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LIAF 2025 x Animation at War

London International Animation Festival 2025

,Cinemas
Neighbours 4

A selection of provoking, short animations exploring the enduring impact of war and conflict, using bold visual styles to commemorate and reflect on human experience across time and borders.

How do filmmakers use the expressive potential of animation to address ever-relevant themes of war and conflict? Throughout 2025, our Animation at War season has explored this rich tradition, and this spin-off selection in collaboration with LIAF looks at the more agile world of short animation, where smaller runtimes give rise to a wide range of stories in a dizzying array of distinctive styles.

These films – some vintage, others cherry-picked from previous LIAF programmes – run the gamut from the abstract to the allegorical to the activist. They trace the scars of past trauma, meditate on the nature of war, and offer direct, impassioned responses to contemporary conflicts – all while addressing deeply human experiences, fears, and emotions. This is animation wielded with purpose: to communicate, to commemorate, to provoke and to protest.

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This Animation at War shorts programme was co-curated with Michael Leader – co-author of The Animation Atlas and curator of the Barbican’s Animation at War season.

Ticket prices

* Excludes £1.50 booking fee

Booking fees

£1.50 booking fee per online/phone transaction.

No fee when tickets are booked in person.

Booking fees are per transaction and not per ticket. If your booking contains several events the highest booking fee will apply. The booking fee may be reduced on certain events. Members do not pay booking fees.

Programme

A Short Vision

Amid the sudden terror of nuclear holocaust, leaders and wise men—alongside the leopard, the deer, the owl, and the rat—gaze upward in fear as a mysterious object streaks across the sky.

UK 1956 Dir: Joan and Peter Foldes 6mins

 

I Died in Irpin

24 February 2022 my boyfriend and I fled from Kyiv to Irpin. We spent 10 days in a blockaded city and managed to escape with the last evacuation convoy. Time passed, but the feeling that I died in Irpin has never left me since.

Czech Republic 2024 Dir: Anastasiia Falileieva 11mins 30secs

 

The Queen's Monastery

Drawing inspiration from Leos Janáček’s Sinfonietta, The Queen’s Monastery tells the story of a woman whose lover—a former acrobat—returns from war profoundly changed.

UK 1998 Dir: Emma Calder 6mins 5secs

 

Castle

During the period of the ‘Provinces of War’ many lives were lost. A castle architect discovers the possible role of a tearoom as a place for warriors to regain humanity.

Japan 2019 Dir: Ryotaro Miyajima 5mins

 

Neighbours

1952 Oscar Winner, Best Documentary (Short Subject). A parable about two people who come to blows over the possession of a flower.

Canada 1952  Dir: Norman McLaren 8mins

Magda

In the Winter of 1939 Magda, an excellent skier, joined the Polish Resistance and helped by bringing fugitives across the mountains into Slovakia. But a group of Nazi soldiers were experienced skiers too.

Poland 2022 Dir: Adela Kaczmarek 9mins 5secs

 

I'm OK

Following the end of a stormy love affair, Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka enlists in the First World War. After suffering serious injuries in battle, he experiences a series of memories and visions as medics transport him through the forests of the Russian front.

UK 2018 Dir: Elizabeth Hobbs 6mins 5secs

 

Night

The dust of war keeps the eyes sleepless. Night brings peace and sleep to all the people in the broken town. Only the eyes of the mother of the missing child stay resilient. Night has to trick her into sleeping to save her soul.

Germany, Qatar, Jordan, Palestine 2021 Dir: Ahmad Saleh 16mins

 

An End to War Enough

From World War II to the refugee camps of the 6-Day War, from the attack on the Mostar bridge to cars set on fire in the war in Syria - a world without war is another Utopia that we cannot wait for any longer.

Italy 2022 Dir: Simone Massi 4mins 40secs

Cinemas

Location
Barbican Cinema 1 is located within the main Barbican building on Level -2. Head to Level G and walk towards the Lakeside Terrace where you’ll find stairs and lifts to take you down to the venue floor.   

Address
Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS

Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.