SIGGRAPH 2026 Computer Animation Festival Celebrates Global Storytelling, Alongside a Blockbuster Production Sessions Lineup

Newly Expanded to Include Films Longer Than 10 Minutes, the Computer Animation Festival Honors Three Winning Films From South Africa, the United States, and France

LOS ANGELES, June 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- SIGGRAPH 2026, the world's premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, is once again spotlighting the future of visual storytelling through two of its most anticipated programs: the Computer Animation Festival and Production Sessions. Taking place from 19–23 July 2026 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, this year's conference once again puts the spotlight on a global slate of animated storytelling and the studios shaping today's most ambitious productions.

The Computer Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH's prestigious animation showcase and an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival for its "Best in Show" short film, expanded eligibility this year to include films longer than 10 minutes. This change broadened the range of stories and filmmakers it could feature, which, as Marina Antunes, SIGGRAPH 2026 Computer Animation Festival Director, explained, "helped us in reaching out to films and filmmakers that probably would not have submitted in previous years."

The 2026 honorees represent three countries and a shared interest in how the past shapes the present and the future:

• Best in Show: "Apart"
  Pola Maneli, Social Popcorn Films (South Africa, United States)
  In apartheid South Africa, a forbidden friendship between two boys is tested by a life-saving act that forces them to confront the hate dividing their world. Written by Spike Lee and brought to life by a team rooted in South African culture and history, the film blends four animation techniques — traditional 2D frame-to-frame, cut-out, 3D, and 2.5D — across roughly 18,000 frames crafted by a team of more than 250 creatives.

• Best Student Project: "Beyond Words"
  Antoine Barbannaud, Théo Merlet, Cyril Buisson, Damien Poncelet, Anthonin Haüy, Timothée Vergught, Mathis De Sauvecanne, Thémys Cheynel, Lilou Tiprez, Leandro Leijnen, and Romain Gueusset with Creative Seeds (France)
  In a Viking world, a girl's mother goes to battle following her husband's death, and the emotions stemming from that distance haunt them as mysterious wolves appear. Built on the team's proprietary "Hunter" pipeline with in-house motion capture, the student film delivered over 130 shots featuring fur and cloth simulation and complex facial animation across six hand-modeled characters.

• Jury's Choice: "18 Months"
  Paulo Garcia and Natalia Gouvea (United States)
  A true story about the unexpected paths to becoming a family: When Danny and Pete find a newborn in a subway station, their journey to adopt him is retold to mirror the stages of pregnancy, challenging traditional definitions of what it takes to build a family. The film was crafted with stop-motion animation, using handmade puppets and sets, with only minimal use of software for editing and cleanup.

"Stories about how the past shapes the present and our future were really at the forefront this year, with filmmakers exploring social justice, inclusivity, and environmental stories," said Antunes. "They are using the past as a starting point, looking back not to forget what has come before, but to shape what is happening now and what is coming in the future. The Computer Animation Festival consistently sets the bar for where technology and creativity converge, so you are guaranteed to see the best of the best."

The Computer Animation Festival includes screenings of the Electronic Theater and Animation Theater, giving attendees multiple ways to experience emerging trends in animation from across the globe. Several of the top films will also be featured in SIGGRAPH's Computer Animation Festival Traveling Show, a touring collection that brings the Electronic Theater to campuses, festivals, and communities worldwide.

Complementing the creative showcase of the Computer Animation Festival, the Production Sessions program invites attendees behind the scenes of some of the world's most ambitious productions, offering a rare look at the artistry and innovation of today's blockbuster films, immersive experiences, and scientific visualization.

In a marquee session, Wētā FX and Lightstorm Entertainment present "Wētā FX Presents: Avatar: Fire and Ash", a behind-the-scenes look at the 3,100+ shots that return audiences to Pandora. The Academy Award-winning team will detail how it blended extensive native stereo photography with fully digital, performance-captured characters and handcrafted every element of the world, from creatures and clans to the film's titular fire, created in Kora, a new addition to Wētā FX's global simulation framework, Loki. The team created over 2,500 facial motion shots for 30 speaking characters using a proprietary facial system built to preserve each actor's performance.

Other highlights include:

• "Visualizing the Moon for Artemis II" — NASA shows how cinematic scientific visualization, built from publicly available datasets and high-end 3D rendering, recreates the exact lighting astronauts will encounter on the far side of the Moon. The work has helped plan observations and train the crew for Artemis II, the first crewed flight to the Moon since Apollo 17.
• "We're All In This Together: The Making of Disney and Pixar's 'Hoppers'" — Pixar Animation Studios reveals the cross-departmental pipeline that let physical simulation and artistically directed stylization coexist in every shot, balancing broad comedy, suspense, and the beauty of nature photography.
• "Bringing The Mandalorian and Grogu to Life: Virtual Production, Creatures, and VFX Innovations" — Industrial Light & Magic unpacks how real-time technology, virtual production workflows, and time-tested VFX techniques came together to bring the latest "Star Wars" feature to the big screen.
• "Dear Upstairs Neighbors": Artist-Centered, AI-Assisted Expressionistic Animation — A hybrid team of animation veterans and researchers at Google DeepMind shares how artist-driven, AI-assisted workflows shaped an expressionistic, painterly short, with artists in control as both creators and co-designers at every step.

"Production Sessions cover the full production, from the very start of the concept art and the story all the way to the end, giving you a really great general view of the entire pipeline," said Valerie Bernard, SIGGRAPH 2026 Production Sessions Chair. "We get to learn about so many creative challenges that teams had to solve by getting multiple departments to work together. They are for everyone. When I first started going to SIGGRAPH, I learned the most about production workflows from Production Sessions, and they are just as amazing for veterans of the industry who like to be reminded why we do this job."

Together, the Computer Animation Festival and Production Sessions program demonstrate how SIGGRAPH continues to celebrate bold storytelling while advancing the future of computer graphics and interactive techniques. To explore this year's conference and offerings, visit the website to see where animation and visual effects are headed, and register now to experience everything the Computer Animation Festival and Production Sessions have to offer at SIGGRAPH 2026.

About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2026

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world's largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field's challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world's leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2026, the 53rd annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 19–23 July at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

SOURCE SIGGRAPH 2026