The Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) has announced its 2023 Official Selections for Young Audiences 7+ and its new competition category, Teen Audiences 13+. The new category includes 11 animated worlds bridging the gap between adult and child audiences. This year’s Young Audiences 7+ includes seven selections from eight different countries. Teens attending the festival will judge the Teen Audiences 13+ category, with the OIAF kids’ jury judging the Young Audiences 7+ selections.

“We’re shaking things up a bit this year,” shared OIAF Artistic Director Chris Robinson. “We’ve replaced the preschool category with a competition aimed at those ‘beings’ called teens. We hope that we can encourage high school viewers to use critical thinking skills as they judge the work, in addition to creating a space for animated shorts that often fall between adult and child audiences. The Young Audiences competition, as always, is filled with a wealth of beautiful and inspiring animated works that you won’t easily find on your go-to streaming service.”

The inaugural Teen Audience 13+ competition includes:

• Boat People (dirs. Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma, Canada)
• Ça décale (Let's Roll) (dirs. Chloé Musa, Annabelle Tamic, Alexandre Terrier, Louis Lukasik, Yann Laurent, Camille Flinois, Philip Gonçalves, France)
• Daffy in Wackyland (dir. Max Winston, United States)
• Deniska umřela (Dede Is Dead) (dir. Philippe Kastner, Czech Republic)
• First Period (dir. Julianna Romero, United States)
• Hottest Tokyo (dir. Miho Kidoguchi, Japan)
• Our Uniform (dir. Yegane Moghaddam, Iran)
• Pressure (dir. Jennah Kips, Netherlands)
• Taiyo ga Mizu wo Kundeiru (Glow in the Water) (dir. Kagami Honoka, Japan)
• Yellow Light (dir. Tal Kantor, Israel)
• 單人遊戲 (Me and Me) (dir. ChiuLing Chen, Taiwan)

Teens attending the festival will judge the Teen Audiences 13+ competition on Teens @ OIAF day, September 22. A program encore screens September 23.

The Young Audiences 7+ category includes:

• Aaaah! (dir. Osman Cerfon, France)
• Ciranda Feiticeira (dirs. Lula Gonzaga, Tiago Delácio, Brazil)
• Entre deux sœurs (To Be Sisters) (dirs. Clément Céard, Anne-Sophie Gousset, France)
• Harvey (dir. Janice Nadeau, Canada, France)
• Indlela Yokuphila (The Soul's Journey) (dirs. Dylan McGarry, Marc Moynihan, South Africa)
• Swimming With Wings (dir. Daphna Awadish Golan, Netherlands, Israel)
• The Goose (dir. Jan Mika, Czech Republic, France)
• Va-t'en, Alfred! (Go Away, Alfred!) (dirs. Célia Tisserant, Arnaud Demuynck, France, Belgium)

The OIAF 2023 Kids Jury will judge the Young Audiences 7+. The jury is coordinated by New York-based animator and OIAF 2022 Jury Member Pilar Newton-Katz. The kids’ jury applications will be open until July 21, 2023. Interested young animation enthusiasts can submit their application, including a short paragraph or video about their favorite animated film or series, through the OIAF website.

Source: OIAF 2023