GLAS Animation Festival takes place March 19-22, 2020 in the historic city of Berkeley, California, just a quick ride away from San Francisco.

In March 2016 we launched the first annual GLAS Animation Festival in Berkeley, California. GLAS takes place over four days across Downtown Berkeley at various prestigious cultural institutions including theaters, galleries, media centers, and educational institutions.

GLAS exhibits films from local and international artists and filmmakers across the animation spectrum, creating a community and space for industry veterans, historians, animation enthusiasts, and emerging talent from diverse backgrounds to come together, share, learn, and appreciate the animated art form in a critical context. We started GLAS to showcase the most exciting animation being made around the world and expand the scope of how animation is understood as an artistic medium in the United States.

At the heart of the festival is the international competition, which showcases five curated programs of the most exceptional contemporary animated short films. These programs are the highlight of the festival as they demonstrate most fully the expressive abilities of animation as a medium. Created oftentimes by an individual artist or small team, these films push the boundaries of film itself through a singular vision not possible in any other medium.  

We also host retrospectives, special-curated programs, workshops, panel discussions, performances, and installations. We invite a diverse range of national and international guest speakers and presenters from various sections of the filmmaking community to come share their works, their knowledge, their expertise, and to facilitate discussion. The speakers and presenters we invite represent a multitude of aspects of the animation community including industry veterans, notable independent animators, curators, performance artists, and installation artists.  

Film festivals do not simply show films, but create communities, bringing filmmakers to the festival, sharing knowledge, uniting the international filmmaking community, inspiring aspiring filmmakers, and sharing works with the general public. It’s our belief that this work should be accessible to as many people as possible, and that cultivating and promoting independent animation in the United States will expand the culture of American animation, film, and art, for many generations to come. We also just think if more people are given the opportunity to see these films, they’ll really love them!