Lagos will host the 10th anniversary edition of LIFANIMA, Nigeria's animation festival, from October 20 to 22, 2026, at the Mike Adenuga Centre on Osborne Road, Ikoyi. The festival has recorded 1,298 short film entries from more than 120 countries this year, its highest submission count to date, with 110 films from 25 countries making the official selection.
A decade in, LIFANIMA continues to centre its programme on nurturing talent and showing what animation can do for storytelling, heritage and the creative economy. This year's edition carries a special focus on the Countdown to FESTAC '77 at 50, run in partnership with the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization. The sessions built around this theme will look at how animation can preserve, reinterpret and pass on Africa's cultural heritage to new generations.
The National Orientation Agency is backing the NOA Animation Awards this year, with N22.5 million in prize money split between three places, N10 million for first, N7.5 million for second and N5 million for third. Entrants were asked to produce a three-minute animation exploring the question "Who is a Real Nigerian?", tying the award to the agency's broader push around national identity and values. Winning entries will also get nationwide broadcast across NOA's partner networks for three months following the awards night.
LIFANIMA is also introducing an Innovation Day this year, opening the floor to technology innovators working in animation. The sessions will cover emerging production tools and new approaches to storytelling, with a focus on the ideas shaping the direction of African animation. Alongside this, the festival is running the Radioxity Stop Motion Animation Lab in partnership with Radioxity Media Animation Studio, introducing secondary school students to stop motion animation for the first time.
With entries drawn from over 120 countries, LIFANIMA continues to position itself as a meeting point between Nigerian and African animators and the wider international animation community, opening doors for collaboration and visibility that extend well beyond Lagos. The festival's organisers say the goal behind the anniversary edition remains the same one that shaped its first, building an African animation industry that creates jobs, exports intellectual property, preserves heritage and inspires the next generation of animators.
Registration to attend LIFANIMA 2026 is open at www.lifanima.com.
