An annual animation festival that runs each November at the Globe Cinema in Calgary, Alberta, GIRAF celebrates the spirit of independent, underground, and experimental animation, showcasing Canadian animators and presenting diverse animations from around the globe.

  
Presented by the Quickdraw Animation Society, a non-profit dedicated to the art of animation, GIRAF is committed to creating greater awareness for animation as an art form. We do this through interactive activities including workshops, artist talks, installations, live performances, and visiting artists (recent guest artists include Evan DeRushie, Renee Zhan, 24MemesPerSecond, Anna Firth, MidKnife Films, Phil Tippet, Amanda Strong, Sean Buckelew, Amy Lockhart, Kirsten Lepore, Caleb Wood, among many others), and through thoughtfully curated screenings.

  
Our festival focuses on presenting works that push boundaries through the development of new techniques, hybrid forms of creation, and challenging subject matter, and love discovering artists and films that have been missed by other festivals. Mostly, we are looking for independent and artful animated films to share with our audience in Calgary. That can mean abstract or narrative, hand-drawn or computer-generated, student films or well-established professionals, or somewhere in between. We want films we can be excited about, films that are pushing forward what animation can do, and films that make us feel things (even if that feeling is just "oh my gosh, this is ridiculous").

GIRAF believes in the payment of artist fees for all selected filmmakers. Artists will be paid a screening fee of approximately $80CAD for the presentation of their film at GIRAF.

  
We have two juried prizes, for best Canadian short film and best International short film. Funds raised through FilmFreeway submissions will go towards a cash prize for these two awards, which in 2024 worked out to approx. $200CAD for each of the winners—although we still encourage you to submit for free at http://giraffest.ca. Because the prize is based on submissions, we won't know the total value until submissions close.

  
The jury also has discretion to award honourable mentions to other films they find noteworthy.

  
An Audience Choice Award is selected through audience ballots at each screening.

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