International Animation Film Festival Stuttgart (ITFS)

ITFS — World-Class Animation Film Festival

The International Animation Film Festival Stuttgart was founded in 1994 and is now Germany's largest animation film festival and one of the most important worldwide. The organizer is Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart e.V., supported by the City and State of Baden-Württemberg, the BKM (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media), and numerous sponsors. With Oscar qualification for several competition categories, the ITFS is part of the global festival circuit eligible for nominations by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Schlossplatz Open Air — Free Animation Cinema for Everyone

A hallmark of the ITFS is the free Open-Air Cinema at Schlossplatz in Stuttgart-Mitte. On the five main festival days, Wednesday to Sunday, the open-air program starts daily from 4 PM and features a mix of short film highlights, classics, and festival previews – free of charge, with seating for hundreds of viewers. The Open Air is one of Stuttgart's most popular city festival stages and makes animation art accessible to a broad audience. The trailer film for 2026 is titled "KEY" and was created by animation students.

City Center Cinemas — The Competition Section

In parallel, the curated competitions and special programs run in Stuttgart's city center cinemas – Atelier am Bollwerk, EM Innenstadt-Kinos, and Metropol. Several competition categories are featured: International Competition, Feature Films, Children's Film, AniMovie, AniMatch, Young Animation. The prize money totals up to €90,000 – a significant amount in the international animation comparison.

Focus 2026: Lotte Reiniger and Silhouette Animation

The thematic focus for 2026 is silhouette animation with a tribute to the pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1899–1981). Reiniger is considered the inventor of the feature-length silhouette animation film ("The Adventures of Prince Achmed", 1926 – the world's oldest surviving feature-length animated film). A retrospective, special programs, and workshops will introduce Reiniger's work and the silhouette technique to new generations.

Stuttgart Animated Week — The Entire Industry in May

The ITFS is part of the Stuttgart Animated Week, which takes place concurrently with the festival week, combining the film festival, industry conference (FMX — Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Immersive Media), and animation market (Animation Production Day) into one of Europe's most important animation events. This makes Stuttgart the hotspot of the international animation industry for a week.