Exclusive: America’s largest animation festival, Animation First, is coming to NYC

The U.S.'s largest animation film festival is heading to New York City next month for the 8th edition of Animation First. This year, Animation First will celebrate the medium with seven feature films and five short film programs, with a special focus on Swiss animation. Boasting the East Coast premiere of Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius' The Most Precious Of Cargoes and the U.S. premiere of Claude Barras' Savages, Animation First runs from January 21 through January 26. Check out the festival trailer below.

"This year's edition of Animation First offers a bold mix of features, shorts, talks, and VR that range from family-friendly to experimental and off the charts," Festival curators Delphine Selles-Alvarez and Chloé Dheu said. "It's playful, serious, engaging, and at times radical; the festival will transport audiences to places wide and far."

Animation First will open on Tuesday, January 21, with The Most Precious Of Cargoes, an adaptation of the novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg. Cargoes follows a Polish couple who rescues a baby thrown from a train heading to Auschwitz. Later that week, on Friday, January 24, the festival will host the U.S. premiere of Savages, Claude Barras' stop-motion eco-adventures about Kéria, her cousin, and Kéria's adopted baby orangutan's quest to save Borneo's ancestral forest. Finally, on January 26, Animation First will screen the recently restored The Time Masters and The Machine-Men, both directed by René Laloux, the visionary animator behind Fantastic Planet. Additionally, the festival will feature the U.S. premiere of a restoration of René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's The Twelve Tasks Of Asterix, Claude Barras' My Life As A Zucchini, and an exclusive poster by Swiss animator Georges Schwizgebel, live conversation, interactive workshops, special guests from around the world, and much, much more.

Presented by L'Alliance, formerly known as the French Institute Alliance Française, a not-for-profit organization focused on French and Francophone culture, Animation First will take place at the L'Alliance New York's headquarters at 22 East 60th Street, New York City. Full festival passes are $130 for members and $150 for non-members, but any youngsters 28 and under can get a pass for $65. Tickets for individual screenings range between $15 and $30. To sweeten the deal, festival passes are 10% off through December 31.

Animation First runs at L'Alliance New York, from January 21 through January 26. Find out more information at L'Alliance New York's website.