The Seville European Film Festival is taking a step toward mainstreaming animation, integrating animated titles throughout its lineup rather than cordoning them off in a single strand. The strategy underscores a broader European shift: Animation is increasingly accepted as a medium, not a genre, and less confined to being only kids or family centric.

Among the features, Sylvain Chomet’s “A Magnificent Life,” the sole animated feature in Official Selection, offers a biographical portrait of French playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. Written and directed by Chomet, the film blends hand-drawn visual lushness with narrative reflection as Pagnol revisits his childhood in Provence, his early loves and his entry into cinema. Produced by What the Prod, Mediawan and partners, the feature screens in Seville as part of the celebration of Pagnol’s 130th anniversary.

In the European Film Academy selection, “Little Amélie or The Character of Rain” directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han, adapts Amélie Nothomb’s childhood memoir “The Metaphysics of Tubes” into a hand-drawn reflection on early consciousness. Seen through the perceptions of a very young child in Japan and her bond with her caregiver, the film unfolds as a flow of images that map the world as it comes into being. Produced by Ikki Films and Maybe Movies, the title arrives in Seville following Audience Awards at Annecy and San Sebastián.

Also featured in the lineup is Michel Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title,” developed over five years from a long-distance game between the director and his daughter. To stay connected while living in different countries, Gondry would ask Maya to invent a film title, then animate it using his trademark cut-paper and collage techniques, always casting her as the lead. Across the film, Maya survives earthquakes, becomes a mermaid and even averts a tomato sauce catastrophe, a playful catalogue of imagined adventures shaped through a father-daughter exchange. Produced by Partizan Films and voiced by Maya Gondry and Blanche Gardin, the stop-motion work traces creativity as an act of connection.

Together these films point to a sector thriving on diversity of scale and method from hand-drawn introspection to studio-backed folklore epics and to the festival championing and adapting accordingly.

Variety profile the remaining animation titles – and there’s a considerable number – below:

“To the Woods”(Sacrebleu Productions, France)

Agnès Patron’s short, co-written with Johanna Krawczyk, depicts a sister recalling her lost brother through shifting, hand-drawn chiaroscuro. The film’s story emerged when the director, newly observing the bond between her two young children during the 2020 lockdown, began reflecting on sibling relationships in her own family. While writing with co-writer Johanna Krawczyk, she recognized that the emotional core traced back to her grandmother’s deep attachment to an older brother who died young – a connection carried throughout her life, and tied to the bittersweet shift from childhood wonder to adulthood. A meditation on memory’s persistence, the film relies on rhythm, contrast and gesture rather than dialogue.

“Dandelion’s Odyssey”(Planètes) (Miyu Productions, Ecce Films, France, Belgium)

Momoko Seto’s poetic tale follows four dandelion seeds launched into space after Earth’s destruction. “‘Dandelion’s Odyssey’ connects with our ecological consciousness all around the world,” said Nicolas Eschbach, Indie Sales co-founder. “With its unique universe and captivating storytelling, we follow four dandelion seeds in an extraordinary tale of survival and perseverance,” he continued. The Fipresci and Annecy winning feature zooms in and gives story to the tiny living elements of our world. Oscar winner Nicolas Becker scores the wordless film. It marks Seto’s debut feature.

“The Horizon From the Tip of the Nose” (Self-produced, France)

Etienne Bonnet turns severe childhood myopia into a visual reflection on perception and closeness. Drawn and composed in shifting degrees of blur, grain and focal distortion, the film traces how sight shapes emotional attachment. Produced independently, the work exemplifies the festival’s attention to animation as an accessible tool for personal essay cinema.

“Fish River Anthology” (Aalto University School of Arts, Seiza Films)

Set in a fish counter at closing time, Veera Lamminpää’s stop-motion short drifts into soft musical numbers and existential humor. Featuring Finnish actors Mari Rantasila and Mika Rättö, the film blends everyday consumer space with philosophical and comic undercurrents. Distributed by Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg, it demonstrates the continued strength of Nordic animation in hybrid tonal registers.

“Le Jardin Rossini” (Gobelins, France)

Hervé Rossini communicates through the surreal garden he has cultivated, and on the night of his final exhibition, that private world becomes a stage for questions of legacy and memory. Directed collectively by seven animation filmmakers from Gobelins, the short layers shifting visual styles to evoke an artist’s inner landscape at the threshold of departure. Voiced by Bernard Métraux and Mathilde Lamusse, the film reflects on what we leave behind and how others reinterpret it.

“Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog” (nWave Studios, Octopolis — Belgium/France/United States)

In this follow-up to “Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness,” half-chicken, half-hare adventurer Hopper sets out to find a legendary marmot said to possess the ability to turn back time — a power that may save his endangered species. Directed by Benjamin Mousquet and based on the Eisner-nominated graphic novels by Chris Grine, the feature mixes character comedy, action set-pieces and a lively visual world. Premiered at Annecy, the film continues nWave’s family-focused animation slate.

“Le secret des mésanges” (Folimage, Les Armateurs, Lunanime, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, Will Production, JPL Films, Dragons Films, Pictanovo, Folimage animation, TNZPV. France,Belgium)

Nine-year-old Lucie, spending her holidays in her mother’s village, leads an investigation into a hidden chapter of her family history, helped by her new friend Yann and a group of lively blue tits. Directed by Antoine Lanciaux, the film uses hand-crafted cutout animation, echoing the tradition of Lotte Reiniger and French poetic silhouettes. Produced by Folimage and Les Armateurs, it offers a gentle rural adventure about curiosity, memory and the stories families carry.

“The Bird From Within”(Universidade Católica do Porto – Escola das Artes, Portugal)

Directed by Laura Anahory, co-written with Ana Anahory and Guilherme Mateus, this 2D and mixed-media short depicts a woman wrestling with the bird living inside her – a metaphor for internal conflict and self-regulation. Quietly paced and textural, the film extends the recent Portuguese tradition of psychologically attentive animation shorts.

“Éiru”(Cartoon Saloon, HerStory, Ireland)

Giovanna Ferrari directs this Iron-Age mythic adventure of a young girl who journeys underground to restore her community’s water source, a lifegiving essential stolen by magic. Featuring voice work from Coco Teehan Roche, the film reflects BAFTA and Emmy winning studio Cartoon Saloon’s interest in cultural folklore and environmental stewardship. Distributed by Gkids in North America.

“Gilbert” (Agencia Freak, Spain)

Directed by Arturo Lacal, Alex Salu and Jordi Jiménez, the short follows Gilbert, who delivers packages by gondola across a tiny archipelago, and Sullivan, a trumpeter living next door. When Gilbert keeps a parcel addressed to Sullivan, their routine shifts. Mixing traditional 2D, cut-out animation and multiplane stop-motion techniques, the film foregrounds slowness, subtle humor and the understated emotional stakes of companionship. Screened widely at festivals and shortlisted for the 2026 Goya Awards.

“Murmuration” (Spotted Bird, Beast Animation, and Murmur Animation, Belgium, Netherlands)

Centered on a man in a care home gradually transforming into a bird, the short employs painterly transitions and slow metamorphosis to evoke community, aging and belonging. Putting ample charm into a Cronenbergian plot. The film is produced by Spotted Bird and co-directed by Janneke Swinkels, and Tim Frijsinger.

“Le Cantique des moutons” (Supinfocom Rubika, France)

A shepherd wakes to find his wine barrels empty and a sheep named Hervé speaking back to him. The short uses stylized 3D and deadpan timing to explore routine, irritation and faint absurdity. It also has sheep that smoke. This eight-minute short has eight directors and was nominated at the Student Academy Awards.

“Autokar” (Ozù Productions, Amopix, Vivi Film & Novanima, Poland, Belgium) A Berlinale winner, Sylwia Szkiłądź’s short follows an eight-year-old traveling alone on a cross-border bus route in the 1990s, the short draws migration memory through shifting child-imagination spaces. With soft linework and observational narrative pacing, it moves the viewer to an understanding of displacement all from the loss of a pencil.

“My Brother, My Brother” (Dnewar Brothers, Milkman Films, France, Germany, Egypt)

A dual-perspective account of identical twins recounting shared childhood and eventual separation. The short uses split-frame structures and layering to distinguish and overlap memory traces, highlighting animation’s ability to express simultaneous emotional states. Programmed in Seville among works exploring family histories. An French German Egyption International co-production produced by Dnewar Brothers, Milkman Films

“One-Way Cycle” (Abano Producións, Puerto Nú, Sardinha em Lata Spain,Portugal)

It follows María as she recalls her mother Adela’s 1929 voyage from Asturias to Havana in search of a sister bound to her by shared childhood labor and early bodily change. Directed by Alicia Núñez Puerto, the short interweaves migration, past history and menstruation, presenting lineage as something carried across oceans and generations. Animated by an Iberian team and backed by Abano Producións and Sardinha em Lata, it screens in Panorama Andaluz.