AFI Fest 2026 has unveiled its full programme, bringing Brad Bird’s long-awaited Ray Gunn, Laika’s Wildwood and a clutch of acclaimed animated shorts and features to the big screen.
Presented by Canva, the festival will run from 21 to 25 October in Hollywood, with the American Film Institute (AFI) revealing a 157-film programme spanning premieres, special screenings, discoveries, documentaries, world cinema and shorts.
Animation takes centre stage across several sections, with Ray Gunn set for a Red Carpet Premiere and Wildwood opening the festival with its US premiere.
Brad Bird’s Ray Gunn is a retro-futuristic neo-noir mystery and a decades-in-the-making passion project. The Netflix and Skydance Animation title features the voices of Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits.
Meanwhile, Wildwood comes from Oscar-nominated and Bafta-winning studio Laika, the animation house behind Coraline. Directed by Travis Knight, the sweeping adventure explores love, sacrifice and the magic that lies beyond the familiar.
The animation line-up does not stop there. Tangles, Leah Nelson’s feature directorial debut, will screen as part of the festival’s special screenings. Based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, the animated feature blends emotional weight with moments of unexpected humour. Its voice cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Over in the Discovery section, Kōhei Kadowaki’s We Are Aliens makes its mark with a tender 2D animated story about two boys whose friendship is fractured by a cruel accusation at school. The Japan-France co-production marks Kadowaki’s feature debut.
The World Cinema selection adds another animated gem with Iron Boy, directed by Louis Clichy. The Cannes Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize winner follows a young boy whose life changes after he is forced to wear a corrective iron brace, brought to life through watercolor animation and classical music.
The festival’s animation shorts programmes are equally packed. The first selection features Radheya Jang’s Trading Cards, Suresh Eriyat’s Where Were We?, Leto Meade and Jonathan Rockefeller’s A Little Death, Elizabeth Hobbs’ The Daughters of the Late Colonel, Shiyu (Shino) Tang’s Emulsion, Kiana Naghshineh’s With Tapes and Toasts in the Car, Gwenola Heck’s Gaïa and Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s The End.
The second shorts programme brings Nicolas Piret’s Venezia Diorama, Ala Nunu’s In the Beginning, Liron Topaz’s Saba, Le Jardin Rossini, Madina Yelikbayeva’s Aktos, Nikoletta Veress’ Each, All and Every, Puzhen Zhang’s Deep End and Stephen P. Neary’s Living With a Visionary.
From reversed gravity and decaying Venice to space probes, surreal gardens and a magical swimming pool encounter, the shorts line-up packs plenty of visual mischief into its running time.
Beyond animation, AFI Fest 2026 will feature five Red Carpet Premieres, 12 special screenings, 13 luminaries selections, 18 Discovery titles, 16 World Cinema selections, 17 documentaries, three After Dark films, four Guest Artistic Director presentations, 45 films in the short film competition and 24 films from the AFI Conservatory Showcase presented by AMC Global Media.
The festival also marks a creative collaboration with Guest Artistic Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the Academy Award-winning filmmakers behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Lego Movie. Their programme will include an evening with the duo, featuring a Q&A followed by a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, alongside screenings of Harold and Maude, The Muppet Movie and Rififi.
With animation spanning stop-motion spectacle, hand-crafted shorts, festival darlings and boundary-pushing new voices, AFI Fest 2026 is lining up quite the reel deal. Hollywood, it seems, is ready to press play.
