Sea Slug Animation Festival

Sea Slug Animation Festival is a Seattle film festival showcasing the ingenuity of independent animation from around the world. Founded in August 2024 by Hannah Baek and Rhys Iliakis, we hosted our inaugural “Larval Edition” at SIFF Cinema Uptown in March 2025. Our mission is to build access, community, solidarity, and sustainability amongst animators and animation fans around the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest is historically rich with independent art-making and animation. Seattle hosts a large game animation industry and long-standing communities for comics, graphic novels, and experimental animation. Seattle is also surrounded by thriving animated film and television industries in Vancouver, BC and Portland, OR. But we learned that independent animators here lack lasting social structures and financial support to connect to other artists and audiences locally and regionally. King County also hasn’t hosted an animation-focused film festival in several years. To this end, we aim to serve both artists and the audiences who enjoy their art. We are excited to grow Sea Slug Animation Festival into a larger annual event that continues to coach early career programmers and artists, while also hosting regular events and screenings that foster community year round.

Sea Slug Animation Festival has been a Shunpike-affiliated group since December 2025.