BITBANG festival brings animation to seven Buenos Aires venues.

BITBANG 2026: animation at seven Buenos Aires venues

The BITBANG International Animation Festival opens this Tuesday, October 27, in Buenos Aires and runs until Saturday the 31st. It is the twelfth edition and brings short films, master classes, workshops, video games, installations, print fairs and parties.

Events are spread across Club Lucero, the Gaumont, Can Can Club, the Centro Cultural Borges, Biri Biri Club Social, La Paz Arriba and the Escuela Da Vinci. Most screenings and talks are free to attend.

A large share of the shorts in the international and Latin American selections reach Argentina for the first time. Some of them also have their Latin American premiere this week.

The animation festival's official competition

The Official Selection groups three categories: Latin American Graduation Shorts, International Shorts and Latin American Shorts. On top of that come Panorama, a music video section with work from Argentina and Italy, and new competitions designed for children.

The international competition includes Paper Trail, the latest short by Don Hertzfeldt. In 14 minutes, the American filmmaker tells an entire life through the papers a person leaves behind.

Also competing are The End, by Niki Lindroth von Bahr, set in an airport, and Apart, by Pola Maneli, a United States and South Africa coproduction with Spike Lee among its writers. From British director Peter Millard comes Yellow orange green blue red cut, a play of colors and shapes under six minutes long.

The Latin American section has work by María Cristina Pérez, Javier de Azkue, Juan Camilo González and Julian Manzelli, maker of Pixel Trip. Alexis Moyano presents Macho, which premieres at the festival with the director in the room.

The graduation category received 300 films in its open call. It is the space where the festival shows people who are just starting to build their own language in animation.

PiBit Bang, the new section for children

This year's new feature is called PiBit Bang and is devoted to children. It has two competitions, one international and one Latin American, and both are judged by a jury of girls and boys aged 6 to 12.

The international competition brings together 13 shorts made with hand drawing, digital animation, collage and stop motion. Bats & Bugs, directed by Lena von Döhren from Switzerland, tells without dialogue the story of a young bat who helps the insects.

The Latin American selection for children includes eight films. They come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

International Animation Day and talks with filmmakers

The festival coincides with International Animation Day, celebrated on Wednesday, October 28. That day there are events at the Gaumont, the Borges and Club Lucero.

The Gaumont screens the pilot of Electro Andes, an Argentine series from the studio Bellolandia, followed by a talk with Nacho Malter and Damián Fernández Gómez, its creators. Club Lucero will hold continuous screenings until the early hours and launch Cortos que te dan vergüenza (Shorts that embarrass you), a selection of vertical format shorts.

Spanish filmmaker Alberto Vázquez has a retrospective at the Borges and talks about his films at the Escuela Da Vinci. Brazilian director Camila Kater screens her films, gives talks and workshops and comments on the projects of the BITBANG Academy.

Among the Argentines, Leo Campasso, founder of Aura Studio, looks back on three decades of animation. Sonia Estévez, a stop motion specialist, shares her experience in the industry. Spain's Bea Lema and Frederic Siegel also take part.

If you go

BITBANG runs from Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 October at seven venues across the city, including the Gaumont, the Centro Cultural Borges and Club Lucero. Most screenings and talks are free.

On Wednesday the 28th, for International Animation Day, Club Lucero keeps screening until the early hours. If you go with children, look in the program for the PiBit Bang screenings, this edition's section for kids.