Animation Block Party Details Virtual Event For 2020

Animation Block Party has scheduled its annual festival to run August 21-23. Based in Brooklyn, New York, ABP is the largest animation festival on the American East Coast, featuring a colorful selection of shorts by both amateur, student, and professional artists. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s festival will be virtual, offering animation fans outside New York a special chance to attend.


Friday’s opening event, hosted by Littlefield NYC, will begin at 9pm EST and can be streamed on Zoom or Facebook Live. Titled “Picture This!”, the stream will feature comedians working with live animators to create a unique and humorous routine. Beginning Saturday at 9am EST, ABP will commence a two-day screening of its selected films, which can be streamed directly from the ABP website. The films will be available until Sunday at midnight and are divided into four categories: 1) Animated East Coast, 2) Animation for Kids, 3) Experimental, Graphic Design, and Music Videos, and 4) Independent Animators. Saturday night will also feature an after-party hosted by film archivist Tommy Stathes, who has curated a selection of New York-themed shorts from the early 20th century.


Admission to the festival is free, but ABP invites attendees to donate to Black Lives Matter New York and City Harvest for COVID-19 relief. Fans near and far are encouraged to attend this year’s festival. Animation Block Party has been praised by IndieWire as “the coolest (and arguably one of the best) animation festivals in the United States.”

See the full line-up here. 

Evan Vernon is an animation fan and reviewer from Indianapolis, Indiana. Evan earned his BA in English from Franklin College and plans to pursue an MA in Film Business. He hopes to work for a film distributor when his studies are complete. His favorite feature as a child was Rankin and Bass's The Last Unicorn; now, he has too many favorites to count! When he's not busy writing, Evan loves lifting, listening to Synthwave, and cuddling with his 3-legged cat, Jiji.