After a two-year Covid hiatus, the Animation Show of Shows returns to theaters and campuses across North America. This 22nd edition comprises ten films — nine recent, along with one restored classic — which deal with both the anxieties and hopes of a world faced with a seemingly endless series of existential crises. All are inventive, their tone ranges from the whimsical to the profound; their techniques, from stop-motion to hand-drawn to computer-aided.

Beyond Noh — Patrick Smith/Kaori Ishida (U.S./Japan)

Empty Places — Geoffroy de Crecy (France)

Beseder (Good and Better) — Gil Alkabetz (Germany)

Zoizoglyphe — Jeanne Apergis (France)

Rain (Deszcz) — Piotr Milczarek (Poland)

Average Happiness — Maja Gehrig (Switzerland)

Aurora — Jo Meuris (U.S.)

Yes-People — Gísli Darri Halldórsson (Iceland)

Ties — Dina Velikovskaya (Germany/Russia)

The Man Who Planted Trees — Frederic Back (Canada)