SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 was held grandly at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from December 15 to 18, 2025.
SIGGRAPH Asia
Organized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), SIGGRAPH Asia has grown into the most influential, largest-scale and authoritative academic and industrial exchange platform in the field of computer graphics and interactive technologies across Asia and the globe since its inception in 2008. Its core mission is to break geographical and disciplinary barriers, bringing together researchers, technology developers, artists and industry practitioners to drive the deep integration of technological innovation and artistic expression through the collision of ideas.
SIGGRAPH Asia 2025
This year’s theme explored how artificial intelligence is transforming creativity, art and science, giving birth to new forms of expression and discoveries. The event highlighted how generative AI is reshaping the industry and inspiring new creative possibilities.
Professor Taku Komura, Conference Chair of SIGGRAPH Asia and faculty member of the University of Hong Kong, stated that it was a delight to welcome SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 back to Hong Kong. With its vibrant innovation ecosystem, strategic geographical location and strong support from the government and industry sectors, Hong Kong served as the ideal host city for this year’s conference. He mentioned that building on the success of previous events held in Hong Kong, the conference further showcased the latest advances in computer graphics and interactive technologies, establishing a collaborative bridge for creators and technology professionals worldwide.
The 2025 SIGGRAPH Asia Computer Animation Festival kicked off in Hong Kong, a renowned hub for film. From 488 entries submitted by creators across 39 countries and regions globally, the event carefully selected high-quality works that excel in both technological innovation and artistic uniqueness. These outstanding pieces were presented through two core screening sections: the Electronic Theater, which featured the year’s most remarkable visual masterpieces, and the Animation Theater, which focused on diverse creative expressions.
The festival presented four major awards: Best in Show, Jury’s Choice, Best Student Project and Audience Choice, setting an industry benchmark for “technology serving humanity”. Selected through rigorous evaluation by an international panel of professional judges, the winning works demonstrate exceptional technical prowess and profound narrative appeal. They not only stand as benchmarks for contemporary animation art but also provide powerful support for creators to push boundaries and advance the development of digital storytelling.
Notably, the Audience Choice Award was determined by votes cast by conference attendees from the lineup of Electronic Theater films, fully reflecting the popular appeal of the winning work. The establishment of this award transforms audiences from “spectators” into “participants in creative value”, further narrowing the gap between digital animation and the general public.
Award-Winning Works
Best in Show
Windy Day
Runtime: 6 min 40 sec
Creators: Martin CHAILLOUX, Ai Kim CRESPIN, Elise GOLFOUSE, Chloé LAB, Hugo TAILLEZ, Camille TRUDING
Institution: École des Nouvelles Images
Country: France
Synopsis: In a park, a family enjoys a picnic, a businessman works nearby, an elderly man plays with his dog, and a couple shares a tender kiss. A sudden gust of wind disrupts their peaceful daily lives. As the wind grows stronger, it eventually lifts everyone into the air. Suspended in the sky, they encounter one another and witness the unfolding of new chapters in each other’s lives.
Best Student Project
A Sparrow’s Song
Runtime: 9 min 11 sec
Creator: Tobias ECKERLIN
Institution: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Country: Germany
Synopsis: Inspired by a true story, the film follows an elderly widow’s journey to overcome grief and rediscover joy in life during World War II. Day after day, she serves as an air raid warden in a crowded bomb shelter, witnessing the suffering of children and other civilians. One early morning, she finds a dying sparrow and resolves to save the fragile creature. As the sparrow gradually recovers, a deep bond forms between them. The bird even begins to respond to her piano playing—a shared language that builds a bridge of communication. Whenever air raids strike, she takes the sparrow to the shelter, where she plays the piano and the sparrow sings to comfort the children, bringing hope to those around them. With this newly found purpose and unexpected connection, her life begins to transform.
Jury’s Choice
Son
Runtime: 20 min 55 sec
Creator: Orphée COUTIER
Country: Russia
Synopsis: Set in a small house on the edge of a grassland, the story depicts the daily life of a father and son. The boy, confined to a wheelchair due to a physical disability, struggles even to feed himself with a spoon. Life for the father is an endless cycle of hardship—until one day, news breaks on television about the latest robot landing on Mars, and everything changes… This film is dedicated to all parents who never give up.
