Wknd Update: Animation First 2025

1.11.25 Good evening, all! It’s been a quiet week here due to the three of us back in the spring semester of school, don’t fret, we are still behind the scenes working on the blog. There is an event that should get the interests of artists. The Animation First 2025. The event will take place…

L. Richelle Murry

January 11, 2025

2–3 minutes

Animation First 2025, Animation First Festival, Arr, art event, January 2025, L’Alliance New York, NYC, Weekend Update

1.11.25

Good evening, all! It’s been a quiet week here due to the three of us back in the spring semester of school, don’t fret, we are still behind the scenes working on the blog.

There is an event that should get the interests of artists. The Animation First 2025. The event will take place on January 21, -26, 2025. Here is a description of the event, courtesy of L’Alliance New York

Credit Source: L’Alliance New York

‘This January, celebrate the eighth edition ofAnimation First, the biggest animation festival in the United States! This year’s festival will run from Tuesday, January 21 through Sunday, January 26, and will present seven feature-length films and five short film programs, with a special focus on Swiss animation. Curators Delphine Selles-Alvarez and Chloé Dheu explain, “The 2025 edition of Animation First offers a bold mix of features, shorts, talks, and VR that range from family-friendly to experimental and off the charts. Playful, serious, engaging, and at times radical, the festival will transport audiences to places far and wide.” ‘

‘This year, the festival presents seven feature-length films (including three U.S, two New York, and one East Coast Premiere) and five short film programs. Fifteen guests from around the world join us for filmmaker talks, a first look presentation, and Q&A discussions. Back by popular demand, Animation Speak/Easy joins us for the second year in a row, as does our juried competition of the new Francophone shorts programs. The festival will also feature virtual reality experiences, our annual Student Short Film Competition, and even an interactive make-your-own stop-motion experience for guests in the Tinker Lounge. We’re also thrilled to have Swiss animator and director Georges Schwizgebel design our second-annual limited-edition Animation First series poster.‘

‘With films for adults, teens, and kids, the festival is crafted to engage and entertain guests of all ages throughout nearly a week of programming. Buy your festival pass today!‘

This is one of the animated films that will be on schedule,

Opening Night Film

The Most Precious of Cargoes

East Coast Premiere

La Plus Précieuse Des Marchandises

Buy Tickets
Festival Pass

Schedule

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

7:15 PM

Followed by a Q&A with director Michel Hazanavicius

Opening Night Celebration: Screening preceded by a reception and a post-screening drink will follow

Opening Night Party: 6pm
Film: 7:15pm
Post-Film Reception: 8:15pm

By Michel Hazanavicius, 2024, France, Belgium, 81min, DCP
Voiced by Dominique Blanc, Grégory Gadebois, Denis Podalydès, Jean-Louis Trintignant
In French with English subtitles

From Michel Hazanavicius, author of award-winning The Artist (2011), comes an adaptation of author Jean-Claude Grumberg’s 2019 novel. This fairytale, with voices from notable actors Dominique Blanc, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Grégory Gadebois, and Denis Podalydès, amongst others, follows a humble lumberjack and his wife, who live in a remote Polish forest. The wife often laments the absence of children in their lives. Day and night, trains pass through the forest, their sounds echoing through the trees. One day, as the wife watches what she assumes to be a cargo train passing by, she discovers that a baby has been tossed from the train, en route to Auschwitz, into the snow. Her decision to rescue the baby will change their lives forever…