ABC LIAF: London International Animation Festival

​The London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2021), the UK’s largest, longest-running and most eclectic animation festival returns for its 18th year with a mammoth 10-day celebratory feast of forums, screen talks and 205 of the best recent, historical and retrospective animated shorts and features from around the world. As ever, this year’s uncompromising programme promises to inspire, delight and challenge the notion that animation is merely for the 3D CGI blockbuster genre or cute cartoons for kids. Independent animation is an art form that continues to thrive and develop as a breathtaking medley of styles, materials, techniques and production - from hand drawn, paint on glass, collage, sculpture, cut outs, puppets, abstract, sand/salt, to some of the more interesting developments in CGI – all of which can be seen at this year's LIAF. 2, 400 films were entered into the festival this year and the best 80 have been selected to screen across several competitive categories in 8 International Competition Programmes such as From Absurd to Zany (humorous shorts), Into The Dark (scary shorts), Animated Documentaries, the Abstract Showcase and the British Showcase. This is a snapshot of the international indie-animation universe showing that animation is alive and well and thriving.