NOUNS Fest 2024 Gets First-Look Teaser

Fifty brand-new animated short films showcasing the unrestrained creative genius of animators from around the globe will premiere October 10 at NOUNS FEST, a wildly eclectic celebration of animation that will take place live at the United Theater in Downtown L.A.

A limited number tickets to NOUNS FEST are still available to purchase at www.NounsFest.tv, and all tickets offer access to the full screening, and to the NOUNS FEST after party.

As part of NOUNS FEST, the Emmy, Annie and Clio Award-winning animators at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, home of Robot Chicken, will debut three all-new animated shorts created especially for the event.

Digital arts collective Nouns created a $1 million grant pool that has been used to fund the animated shorts that will premiere at NOUNS FEST. The films range from 30 seconds to five minutes in length, and once funds were granted, creators were subject to no intervention whatsoever by the organizers of NOUNS FEST.

NOUNS FEST received more than 400 entries from independent animation creators around the globe. After reviewing all creative submissions, the NOUNS FEST judging team selected 50 animators who received grants ranging from $7,500 to $25,000, which they used to fund the production of their short films.

Creators were given only one direction: to incorporate at least one of the “Nouns” — digital characters generated by Nouns and auctioned off daily at Nouns.wtf. Every other creative decision was theirs to make, from the form of animation used to the content itself. The results, organizers promise, will be wild, unpredictable, and definitely not fit for all ages.

Nouns Fest is co-founded by Towner, Newman, Playground Productions CPO Chris Waters, Nouns veteran Joel Cares, music executive Joshua Fisher, and award-winning animator and director Goldy. To conceive of NOUNS FEST, they came together with digital art collective Nouns to create the single largest source of funding for independent animated shorts.

Moreover, in keeping with the spirit of unbound creative freedom, every animator who will be featured in NOUNS FEST retains full rights to their work, content and characters in perpetuity, underscoring Nouns’ commitment to a free market of art and ideas.

Founded in 2021, Nouns is a global, community-run organization that uses the proceeds from the sale of digital collectibles to fund open-source technology, art and public-works projects. For more information and an explanation of Nouns and the Nouns DAO, visit https://www.nounish.com.

NOUNS FEST is the next evolution of “Nouns Short Shorts,” an animation competition and festival that led to the production of 17 animated short films in 2023. In June 2023, Nouns Fest held its first festival at BrainDead Studios in L.A., featuring work from some of the top independent animators in the world. Those shorts can be viewed at Nounsfest.tv.

A full list of every short film to be featured in NOUNS FEST will be released shortly before the festival on October 10.

Read our Nouns Fest interview here.