Manchester Animation Festival Announces 2026 Winners: In Waves Takes Feature Prize, Generative AI Films Banned From 2027
Manchester Animation Festival (MAF) announced the winners of its 2026 competition on November 13. The Feature Film Award went to In Waves (Belgium, France, US), directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, with a Special Mention for We Are Aliens (Japan, France), directed by Kohei Kadowaki. The Short Film Award went to When the Sea Was Calm (Georgia), directed by Mamuka Tkeshelashvili, and the Best British Short Award went to A Little Death (UK, US), directed by Leto Meade and Jonathan Rockefeller.
Other major honours included the Student Film Award for To Kill a Velofahrer (Switzerland), the Immersive Film Award for Mirage (Bangladesh, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia), the Children's Award for Singularity (Netherlands), and the Audience Award for Into the Forest (Switzerland). In the Industry Excellence Awards, Joe Wells won Scriptwriting and Bryony James won Storyboarding, both for Pablo Next Level.
The festival also announced that films created using generative AI will no longer be accepted for submission from 2027 onwards. Festival Director Steve Henderson said the new policy puts artists first and safeguards the human skills at the heart of animation.
The 2026 festival ran from November 8 to 12 at HOME and venues across Manchester, its biggest edition to date, with almost 12,000 admissions over five days. The festival will return on November 14-18, 2027, and the call for entries is now open.
Source: Manchester Animation Festival
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图中是曼彻斯特 First Street 的 HOME 艺术中心外景，本届曼彻斯特动画节在此及曼彻斯特多处场馆举行。 Gerald England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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