CARTOONS UNDERGROUND 2024
Get Ready for Southeast Asia’s Biggest Animation Night!
Southeast Asia's largest independent animation festival is back for one electrifying night!
Join us for the Golden Durian Awards, where you’ll meet brilliant directors and vote for your favorite films! With 1,500 submissions from over 90 countries, we’ve curated an exciting lineup of 14 stunning animated shorts from Italy, the US, China, Singapore, and more!
This year, we’re thrilled to highlight the incredible work of Singaporean student filmmakers and artists of Asian heritage with 2 International Programmes and 1 Singapore Student Programme.
Expect bold themes—sex positivity, mental health, comedy, horror, and more—explored through dynamic 2D, 3D, stop-motion animation and the latest animation technology.
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Check out previous EDITIONS!
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMME
SINGAPORE STUDENT FILMS
A total of 15 films were selected from an incredible 1,582 entries across 103 different countries. Hailing from all over the world, the submissions showcased a unique variety of voices, themes and stories. The selection in 2023 continued Cartoons Underground's (CU) mission of championing independent animated short films that challenge the medium's boundaries.
Out of this world
Wild Times
In 2022, a total of 16 works were selected from an incredible 1,681 entries submitted from 96 different countries - the highest number of submissions received in the history of the festival. The final selection of films is made of of many high quality films telling unique stories, evoking powerful emotions, tackling mature themes and challenging the animation medium.
Super Humans
Impossible Dreams
Young Ones
Retrospective
Celebrating a decade of animation at Cartoons Underground, we had an exciting line up of 13 carefully chosen films from over 1,000 submissions from 83 countries, and 5 student films from Singapore. Exclusively for our 10th year, we looked back with five films that our audience loved from past editions
2021
OUR BLOG
Behind the Scenes: One Animation
Written by Tiffany Lim. An updated version of this article may be found on Media Context’s online portal. Cartoons Underground touched on entrepreneurship, which is quickly becoming one of the most important components to a career in animation. Production companies in Singapore are shifting from content production to IP development – and this shift is…
“Conversations: Creating New Realities, Animation Now and Next” Symposium Review
Written by Tiffany Lim. This article may also be found on Media Context’s Online Portal. “Conversations: Creating New Realities, Animation Now and Next” provided its attendees with valuable insights into the animation industry. It was held at the ArtScience Museum, and was held in conjunction with the DreamWorks Exhibition. Curated by Michael Lim, and chaired by…
Industry Professionals – C.H. Greenblatt
Kendall Lyons, Cartoons Underground’s guest author, interviews C.H Greenblatt, the creator of Nickelodeon’s “Harvey Beaks”. Greenblatt speaks about the nature of his show, his inspiration, his experiences, and shares valuable advice for aspiring and seasoned artists. C.H. Greenblatt started off as an advertising art director for TV commercials, but, he never would’ve thought that…
Industry Professionals – Avner Geller
Written by Tiffany Lim. An updated version of this article may be found on Media Context’s online portal. Avner Geller is a Visual Development artist at DreamWorks Animation. Having worked at DreamWorks for three years, Avner has discovered what it takes to be a concept artist, and knows much about the animation industry. Here’s what…
Independent Animation – R’ha (2013)
R’ha (2013) is an animated science fiction short film by Kaleb Lechowski. The story takes place on an alien world where technology has surpassed the species it was created by and it seeks to destroy them. A captured alien gives the audience the backstory all while being tortured by an artificial intelligence for information on…
Industry Professionals – Kelly Bender
Kelly Bender is a Comic Book writer who has worked with Alterna, Markosia, Insane Comics and several other publishers. He is also the creator of Starburn”, which was nominated for the “Best Series” Ashcan Award (2015), and which earned him the “Writer of the Year” Ashcan Award (2015). Kelly spoke with Cartoons Underground about his…