Quickdraw Animation Society

Fun at the making Flipbooks!

Make sure you check out the festival on until June 13th.

Thanks for inviting us!

Join the Quickdraw Animation Society’s Board of Directors!

Volunteering for the board is a great way to build community, lend your skills to a great cause, and gain experience in the non-profit arts sector.

We are especially looking for folks interested in fundraising or leading some of our committees such as the library or accessibility committees. Board members will be asked to attend an online meeting once per month to discuss the happenings at quickdraw, as well as expected to volunteer to assist with our casino fundraising, GIRAF festival and ongoing Quickdraw endeavours! Board members help to steer Quickdraw’s future alongside our awesome staff and volunteers, add your voice to the conversation!

If interested in being nominated for a position, contact [email protected] with a letter of intent.

𝑱𝒖𝒓𝒚 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 2026 𝑸𝑨𝑺 𝑨𝒏𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑳𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝑶𝑶𝑷𝑺! 𝑬𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏

Speaking on behalf of myself, and the other two Jurors, Lyndon and Joanne, I would like to say how blown away I was with the entire lineup of completed films. After organizing so many film challenges myself, and knowing how challenging these are to complete in the allotted time, I have personally never watched a competition selection with so many key elements to work in, and the outcomes were truly impressive on all levels. We all loved the high energy of the pieces this year, and the spirit of the handmade animation remains present throughout, despite the wide range of techniques and mediums used.

We were impressed by the overall creativity in stories and themes, use of prompts, variety of animated styles, team work clearly proven in the final works, the stand-out music in every animation, and found this to be a slate of world-class projects that can easily be taken to audiences outside of Calgary.

We think everyone should be really proud of what they accomplished regardless of whether you win an award or not. This was a tough deliberation to say the least.

By Brenda Lieberman on behalf of the 2026 QAS Animation Lockdown Jury

🚘🤦🏻‍♂️ AUDIENCE AWARD RUNNER UP 🤦🏻‍♂️🚘

𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 by Abdullah Al-Nono (.alnono)

Congratulations to first-time lockdown participant Abdullah Al-Nono for scooping up the Audience Choice Honourable Mention! We thought this film perfectly encapsulated the theme this year - a morning where nothing goes right, and the audience is taken from gaffe to blunder with seemingly effortless wit and style.

🦴🩻 2026 QAS Lockdown OOPS! Community Award 🩻🦴

𝑩𝑬𝑹𝑳𝑰𝑵 𝑫𝑬𝑴𝑼𝑻𝑯!

This is a very special award with very specific requirements:

1. You must have participated in 10+ years of animation lockdowns with your Mother, sisters, cousins, and aunt.

2. In last years animation lockdown, anticipate the next years theme by ‘accidentally’ falling down a flight of stairs resulting in you breaking your arm. Yet, you continue to make your film with your off hand. OOPS!

3. (despite last years experience), graduate art school and bring 2 new QAS members into the event for 2026. You create a wonderful film with them while showing them the ropes and introducing them to QAS.

Sounds like an impossible set of requirements for the average person? Well, Berlin did it all and more and that is why she is award the 2026 QAS ANIMATION LOCKDOWN COMMUNITY AWARD!

⚔️🙃KING REDCASTLE Will Walton Award (sponsored by caos) 🙃⚔️

𝑭𝒓𝑬𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒆𝒔 by Russ Edworthy

The film that reflects the artist’s view of reality with a strange and strong use of colour. Dark and dry humour is expected.

Congratulations to Frienemies by Russ Edworthy, winner of the KING REDCASTLE Will Walton Award! We have all love and no loathing for this maliciously catchy tune. We loved the use of bright colours in contrast with the twisted and antagonistic theme. A special thank you as well to the singing imps, whose wee voices helped this ditty live rent-free in our heads throughout the event! It’s exactly the kind of fiendishly fun celebration of creativity and camaraderie that Lockdown is known for.

By Lyndon Navalta on behalf of the 2026 QAS Animation Lockdown Jury

🎨 🪚 DAVE RATZLAFF BEST EXPERIMENTAL FILM AWARD (SPONSORED BY CAOS) 🪚🎨

𝑲𝒏𝒐𝒃 𝑫𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝑰𝑰 by Caro Ging, Jacqueline Huskison, Alyssia White

In his time, Dave Ratzlaff was the backbone of experimental animation at Quickdraw. He was a mainstay at the space who worked diligently to keep every weird and wacky tool prepped and ready for the next new idea. He was at once the ultimate collaborator, contributing all kinds of skills to a long list of friends’ projects, and also a lone wolf, working privately on his own cameraless practice. He was unassumingly quiet; a kind, funny, creative, supportive and gentle guy whose films betrayed a bold artist deeply in love with the process of animating, and one who valued experimentation as a key cornerstone of Canadian animation. (written by Keltie Duncan 2024 QAS Lockdown jury)

A delightful combination of claymation, stop motion animation, and found footage, K**b Dingers II, takes the viewer on a madcap ride-along with a pinball in play. And what a fun ride it is! The nonstop spinning, bouncing, and bashing complemented with comical close-ups and zany sound make for an entertaining film and a stand out in this category. Congratulations!

By Joanne Fisher on behalf of the 2026 QAS Animation Lockdown Jury

🩹😮 JURY SPECIAL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING FILM & AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING FILM (two-way tie)😮🩹

𝑩𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒃𝒊𝒓𝒅 by Toby Duska, Jack Hornecker, Damon Orcherton

BLUEBIRD came up in conversation every step of the way during our deliberation, as it resonated so well with all of us, it only seemed fitting to award this unique, incredibly well-done animation with the Jury Special Award for Outstanding Film. The narrative kept the experimental elements together in a creative and professional way, great use of all the technical elements, OOPS! Fit in so well and the stopmotion and 3D aspects were seamlessly integrated. The puppet was definitely a standout too, and we all unanimously felt everything was brought together so well. Congratulations.

By Brenda Lieberman on behalf of the 2026 QAS Animation Lockdown Jury

🫗🤭JURY SPECIAL MENTION 🤭🫗

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎 by Kailyn Humphreys, Neven Frenette, Alex Mcleod, Victor Benedetti

The Lockdown is a pressure cooker of ideas and creativity - people coming together for a short, albeit intense, time to figure out how to turn a concept into a film. The end products can be scrappy little films, rough around the edges, maybe not so pretty or polished, but strong in substance - maybe the roughness in the films is able to speak more to truth or closeness to a lived experience than something polished and tidy. Leaning into transgender body horror, The Bathroom’s strengths are its emotional undercurrent, honesty, and authentic voice. It is a quiet film that has much to say about the horrors that lurk within the confines of a small bathroom. It is this year’s winner of the Jury’s Special Mention Award. Congratulations!

By Joanne Fisher on behalf of the 2026 QAS Animation Lockdown Jury