SCAD AnimationFest Turns 10 With DreamWorks Premiere, 'Proud Family' Reunion and a New Shorts Competition
SCAD AnimationFest returns to Atlanta for its 10th year on September 23–25, and the three-day programme stacks premieres, career honours and a brand-new competitive shorts showcase into the university's SCADshow theatre.
The festival closes with the premiere of DreamWorks Animation's Forgotten Island, written and directed by Joel Crawford, who will also receive the Variety Impact in Animation Award during the festival Variety. Opening day brings a Warner Bros. Pictures Animation sneak peek at The Cat in the Hat, with Bill Hader voicing the titular Cat ahead of the film's November release, alongside screenings of Pixar's Toy Story 5, the animated series Avatar: Aang the Last Airbender, President Curtis and Helluva Boss — the latter featuring voice actors Richard Horvitz and Brandon Rogers. After the Avatar screening, director Lauren Montgomery joins attendees for a conversation.
A 25th-anniversary celebration of The Proud Family will honour executive producers Bruce W. Smith and Ralph Farquhar, who both receive the Animation Trailblazer Award. Smith and Farquhar were the creative force behind the groundbreaking animated series about a Black American family, which debuted in 2001 and was revived in 2022 as The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder on Disney+.
Variety's 10 Animators to Watch franchise, first launched in 2015, makes its festival debut at SCAD AnimationFest 2026 as the event becomes the list's new home. The festival also launches its inaugural Animated Shorts Competition, accepting films five minutes and under through the FilmFreeway submission platform FilmFreeway.
Studios and distributors represented across the programme include Adult Swim, Prime Video, Bento Box Entertainment, CBS Studios, Crunchyroll, Disney Television Animation, DreamWorks Animation, Fox Entertainment, LAIKA, Marvel Animation, Paramount+, Pixar Animation Studios, Sony Pictures Television, Titmouse, Walt Disney Imagineering and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. A Thursday panel titled "The Magic of SCAD Alumni: Inside Walt Disney Imagineering" spotlights graduates now working at Disney's theme-park design division. A Warner Bros. Animation double feature opens with Batman: Knightfall — Part 1: Knightfall.
Mollie Brock, director of SCADFILM, confirmed that this year marks the festival's tenth edition Variety. Jud Estes, associate dean of the SCAD School of Animation and Motion — which covers animation, motion media design and visual effects — helps steer the academic programming behind the event.
SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design, offers more than 40 programs across 11 schools and is ranked by The Hollywood Reporter, The Rookies and Red Dot Design SCAD. The institution also runs the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which returns October 24–31, 2026, with guests including Will Arnett, Craig Brewer, Rose Byrne and Park Chan-wook SCAD Savannah Film Festival.
For animation fans and industry watchers alike, the 10th-anniversary lineup reads like a cross-section of where the medium stands in 2026: legacy studios alongside streaming-native players, hand-drawn television revival culture celebrated next to CG features, and a new shorts competition opening a door for emerging film-makers.
