bus, a necklace was stolen. This was followed by a tragic and fatal road accident, and a series of intriguing turn of events which revealed love, hatred, and vengeance. The film climaxes as the bus goes up in flames, burning and glittering against the dark coastal sky.
- Drama
- Tragedy
- Experimental
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A story about a couple whose life together is filled with routine acts of (self)deceit. A moody portrayal of the moment we stop loving others and fall in love with our fantasies.
- Drama
- Experimental
- Romance
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In a lush and lively forest lives a hedgehog. He is respected and envied by the other animals. However, Hedgehog’s unwavering devotion to his home annoys a quartet of insatiable beasts. Together, they march off towards Hedgehog’s home and spark a tense and prickly standoff. Based on the classic story by Branko Ćopić and exquisitely directed by Eva Cvijanović, Hedgehog’s Home is a warm and universal tale for young and old that reminds us there truly is no place like home.
- Comedy
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At a long table laden with traditional dishes, a family shares fond memories of an uncle, who fled Portugal’s dictatorship and became a garbage collector in Paris, in this film by Laura Gonçalves.
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Which image is real: the one staring at us from the mirror or the one standing in front of it? In hallways filled with illusions, a simulacrum behind the looking glass, he is trying to find out if he is looking at a stranger or a hidden part of himself.
- Drama
- Experimental
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A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.
- Sci-Fi
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The hamsters live and work in Hamsterland, a perfect state with a perfect economy. The GDP grows steadily, there is no unemployment, and 100% of the population declare themselves to be happy.
- Comedy
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No peeking, please! Modern life has isolated us and made us somewhat detached. The Good Old Swing Octopus comes to the rescue! Emerging from the depths of the sea, it brings life to our jaded city souls.
- Experimental
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Think of PINBALL as a spinning flying saucer which lands in your yard, performs, and then flies away to the sound of film flapping in a projector…The film visualizes George Antheil’s 1952 revision of “Ballet Mecanique” using trigger fast cutting, painted imagery and sound effects. It might be described as “visual music”. Let loose from narrative confines, PINBALL is an intense abstraction of animated paintings by Suzan Pitt.
- Abstract
- Experimental
- Non-narrative
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When did you last talk with your father? Will you ever ask him about those things that hurt you? In Father the reality of life is turned upside down to create an impossible dialogue – the dialogue between a child and a father that never happens.
- Drama
- Experimental
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In a society in which we all senselessly orbit around our daily routines, what happens to those who were kicked out of the system? They could soon find themselves on a trajectory leading out of the inhabitable zone.
- Drama
- Abstract
- Experimental
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An audiovisual weave in which an animated line represents the warp, while the female voice represents the filling. She who weaves and that what is woven intertwine through time.
- Experimental
- Non-narrative
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Animated video for "Fly" by Djo. New album "The Crux".
- Drama
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Two brothers entertain themselves with a joyous game of hide and seek while their parents cook dinner. As one boy counts, the other quickly hides in a small cabinet full of glasses, stubbornly determined to win. Seconds pass… then minutes… years… and decades. Every so often the boy peeks out of the sideboard. What he sees is strange and unfamiliar. With each glance, everything and everyone he once knew changes and fades, until he is left alone
- Drama
- Experimental
- Abstract
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Two cosmonauts, two friends, try to do their best in their everyday training life to make their common dream a reality. But this story is not only about the dream.
- Drama