Canada continues to be a powerhouse on the earth of animation, with its filmmakers persistently pushing the boundaries of storytelling and visible artistry. On the 2025 Annecy Worldwide Animation Movie Competition, a number of Canadian skills are showcasing their newest works, reflecting the nation’s various and progressive animation scene.

Under, we profile 12 of essentially the most thrilling animation skills working in Canada at this time. We stress that this isn’t essentially a listing of Canadian skills, however slightly of artists who ply their commerce in Canada, one of the crucial welcoming industries to foreigners on the earth.

Alex Boya

Alex Boya is a Bulgarian-born, Montreal-based animator famend for his surreal, hand-drawn storytelling. A graduate of Concordia College’s Mel Hoppenheim Faculty of Cinema, Boya gained early recognition with NFB shorts like “Focus” (2014) and “Turbine” (2018). His newest work, “Bread Will Stroll,” is an experimental quick that premiered at Cannes’ Administrators’ Fortnight and is now set to compete at Annecy. The movie, voiced fully by Jay Baruchel, follows a sister fleeing together with her bread-turned-zombie brother by way of a society consumed by starvation. Crafted as a steady shot mixing anatomical illustration, digital collage and textured ink, it critiques overconsumption and dehumanization.

Andrea Dorfman

Dorfman is a Halifax-based filmmaker, animator and illustrator whose work spans quick and feature-length movies. Identified for mixing heartfelt storytelling with hand-crafted visuals, she’s directed award-winning movies like “Flawed” and “The Women of Meru.” At Annecy this 12 months, she presents two animated shorts: “Furry Legs,” in official competitors, and the poignant “Find out how to Be at House,” a viral hit created in collaboration with poet Tanya Davis that demonstrates an actual expertise for pairing visuals with spoken phrase. She additionally directs music movies and illustrates, showcasing her inventive voice throughout a number of various mediums.

Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski

Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski are the visionary duo behind Clyde Henry Productions, a Montreal-based studio acclaimed for its surreal stop-motion artistry. Their breakout movie, “Madame Tutli-Putli” (2007), garnered an Academy Award nomination and gained the Canal+ Grand Prize at Cannes. In 2025, they return with “The Lady Who Cried Pearls,” a 15-minute animated quick chosen for competitors at Annecy. The movie weaves a darkish fairy story a couple of lady whose tears remodel into pearls, exploring themes of grief, greed and transformation. Persevering with their custom of mixing tactile puppetry with digital innovation, Lavis and Szczerbowski reaffirm their standing as pioneers in up to date animation.

Colin Ludvic Racicot

Colin Ludvic Racicot is a Canadian animator and filmmaker primarily based in Montreal, celebrated for his emotionally resonant storytelling and distinctive visible model. A graduate of Concordia College’s Movie Manufacturing program, Racicot has been directing quick movies since 2010. His newest animated quick, “The place Rabbits Come From,” is a 15-minute, dialogue-free movie that explores a widowed rabbit father’s efforts to convey marvel into his daughter’s life inside a dystopian world. The movie garnered important important acclaim, successful greatest animated quick on the 2024 Canadian Display screen Awards and qualifying for the 2025 Oscars.

Dale Hayward, Sylvie Trouvé

Hayward and Trouvé are the co-founders of Montreal-based Sea Creature, a studio specializing in stop-motion animation. Their work blends conventional craftsmanship with digital innovation, as showcased of their award-winning quick movie “Bone Mom” (2018). The duo met whereas working at Cuppa Espresso Studios in Toronto and later moved to Montreal to pursue impartial tasks. In 2020, they launched See Be taught Academy, an academic platform devoted to educating animation fundamentals by way of stop-motion strategies. Their collaborative method continues to affect the animation group each in Canada and internationally. Their current work, “Hanging By a Thread,” performs on this 12 months’s Commissioned Movies competitors.

Eric San AKA Child Koala

Eric San, identified professionally as Child Koala, is a Canadian artist celebrated for his progressive fusion of music, animation and storytelling. Whereas he initially gained acclaim as a scratch DJ and composer, his current enterprise into animation has garnered important consideration, scoring him an Annecy collection of his debut characteristic “Area Cadet” at this 12 months’s competition. The dialogue-free characteristic, primarily based on his 2011 graphic novel, premiered at Berlin earlier this 12 months. It explores themes of affection, loss and intergenerational connection by way of the story of a younger astronaut and her guardian robotic. Child Koala’s distinctive method to animation can also be evident in his stay multimedia performances like Nufonia Should Fall and The Storyville Mosquito, the place he combines puppetry, stay music and real-time filmmaking to create immersive experiences.

Justice Rutikara

Justice Rutikara is a Rwandan-born, Quebec-based animator and filmmaker whose work explores reminiscence, identification and resilience. His 2024 animated quick “Ibuka, Justice” recounts his household’s escape from the 1994 Rwandan genocide by way of poetic 2D animation and firsthand testimony. The movie premiered at RIDM and DOK Leipzig, and is screening in Annecy’s Views part. Rutikara, who studied worldwide research at Université de Montréal, has additionally labored in theater and fiction movie. His idea of “harmonic chaos” drives his storytelling, mixing emotional depth with formal experimentation to amplify underrepresented Afro-Quebec and diasporic voices.

Marie Valade

Marie Valade is a Quebec-based animator and Concordia College alumna identified for her intimate, body-centered storytelling. Her 2021 quick movie “Boobs” (“Lolos”) makes use of rotoscoping and cut-out animation to discover a girl’s evolving relationship together with her breasts. The movie premiered at Annecy, gained the Nationwide Dada Prize on the Competition du Nouveau Cinéma, and was named to TIFF’s Canada’s Prime Ten. It additionally earned nominations on the Canadian Display screen Awards and Quebec Cinema Awards. In 2019, Valade was named co-director of Competition Cease Movement Montréal and he or she is an alum of the NFB’s Hothouse program, persevering with to champion daring, feminist voices in animation.

Seth Scriver, Pete Scriver

Seth and Pete Scriver are Canadian half-brothers and co-directors of the animated documentary “Limitless Cookie,” screening at this 12 months’s competition. Seth, a Toronto-based animator and illustrator, beforehand co-directed “Asphalt Watches,” which gained Greatest Canadian First Function at TIFF 2013. Pete, a Cree storyteller and former chief of Shamattawa First Nation in Manitoba, brings his lived experiences to the movie. “Limitless Cookie” blends lo-fi animation with real-life audio to discover their familial bond, cultural identification and shared historical past. Premiering at Sundance and screening at Sizzling Docs and Annecy, the movie has been praised for its humor, heat and progressive storytelling.