Audience Choice
Amen
Runtime: 6 min 47 sec
Creators: Orphée COUTIER, Bettina DEMARTY, Kimié MAINGONNAT, Laurène PEREGO, Louise POULAIN, Avril ZUNDEL
Institution: École des Nouvelles Images
Country: France
Synopsis: A group of pigs live a peaceful life in a monastery. One day, one of the pigs is led out of the pen by a monk and taken to a dark room filled with knives and meat. It finally realizes its fate—the monks intend to turn it into food. Guided by divine power, it escapes heroically and returns to the pen to save its companions. A thrilling chase across the monastery ensues. Will they succeed in their quest for freedom?
Other Screened Films
Electronic Theater
The Electronic Theater is the “flagship section” of the SIGGRAPH Asia Animation Festival, renowned for showcasing the “year’s most outstanding visual masterpieces”. Many of its featured works have been nominated for or won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. This year’s lineup included 11 films from countries such as France, Germany, the United States and Kazakhstan. Ranging from fantasy narratives to realistic metaphors, and utilizing techniques from 2D hand-drawing to 3D rendering, these films demonstrate the diverse explorations of global animation:
Beautify
Creator: Elizaveta MAKARENKO
Institution: Ringling College of Art and Design
Synopsis: This animated short explores the pressure of beauty standards and the journey toward self-acceptance. Through expressive animation and bold visual design, the story unfolds with almost no dialogue, allowing its themes to resonate across cultural boundaries. As Elizaveta MAKARENKO’s graduation project at Ringling College of Art and Design, the film blends artistic vision with technological innovation. Stylized rendering, subtle blend-shape-driven performances and a carefully crafted color palette enhance the emotional depth of the narrative. For the SIGGRAPH Asia community, Beautify exemplifies how student-led works can integrate technology and storytelling to create meaningful, globally resonant pieces. It invites audiences to reflect on identity, transformation and the power of animation in shaping cultural discourse.
Ümit
Creator: Amina UMIRZHANOVA
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
Synopsis: Set in the 15th-century Kazakh Khanate (present-day Kazakhstan), Ümit tells the story of a young astronomer determined to bring back the long-lost sun to her village, which has been shrouded in darkness for centuries. As hope fades and life grows increasingly harsh, Ümit clings to optimism and constructs a device that will allow her people to see the light again. Inspired by Central Asian nomadic culture, the Timurid Renaissance, Tengri music and coming-of-age stories, the film is a heartfelt tribute to resilience, astronomy and cultural identity. Through its narrative and setting, it aims to showcase Central Asian storytelling—a culture often overlooked in global media and animation.
Le Cocon
Creators: Aurelien COQUERY, Léa KERMANACH, Soline MAUGUIN, Abel TIXADOR, Jean BAOUNON, Romane SELTER-FIETTE
Institution: Supinfocom Rubika
Creative Highlight: The primary visual challenge of Le Cocon was to create a 2D dreamlike painting aesthetic throughout the film. The creative team crafted the final visual presentation using hand-painted textures in Mari software. This meticulous work reflects the protagonist’s family’s desire to control every aspect of each family member’s life. The film’s visuals were reconstructed almost entirely in Nuke software, combining a white shader pass for lighting information and an albedo pass.
Linie 12
Creator: Sarah SCHULZ
Institution: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg
Synopsis: In a world dominated by towering mountains, Peregrin, a dutiful train conductor, navigates dangerous terrain with clockwork precision. One day, Clara, a free-spirited musician, sneaks into his engine room. Shortly after, disaster strikes. Clara and Peregrin must overcome their differences to prevent the train from derailing.
