12+

Commissioned animation has always been a strange and flexible beast: part job, part experiment, part Trojan horse for artists to sneak style, mischief, and personality into it all.

This year’s competition brings together 24 films that ricochet through a mix of techniques, tones, and worlds — punk bursts, Brazilian rhythms, jazz-inflected turns, educational shorts, video game visions, noodle ads, and festival trailers. Some works sell, some teach, some celebrate, some simply scream.

Taken together, they form a chaotic, oddly harmonious ride through the ups, downs, swerves, and sideways glances of this thing called life.

Running time 77 min.