Magic Atlas Becomes First Animated Feature in Tokyo's Competition

A hand-made animated feature has become the first animated film in the competition line-up at the Tokyo festival, Variety reported on 1 November 2026. The film is Magic Atlas, directed by Sun Xun, a Chinese multimedia artist who has worked across painting, video and installation for years.

Sun Xun called the project his "all-in moment," according to the same report. It is his first feature animation, and it took him about a decade to make. The film was produced in Singapore by Pi Animation Studio.

The look of the film is built from older materials. Its images were made with paint, pen and ink on paper and canvas, and they also use newspapers and woodcut prints. Screen Daily describes the film as a Chinese-language animation that mixes several animation techniques.

The story centres on Luocha, a coal empire. An orphan boy named Xiao Zhi is given access to secrets by a magician who is locked away in prison. Sun Xun voices the narrator himself, and the film opens with the Avatamsaka Sutra, a Buddhist scripture.

Variety's review lists some of the film's stranger images. They include hybrid animals, among them a horse with a camera for a head. The film also shows a mass surveillance system made up of giant mosquitoes.

For a festival, a first like this one matters for practical reasons. Competition places put a film in front of critics, programmers and buyers at the same time. Animated features do not always get that kind of platform, so the Tokyo selection gives this one a prominent stage before it reaches wider audiences.

Any release plans, distribution deals or sales news would need to come from the people handling the film, and none has been announced.