Susurros
Creators: Alexandra PEWINSKI, Marie LOMBARD, Florian REIGNIER, Emma PLUCHARD, Lisa FRANCILLON, Alice PARMENTIER
Institution: Supinfocom Rubika
Creative Highlight: The main challenge of Susurros was to create a hybrid 2D/3D graphic style that integrates full digital matte painting/camera mapping sequences with 3D environments. During the compositing process, the team explored methods of flattening 3D renders to achieve a more illustrative visual effect. A key creative focus was distinguishing the past from the present through color palettes and patterns while maintaining consistency in textures and character design. The team also developed two distinctly different camera languages for the two time periods, ensuring the narrative’s emotional rhythm and visual coherence.
Catfish
Creators: Aurélie GALIBOIS, Cristina GANUSCIAC, Aurélie MARTIN, Camille NAUD, Hee Young PARK, Vedushi SINHA
Institution: Gobelins, l’école de l’image
Synopsis: Nine-year-old Elise is forced to move out of her childhood home in the suburbs. To make matters worse, when she enters her new apartment holding her orange pet cat Roger, Roger suddenly transforms into a goldfish. Elise is terrified by the change, but her parents fail to understand her feelings, leaving her struggling to accept her cat’s new form. Elise takes the goldfish back to the old house, believing this will break the spell. She pushes the fishbowl toward the door frame repeatedly, but nothing happens. As she steps inside, she is confronted by the empty, silent house. She enters her old bedroom, places the fishbowl on the dresser and sees an old drawing of herself and Roger—when he was still a cat—hanging on the wall, tears streaming down her face. Just as she begs for her cat to return, Roger appears before her as a ghostly feline. Elise tries to hug him, but he runs out of the room. She chases after him in a panic, nearly tripping, and steadies herself by grabbing the dresser, causing the fishbowl to tilt dangerously. Elise hesitates for a moment, but when she sees the cat’s ghost disappear at the top of the stairs, she dashes out of the room, leaving the fishbowl to crash to the floor. Downstairs, she encounters the ghosts of her family and herself, reenacting nostalgic daily scenes in the house. However, this dream quickly turns into a nightmare: the ghosts grow aggressive toward Elise, trying to force her to stay. As they chase her, Elise falls into a deep void, desperately fighting to escape. At her feet, she notices Roger’s dying fish body surrounded by shards of the broken fishbowl, overcome with grief.
Kenopsia
Creators: Camille REDON, Sélene LE, Alice HEGYMEGI-KISS, Grégoire PEZZULO, Fanny BELOUGNE, Quentin SZCZYGIEL, Adel TEBIB
Institution: Supinfocom Rubika
Synopsis: Kenopsia tells the story of a man confronting his past and the burden of his mistakes, presented through two contrasting artistic worlds. Realistic scenes employ a stylized semi-painterly 3D aesthetic, while haunting visions utilize a painterly 2D brush-stroke style. This contrast highlights the tension between reality and the inner world that torments him. A central element of the visions is the crow, which symbolizes the demons within the protagonist’s mind. Confined within this painterly realm, the crow amplifies the emotional impact and immerses audiences in the psychological layers of the story. By blending two distinct visual styles, Kenopsia explores memory, guilt and imagination through a hybrid narrative approach.
Animation Theater
The Animation Theater focuses on “transformative and diverse creative expressions”, featuring independent animations, student works and experimental pieces, with an emphasis on narrative innovation and cultural diversity. This year’s lineup included 12 films, many of which incorporate Chinese culture, Korean emotional nuances and Spanish experimental styles, demonstrating the global exploration of “localization” in animation:
Jeanne & Jean Jean
Creator: Thanys MARTIN
Institution: Ateliers de Sevre
Synopsis: In the heart of a furniture store, Jeanne and Jean Jean, a couple in their thirties, engage in a heated argument about their renovation plans in the control room. Frustrated, Jean Jean goes to the bathroom to cool off. Meanwhile, Jeanne witnesses the unsettling “renovation power struggles” of other couples. Jean Jean returns with good intentions, offering to compromise on the renovations, but Jeanne, overcome with fear, leaves without listening to him. A dramatic chase ensues through the store’s spacious aisles—a game of cat and mouse where the pursuer becomes the pursued. By chance, they come face-to-face in front of a shelf of duvets. Overwhelmed with emotion, the couple pours out their fears and doubts to each other. But unbeknownst to them, a crowd of nosy customers has gathered around them, constantly commenting and trying to influence their decision! Exhausted by a whirlwind of emotions, Jeanne and Jean Jean lie down on two promotional mattresses. Then, an idea sparks—they will continue to love each other without living together.
