The upcoming Animation Is Film Festival added a heavy hitter as its opening film. The Boy And The Heron, the newest film from beloved director Hayao Miyazaki, will mark the beginning of the festival. 

The festival will run from October 18th to the 22nd and end with the upcoming Netflix-based sequel, Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget. Set to follow is a Q&A with director Sam Fell and executive producer Peter Lord, as Deadline reports. 

Some included in the lineup for this year are Robot Dreams, Chickens For Linda!, both of whom are making their West Coast debuts, and Phoenix: Reminiscence Of Flower, making its North America debut. DreamWorks will also host a screening of their upcoming film, Trolls: Band Together, which is set to hit theaters in November. 

Another work making its debut is The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story. Alongside that is a  theatrical showing of the short film Once Upon A Studio and a “Work-In-Progress” screening of the upcoming Disney film Wish. 

“Animation Is Film is not just the name of our festival, it is its mission,” said Matt Kaszaneck, executive director of Animation Is Film. “New films from Studio Ghibli and Aardman are seismic cinematic events and a reason for movie lovers of any medium to rejoice. Joining these titles is a collection of some of the most audacious, genre-defying, and critically acclaimed films of the year. We are so proud to present them in Los Angeles.”

AIF will be adding to and updating the list in the time ahead of the festival. In the meantime, Deadline posted a full lineup so far. 

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