New Spark for Animation at the 2025 Stuttgart Animated Festival
Key Highlights:
- The Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS) is adding fresh twists for its spectators and industry folks!
- They’ve played switcheroo with their schedule! The award ceremony has been advanced by a day — because who wants to wait for good news, right?
- AniMovie, their feature film rivalry, is turning its radar more towards family and adult films. Basically, they’re broadening their audience reach beyond just the kiddos.
- Animation Production Days (APD) are busting out their party hats, boasting a record-setting 103 project submissions. Who said the animation industry was slowing down?
The Bonus Take:
The Stuttgart Animated Festival is shaping up to be the animation equivalent of Wile E. Coyote’s “Acme” factory: always reinventing and coming up with new ways to stay ahead of the game, and occasionally blowing our minds (but thankfully not with TNT!). Shuffling the event schedule and shifting focus to family and adult films along with the significant surge in project submissions is as spicy as an animator’s sketchbook after a chili dinner. It seems Stuttgart is stepping up its game in 2025, and all those animation enthusiasts out there better make sure their 3D glasses are on tight – this could get wild!
Discover Exciting Highlights at the 2025 Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film (ITFS): Rescheduled Award Ceremony, Increased Focus on Family and Adult Films, and More
Between May 6-11, Stuttgart will light up as a pivotal hub for the animation industry. ITFS continues to be a beacon of art, culture, and industry insights during challenging times. Building on the success of previous years, the festival is gearing up with innovative elements to make its platform more inspiring and dialogue-driven.
The Ceremony Rescheduling: A Major Change. The award ceremony is now set for Saturday evening, granting an exclusive Best-of Festival presentation featuring award-winning films on Sunday, thereby enriching the experience for international guests and providing a family-friendly atmosphere filled with creative premieres and activities.
The interactive GameZone has a New Home at Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, hosting exhibitions from local universities and being a contender for the Animated Games Award Germany. Further elevating the festival experience, more rooms are now allocated at the Festival Centre (Haus der Katholischen Kirche) for extended events like the APD Conference 2025, fostering a stronger connection between APD and ITFS.
Grab your festival tickets via our new ITFS website, featuring a modern design for seamless navigation. It has special sections for industry professionals and a detailed calendar to help visitors make the most out of community events.
Animation for Young Adults and Adults Trending. This year, our feature film competition AniMovie is refocused on family and adult films – these films need a platform and we provide it. Watch out for preview specials from Warner and a jaw-dropping Animation Nightmare Night Special.
A German puppet animation film, MEMORY HOTEL in AniMovie competition. The film encapsulates major themes of ITFS 2025, spinning German history from 1945 to the 1990s. Don’t miss the thematic focus on stop-motion and the Border(less) segment, celebrating 80 years of peace and democracy in Europe.
Our diverse programming gets further boost this year, with an impressive increase of about 250 submissions, taking the total count to 2,500, out of which, 700 were for the International Competition alone.
Swiss Animation in the Spotlight. Highlighting the potential of Swiss animation industry, we’ve organised a comprehensive presentation of Swiss short films, promoting collaborations and opening up opportunities beyond the festival.
The APD Co-production Market Paves its Way to the Landesmuseum Württemberg from May 6-8 and highlights an exhaustive schedule for trade visitors. Out of a record 103 submissions, 50 projects from 17 countries were selected, where women participated as director/producer in 70% of them.
Experience the possibilities of co-productions with the focus country, Switzerland, at the ‘Animation Coproductions with Switzerland’ panel. Also, don’t miss the APD Talent Programme Speedpitch on May 6.
The week concludes with Stuttgart Animated Week, FMX – Film and Media Exchange conference, and State Reception on May 5, amalgamating creators, producers and investors.
Original article: https://www.skwigly.co.uk/new-impulses-for-the-animation-industry-at-the-2025-stuttgart-animated-festival/