LIAF 2026: International Competition Programme 1- Abstract Showcase (18)

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,300 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 75 outstanding new films from 29 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

This programme, the Abstract Showcase, represents our yearly exploration of abstract and experimental animation. It features 14 short films where animators use a wide range of techniques, from hand-drawn "musical scores" to high-definition computer-assisted imagery. Each film reflects a deep passion for animated movement and showcases the artist's skill in using colour and crafting non-narrative visuals to captivate the screen.

LIAF is one of the very few animation festivals in the world to devote an entire programme to abstract and experimental animation. We do this because we believe that the tenets that underpin great abstract animation go to the very heart of what it is to create beautiful, frame by frame animated imagery; a form of animated artmaking with a history that reaches back to the earliest days of animation. Also – we do it because we love abstract animation!!

Several filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce their films at the start of the screening.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

Witch Piss

Melting bodies and fractured anatomy dissolve into a nightmarish collision of animation and found footage. As flesh loses its boundaries, body horror mutates into a fluid confrontation between image, medium, and viewer.

Austria, Germany 2026 Dir: Vera Sebert 9’45

Next Step

Countless original risograph prints improvised to the rhythm of the scores of the Hungarian percussion group, Amadinda.

Hungary 2025 Dir: Tamás Patrovits 5’05

Element #02

Following glowing, constantly moving objects with our eyes brings an instinctive joy.

Japan 2026 Dir: Yuki Kimura 3'25

Impromptu

Proving less is more, an utterly fascinating film made entirely on five wooden boards.

USA 2025 Dir: Steve Subotnick 6’10

Emotion Hazard 1

Exploring the theme of anxiety through a purely compositional approach, serving as a visual interpretation of abstract emotions based on the concept of 'visualising music'.

USA 2025 Dir: Zixuan Zhou 3’45

Cyclotron

A four-and-a-half-minute particle accelerator: colour, shapes, and sounds animated as out-of-phase loops that collide, stretch, and reverse in time.

USA 2026 Dir: Brian Gibson 4’25

Subharmonics

Blooming glimpses of the ever-changing; repetitions that form a circle; keys that can best be found in the depths of the unconscious.

Denmark, Hungary 2026 Dir: Marcell Mostoha 4’55

Symbionts

A beguiling, molten descent into a visceral organic cycle of interaction within an unfamiliar ecosystem.

Switzerland 2025 Dir: Quirijn Dees 9’30

Pictures For Piano (1)

An abstract interpretation of Chopin’s Etude Opus 10 no. 12, made by instinctively improvising imagery onto a pinscreen.

South Africa 2025 Dir: Diek Grobler 3’00

From Something to Nothing

An immersive, audiovisual collage built from more than 3,000 photos of tree bark, moss and organic detail, gathered before the forest was logged. As the images form an experimental patchwork, viewers connect with a living world whose raw material has since vanished.

Austria 2026 Dir: Michael Heindl 6’45

Tintinnabulation I

Colour, light and shape clash and collide in mesmerising ways to the pulsating music of Anton Pearson.

Poland 2026 Dir: Wiesława Ruta 6’50

Dance Of Creation

A vibrant and vivacious world is brought into being in a joyful dance before our very eyes channelling the aesthetics of Neoplasticism.

Israel 2025 Dir: Natalia Ryss 3’15

Métavers II - Pulsation

Sequences generated by a moving virtual camera are layered and blended, creating a unique graphic universe, amplified by the rhythmic electronic music of Eric Delagrave.

Canada 2025 Dir: Marie Delagrave 3’20

Wandering Dot and the Blank Square Page Universe

An immersive visual poem about a journey within a blank page – prompting the question, is a blank page ever really empty?

Belgium, Latvia 2025 Dir: Ieva Lība Ratniece 5’15