Kamarade
Creators: Garance VALERE, Valentin OKOUNDOU, Hubert CHAUVAUX, Alice BOURGET, Louise LAURENT, Fleuriane Le GUILLOU
Institution: Supinfocom Rubika, France
Creative Highlight: The film’s greatest challenge was constructing a semi-realistic world where animation and atmosphere blend seamlessly. With loneliness as the core theme of Kamarade, the team opted for a slow pace and intentionally sparse shot compositions. The film employs a retro-futuristic aesthetic inspired by Soviet-era design, drawing on visual and musical symbols of that period. During post-production, the team added space-like halos and film grain to enrich the atmosphere. The creative team aimed to surprise audiences, delivering a sense of familiarity intertwined with mystery. They sought to provide enough information while withholding key details to ensure the impact of the twist ending.
Nine Awaken
Creator: Bun KWAI
Region: Hong Kong, China
Synopsis: Nine Awaken is a 20-minute animated short film 100% generated by artificial intelligence, requiring no 3D modeling or traditional computer graphics techniques. Produced by the Hong Kong Digital Entertainment Association (HKDEA) in collaboration with Machine Intelligence, the film features a screenplay written by professional writers and storyboards hand-drawn by the director. AI character animations are driven by live-action performances, achieving authentic emotional expression. Music is composed by AI, while sound design and final mixing are completed by professional sound designers—demonstrating the seamless collaboration between human artistry and AI innovation. Set in a futuristic space station inspired by retro Hong Kong aesthetics, the film creates a unique visual style that blends nostalgia with bold science fiction vision.
Achievements & Innovations:
Selected for the 2025 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, featuring over 200 fully AI-generated shots
Winner of Best AI Short Film at the EyeCatcher International Short Film Awards
Winner of the Jury’s Choice Award at the Future Animation Project
Recipient of an award at the 30th Busan International Film Festival ACFM InnoAsia AI Film International Summit
Developed by an animation studio with 20 years of award-winning experience, the team’s proprietary AI technology achieves a 300%-500% improvement in production quality within a reasonable budget.
Nine Awaken redefines the possibilities of animated filmmaking—proving that under the guidance of human storytelling, artificial intelligence can enhance cinematic art with emotional depth, visual beauty and technological innovation.
God Dam
Creator: Abigail HILL
Institution: Savannah College of Art and Design
Synopsis: God Dam is a stop-motion mockumentary that follows the story of two beavers working at a post office. The film captures a typical day with Clint Eatswood, an energetic manager, and Humphrey Damiels, a lethargic employee. When a flood of letters suddenly gushes out of their toilet, Clint and Humphrey argue over who is to blame. Clint tries to get Humphrey to help clean up, but Humphrey is only interested in mocking him. Pushed to his limit, Clint tackles Humphrey, and the two engage in a brawl throughout the post office. In the end, Clint is defeated, left facing even greater chaos, while Humphrey has no intention of staying late to help.
Produced as a graduation project by six animation students at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, USA, the film’s beaver puppets are made of silicone covered in fur and fabric, with internal wire armatures. To enable them to “speak”, each beaver is equipped with ten magnetic mouth pieces embedded in a plastic head core, also covered in fur. Stop-motion animation was shot at 12 frames per second using Dragonframe software. Written, directed and produced by Abigail HILL, the film aims to bring laughter to audiences, with the creator hoping to produce more episodes in the future.
