The ASIFA-East Animation Festival is the annual competition of ASIFA-East, the New York chapter of ASIFA, and dates back to 1969. It is a regional event: the professional categories accept animation produced in the United States, and the student categories are open to schools in the Northeast. There is no preselection committee. Every eligible submission enters the competition and is shown to ASIFA-East members at in-person and online jury screenings, and the members vote to choose the winners.
Prizes cover independent, commissioned and experimental films, music videos and student work, plus craft awards for writing, animation, education, sound and design. The highest-rated professional film receives the Peggy Award for Best in Show. Only the winning films screen at the awards ceremony in New York, which for the 2027 edition is on 21 May 2027.
Awards and prizes
Professional categories: Independent Film, Commissioned Work, Experimental Film and Music Video, each with First, Second and Third Prize. Student categories: Undergraduate Film and Graduate Film, each with First Prize and Runner-Up. Craft awards, one in each discipline: Writing, Animation, Education, Sound and Design. Specialty awards: Best in Show (the Peggy Award) for the highest-rated film across the professional categories; the Cartoon Brew Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, presented with Cartoon Brew; the WIA NYC Award, presented with WIA NYC to a filmmaker from an underrepresented gender identity. Winners are determined by the votes of ASIFA-East members; the Festival Committee makes the final decision on all awards.
Festival rules
Submissions are limited to films produced in the United States and are made through FilmFreeway. Films previously submitted to the ASIFA-East Animation Festival are not eligible. Films longer than 22 minutes must provide a representative 5–10 minute excerpt for jury viewing. The Undergraduate and Graduate Film categories are for students of institutions in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont; student films longer than 7 minutes must provide a 5-minute excerpt. Each film may be entered in one category only. Every eligible film is selected for judging and screened for ASIFA-East members, who vote on the awards; only award-winning films are shown at the Awards Ceremony. Films with live-action footage or generative AI are reviewed individually by the Festival Committee. Entries require a downloadable H.264 video link, up to 1 GB. Copyright remains with the filmmaker.
