CRAFT Animfest 2026 opens in Yogyakarta with a stop-motion and traditional-techniques competition including Eating Time and Radix

The 6th CRAFT International Animation Festival (Craft Animfest) runs from 23 to 28 October 2026 at BBPPMPV Seni Budaya in Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It was founded in 2016 by Indonesian filmmakers Chonie Prysilia and Hizkia Subiyantoro with Polish director Piotr Kardas, and presents itself as a festival of craft-based animation. Its main strand is an International Competition of Stop-Motion & Traditional Techniques, alongside a Southeast Asia competition open to all techniques and a Shorts for Kids competition judged by children. VIVA Jogja reports more than 80 films from 30 countries; Skwigly's July selection report lists 58 shorts from 29 countries, 27 of them in the stop-motion and traditional-techniques competition.

Competition titles already in the catalogue include Mari Kivi's puppet film Eating Time (Nukufilm, Estonia), Laura Tofarides's Brain Space, Anne Breymann's Radix, Lysander Wong's Foreign Bodies and Krste Gospodinovski's Silent Cinema. The selection list does not label each film's technique, and the section also covers other handmade methods, so the remaining titles are not yet catalogued as stop motion.

This year's theme is "Moving On". The festival opens with Lotte Reiniger's silhouette feature The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), screened with live music by Dimawan Krisnowo Adji. The programme includes a Stop-Motion Builder masterclass in which Yayan Agus Prasetya teaches set building and armature construction.