Indigestion
Creators: Hyeon-Ji HAN, Ji-yun LIM, Ye-eun KIM
Institution: Korean Academy of Film Arts
Synopsis: Eun-sang, an anonymous artist, creates works centered around flies. One day, as she eats instant noodles as usual, she notices a strange taste and realizes she has eaten a fly. Soon after, she becomes consumed by anxiety, convinced that the fly is living inside her stomach, and will stop at nothing to “digest” the insect.
In Half
Creator: Jorge MORAIS
Country: Spain
Synopsis: In Half is more than just a 3D digital animated short film—it is a laboratory of cinematic language, inviting the SIGGRAPH Asia community to rethink the true communicative power of images. Opening with a pulsating silence, every frame functions like a note in a visual score. The synergy between visuals and sound design requires no explanation; it simply needs to be felt. This image-driven, sound-centric approach redefines narrative pacing, breaking free from text-based storytelling models and inviting audiences to co-construct meaning with the screen. On a technical level, In Half is a tightly interwoven “orchestral performance”. Lighting, composition and image textures blend seamlessly with a breath-like, sighing sound design that is sometimes eerie in its silence. Gleams of light, moving shadows, the rhythm of a heartbeat or distant hums each serve as storytellers in their own right. Symbolic themes within the narrative form a “dance” of tension and connection between the inner and outer worlds, creating a code that each audience member can interpret independently. This fosters interdisciplinary dialogue between visual art, media psychology and digital technology.
From a production standpoint, In Half showcases a fully integrated workflow where images, rhythm and atmosphere are interdependent. Cinematography, texture design and new character design lines form a unified system. Subtle changes in color or texture shape emotional perception, while shifts in the soundscape reconstruct entire scenes. This approach achieves global intelligibility while preserving cultural specificity, using symbolic elements as a bridge between local communities and international audiences, enriching discussions about representation in digital media. For SIGGRAPH Asia 2025, In Half provides a concrete framework for exploring how modern audiences emotionally resonate with visual and auditory stimuli, highlighting animation’s dual power as an immersive experience and a pixel-driven narrative art form.
To My Old Nightmare
Creator: Soo yeon SHIN
Institution: Korea National University of Arts
Synopsis: A girl is trapped in a dream, chased by those who resent her, and falls into the lair of nightmares. There, she confronts her old guilt, which has transformed into a nightmare.
Acrobats
Creators: Eloise ALLUYN, Hugo DANET, Anna DESPINOY, Antonin GUERCI, Alexandre MARZIN, Shali REDDY
Institution: Gobelins, l’école de l’image
Synopsis: Lili shares a tender moment with her girlfriend, a flower tucked in her hair and her cheeks flushed with joy. But when she returns home, her happiness fades, and she hides the flower in her pocket. However, this does not escape her father’s notice. Her father’s suspicions weigh heavily on Lili, causing her to start hiccuping—and then vomiting tiny acrobats onto a plate. The little performers scamper about cheerfully, inadvertently destroying the miniature town model on the table. Finally, two acrobats perform a romantic dance, revealing Lili’s secret to her father. At first, the father seems sympathetic, gently cupping the acrobats in his hands—only to suddenly toss them into a drawer. Before Lili can react, her grandmother walks in from the kitchen. Spotting the acrobats on the table, the grandmother reacts violently, swinging a spoon at them. Terrified, Lili vomits again, and a swarm of acrobats pours into the room. The grandmother’s attacks grow more frantic, threatening not only the acrobats but also the miniature world on the table. The father, frightened, tries to protect his miniature town, cowering in his seat. Lili must intervene to stop her grandmother’s rampage. Standing her ground, her acrobats form a circle and together build a large circus tent that fills the entire room. The spotlight turns on, revealing the inside of the tent, where dozens of acrobats perform. Lili looks at her family: the grandmother storms out of the circus in anger, with the father following timidly behind. Lili watches them leave with bittersweet acceptance, finally free from the pressure weighing on her. The father eventually turns around, looking at his daughter with admiration.
Anthéor
Creator: Patrice Joseph BLANC
Country: France
Synopsis: A young woman decides to confront her anxiety and return to the place haunted by the shadows of her past. Driven by strong winds, she challenges the raging sea and navigates razor-sharp rocks, all to return to where it all began.
