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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!

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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.

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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

Epic Sketchbook: Enricho Casarosa

By cartoonsunderground | February 8, 2017

Enrico Casarosa. Big fan, especially of his girls. I bought his sketchbook Fragments years ago (he published with Ronnie del Carmen, another genius), and it remains one of my favorites. I was lucky enough to be in Monkeysuit anthology so long ago with him, this was the closest brush with the master i got! Patrick…

Artist Interview: Jeremy, Huang Ji and Derrick

By cartoonsunderground | February 4, 2017

Eat Pray Bird is the graduation film of Jeremy Teo, Huang Ji and Derrick Fun, made during their final year at NTU School of Art, Design and Media (ADM). In November, their CG animated short made waves across Asia, winning the “Special Mention Award” at the 18th DigiCon6 ASIA Awards Ceremony held in Tokyo, Japan.…

Thank You 2016

By cartoonsunderground | January 5, 2017

2016 was a great year for Cartoons Underground (though sadly not so great for the rest of the world) We saw the biggest festival for Cartoons Underground in 2016, our fifth annual edition, with 600 attendees, 8 screenings, five local films, one awesome looking poster by Jia, and are looking to expand further this year, more…

CU Interview: Vicky Chen, Wei Keong & Jia Lee

By cartoonsunderground | October 21, 2016

It’s less than 24 hours (!!) before the 5th edition of Cartoons Underground kicks off with a bang! In an exclusive interview, we speak to Vicky Chen, Co-Founder and Festival Director, Tan Wei Keong, Program Director, and Jia Lee, graphic designer/illustrator responsible for the brand-new CU identity and the beautifully illustrated poster for this year’s festival! Cartoons…

Industry Professional: Don Bosco

By cartoonsunderground | October 5, 2016

Cartoons Underground speaks to Don Bosco, the founder of Super Cool Books, and a talented writer who has established himself in Singapore’s literary circles. Filled with insight and expertise, Don shares about his business, as well as his observations about Singapore’s literary industry. May we know a more about how you started your career? Thank you…

CELEBRATING 5 YEARS OF UNDERGROUND ANIMATION!

By cartoonsunderground | October 5, 2016

WE ARE BACK! Cartoons Underground in partnership with Sideshow celebrates FIVE YEARS OF UNDERGROUND ANIMATION! Grab a beer and a fistful of popcorn and catch award-winning animated films by directors from Annecy, Hiroshima, Fantoche and Edinburgh international film festivals including globally acclaimed Cesar Diaz Melendez, Junyi Xiao, Indra Sproge and more. This year we celebrate…