The 2024 Ars Electronica Animation Festival is a diverse showcase that invites spectators to discover current artistic productions in the field of digital animation. The selection has been mostly compiled from the submissions to the Prix Ars Electronica 2024, which shifted its focus last year from Computer Animation to the landscape of New Animation Art. It is therefore now welcoming artists whose work reaches beyond the cutting-edge intersection of animation, art and technology, delving into visual expression through bold experimentation.
Several exciting programs such as Prix Ars Electronica Best-Of, AI & Human, H-O-P-E, and Austrian Panorama will demonstrate clearly the breadth and diversity of the medium, not only in terms of storytelling techniques, conceptual explorations and technological innovation, but also commitment to social change and new political visions. Many creators of animation utilize specific technological tools—applications like Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, DALL-E, Sora, Runway, or ChatGPT—in a self-reflexive manner to offer critical commentary on the socio-technical nature of these systems themselves.
From the 900 submissions, around 40 projects have been selected to be shown at Ars Electronica Animation Festival, featuring a broad spectrum of techniques: AI-generated images, cinematic deepfakes, documentary storytelling, scientific and data visualizations, real-time graphics or CGI powered by game engines. The selection is complemented by three outstanding guest programs compiled by SIGGRAPH, ISEA, and Runway AI Film Festival respectively.
ARS ELECTRONICA ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2024, image: Sameth Lilith
For the first time, Ars Electronica Animation Festival will take place in medSPACE, a new venue for teaching anatomy, offering an immersive 4k screening experience with a projection surface of 14 by 7 meters. Located on the medical campus of Johannes Kepler University Linz, the space has been developed and implemented by the Ars Electronica Futurelab.
JKU MED CAMPUS (MED Campus I), JKU medSPACE, First Floor
WED Sept. 4 – SUN Sept. 8, 2024
Free Admission
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PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA BEST – OF
Beatie Wolfe (GB), Jeremy Kamal (US), Timothy Thomasson (CA), Nicolas Gourault (FR), Los (CN), Jordan Clarke (CA), Kordae Henry (US), Rachel Maclean (GB)
Prix Ars Electronica Best-Of is a compilation of outstanding animations chosen by the jury from the works submitted to the New Animation Art category of Prix Ars Electronica 2024.
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H-O-P-E
Kennedy+swan (DE), Max Hattler (DE/HK), Jan Bitzer (DE), BORA MURMURE (FR), Alessandro Bavari (IT), Paul Valentin (DE), Inferstudio (AU)
Hope is a powerful, yet often too ambiguous concept. In a world beset by rampant climate change and societal disruptions, coupled with uncertainty about our ability to influence the future, hope remains crucial.
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AI & HUMAN
Ethel Lilienfeld (FR), Ines Sieulle (FR), Tomás GarcÃa (AR), Paul Trillo (US), Ida Kvetny (DK), Glenn Marshall (GB)
The AI & Human program is an annual celebration of the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and animation art, showcasing recent innovations in the field. This year a remarkable one-third of the submissions to Prix Ars Electronica New Animation Art were projects created using AI tools or centered around AI as a theme—the highest number to…
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AUSTRIAN PANORAMA
Celine Pham (AT), Verena Repar (AT), Kevin Blackistone (US/AT), Sascha Vernik (AT), Rainer Kohlberger (AT/DE), Sophie Gartner & Neo Klinger (AT)
Austrian Panorama showcases a mix of experimental and humorous animations by Austrian artists or artists who live and work in Austria.
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Young Animations
Like every year, the works of talented filmmakers up to the age of 19 are celebrated in the category Young Animations. The program is a selection of short films created by young artists across Austria, who have submitted their projects to the Prix Ars Electronica 2024 in the u19–create your world category.
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DATA AND SCIENCE VISUALIZATIONS
NCSA Advanced Visualization Lab (US), Peter Mindek (SK), Tobias Klein (DE), Alfredo De Biasio (IT), Felicia Brisc (DE) & Nuno Serra (PT), Mark SubbaRao (US), Jullian Young (US), Beatie Wolfe (GB)
Through animation, scientific concepts become more than just data—they become stories that resonate and inspire. Animation can turn complex scientific concepts into visually comprehensible narratives, making them accessible to a broad audience.
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Guest Program: SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH will be present at Ars Electronica Festival this year with its prestigious annual showcase Electronic Theatre, covering 17 outstanding animations from this year’s edition. The total program duration is 90 minutes.
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Guest Program: ISEA
The Constellations ISEA 2024 animation program reveals a mix of Indigenous and Western animation concepts, styles and methods. New artistic approaches in expanded animation come to the fore through works by Nirma Madhoo, A. Bill Miller and Gregory Bennett, deploying motion and reality capture technology.
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Guest Program: Runway’s AI Film Festival
Emeric Leprince (FR), Carlo De Togni & Elena Sparacino (IT), Johans Saldana Guadalupe (PE/US), Katie Luo (US), Junie Lau (CN), Daniel Antebi (MK/US), YZA Voku (ES), Rufus Dye-Montefiore (UK), Luke Dye-Montefiore (UK), Alice Boyd (UK), John Semerad (US) & Dara Semerad (US), Leo Cannone (FR)
Runway’s AI Film Festival was established in 2022 and welcomes artists embracing new and emerging AI techniques for filmmaking. The selection presented at Ars Electronica features the previous edition’s festival finalists and offers a glimpse into a new creative era.
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Meet the Artist: Nicolas Gourault
Nicolas Gourault (FR)
Alongside the rich and diverse screening program of Ars Electronica Animation Festival, we’re thrilled to announce that several artists awarded at Prix 2024 will be joining us at medSPACE and Deep Space 8k to present their work in person.
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Meet the Artist: Rachel Maclean
Rachel Maclean (GB)
Alongside the rich and diverse screening program of Ars Electronica Animation Festival, we are thrilled to announce that several artists awarded at Prix 2024 will be joining us at medSPACE and Deep Space 8k to present their work in person.
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Meet the Artist: Timothy Thomasson and Jeremy Kamal
Landscapes of Memory. Landscapes of Imagination Alongside the rich and diverse screening program of Ars Electronica Animation Festival, we are thrilled to announce that several artists awarded at Prix Ars Electronica 2024 will be joining us at medSPACE and Deep Space 8K to present their work in person.