Wishes: Windows & Nests
Creators: Carlos Manrique CLAVJO, Ana Maria Mendez SALGADO
Country: Australia
Synopsis: Wishes: Windows & Nests celebrates children’s empathy and reminds audiences of their ability to change the world through small acts. At its core is the message: “We all have a wish box inside our hearts… but the most powerful wishes belong to others.” Told from the perspective of the creators as members of immigrant filmmaker families, the film blends 2D traditional digital animation, painterly-style animation and digital cut-paper puppet techniques.
One of the film’s technical challenges was to efficiently achieve the director’s requested “painterly style” (e.g., using textures rather than solid colors as part of its unique aesthetic), creating a scalable model for potential series production. To this end, the team collaborated with representatives from Toon Boom to optimize rigging systems developed in-house during the early research and development phase. These rigging systems encompass not only movement but also node systems for shading, lighting, shadows and special effects. Immersive sound was achieved by recording animal and city sounds using a microphone array, employing a front MS setup for LCR channels and stereo for LsRs channels. Sound Particles and GRM Space Grain were used to generate immersive soundscapes, with the project mixed in near-field Dolby Atmos format to ensure consistency across theater 5.1-channel playback and binaural headphone listening. The production process adopted an “agile” iterative cycle: sound sketches were provided to animators, whose work was influenced by the audio, after which sound designers refined the audio based on the animation output. Funded by Screen Australia, the South Australian Film Corporation and the Adelaide Film Festival, the film has won prestigious awards such as Best Short Film Production at the Australian Screen Producers Association Awards and has been selected for over 40 film festivals. It also serves as inspiration for an ongoing series (selected for the 2024 Annecy International Animated Film Festival Mifa Pitches).
The Rise of Blus
Creators: Jamie CHUNG, Bily DAO
Region: Hong Kong, China
Synopsis: The Rise of Blus is an original 3D animated feature film that redefines the heights independent filmmaking can achieve through artistic excellence, innovation and global collaboration. Set in a stunning floating city in the clouds, the story follows the journey of Gi, a 13-year-old dreamer whose father is wrongfully imprisoned by oppressors. As Gi discovers a hidden family legacy, his journey transforms into an adventure of courage, identity and fighting for freedom.
What sets The Rise of Blus apart is not only its narrative ambition but also its technical and creative approach. The film employs a painterly Kuwahara style, imbuing 3D models with the texture and warmth of hand-drawn animation. Using the technique of animating on twos, the team captures the rhythm and charm of traditional 2D animation within a fully 3D workflow. Instead of relying on expensive render farms, the production utilizes Unreal Engine’s real-time rendering pipeline to achieve cinematic visual effects efficiently and flexibly. Equally innovative is its production model: a fully remote studio bringing together artists from around the world. This global collaboration not only allows diverse perspectives to shape the world of Blus but also demonstrates the feasibility of distributed workflows for long-form animated film projects. As an independently developed intellectual property, The Rise of Blus has garnered numerous accolades, including the 2024 Animator Award, and has been selected for festivals such as the Montreal International Animated Film Festival, the Atlanta Film Festival and the Kids First! Film Festival. Each milestone reflects the project’s ability to resonate across audiences while pioneering new workflows. By showcasing The Rise of Blus at SIGGRAPH Asia, the creative team aims to provide the community with a blueprint for how independent creators can leverage new funding models, real-time tools and innovative workflows to tell bold, original stories. It is both a film and a case study for the future of animated storytelling.
Special Performance
In addition to spectacular film screenings and award presentations, the festival’s opening ceremony featured an impressive special performance. Hong Kong artist Desmond Leung presented his immersive audio-visual work Weaving Awareness, which closely aligns with the theme of “the growth of human consciousness in the AI era”. Using visual vibrations, rhythmic patterns and meditative imagery as its medium, the piece guided audiences from the chaos of the external world to inner peace and clarity, deepening collective awareness through a multisensory experience. This performance resonated precisely with the conference’s core theme of “Generative Renaissance”.