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Our Story

About Us

Kaboom Animation Festival is the one-stop-shop for the latest and greatest in all things animated. Ranging from cutting-edge experimental arthouse to colorful stories for families and kids, Kaboom will cater to the animation needs of all. Yes, even yours, my amazing weirdo friend!

 

In 2025, our beloved Kaboom Animation Festival will take place from 21 till 23 March in Utrecht and from 27 till 30 March in Amsterdam (and online!). We can’t wait to see you there!

Mission Statement

What is Kaboom?

That’s us! Nice to meet you. Simply put: Kaboom adores animation. We live it, we breathe it, we devour it like an unguarded bag of cookies. At Kaboom, we believe animation is not just a genre of film: it’s more than film. It’s a perplexingly diverse medium that offers us so much more than anvils falling on coyotes. Because we want to shout this from the rooftops, we created Kaboom Animation Festival, a progressive and inclusive festival in the Netherlands that celebrates animation in all its glorious shapes and sizes. It’s the place where we encourage auteurs to drag us out of our comfort zone by presenting us with their thought provoking art, mind-blowing design efforts and provocative experimentation.

So what about this festival you were talking about?

Kaboom Animation Festival is the one-stop shop for the latest and greatest in all things animated. It’s the place where we showcase our explosive passion for animation, and where we try to be modest about our gigantuan knowledge of it. The goal? Providing creators (both seasoned talent and fresh spring chickens) with the platform they deserve, and serving you the animation cream of the animation crop. We aim to combine cutting-edge experimental arthouse with the very best of what animation has to offer. Think fun, art, awe and wonder, on the big screen and behind it, and for all generations. With our theme program, we also try to make you think about larger issues at play in societyall without lecturing you, because we’re curators, not reverends.

What is it about animation that gets you guys so hot and bothered?

Animation can do so many things. Animation can be unnerving and uplifting, harrowing and hilarious. It can break your heart or make you pull a muscle laughing. Yes, it’s entertainment, but it can also tackle sensitive subjects and challenge your preconceptions. Animation can do all that. Phew, is it us or did it just get hot in here.

Wait a minute, that sounds a lot like what KLIK and HAFF have been doing in the past decade. Are you plagiarizing them? I’m calling the cops.

Actually, Kaboom is the love child of these two animation festivals! In 2019, KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival and Holland Animation Film Festival realized that their differences could be used to complement each other and propel themselves forward into the future. We decided to join hands and work on our shared, progressive goal of a brand-new animation festival that truly has it all. A yearly event where professionals and fans meet, inspire each other and enjoy the latest and greatest animation has to offer, all while celebrating the Dutch animation industry.

TImeline

  1. Holland Animation Film Festival

    first edition of HAFF

    Holland Animation Film Festival (HAFF) in the old centre of Utrecht was an international festival for animated film, founded in 1985 and since 2009 an annual event. The festival provided a national and international platform for animation. It was a national and international meeting place and source of inspiration for animation professionals and rising talent. HAFF screened the newest developments, organizes competitions and presented thematic programmes and retrospectives, talkshows, masterclasses, debates and an educational programme. There were international competitions for features, shorts, student films, films for 8+ and web films. And there was a competition for Dutch animation.

  2. KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival 2007

    first edition of KLIK

    The KLIK foundation was a national and international force in provocative quality animation. With the festival as KLIK’s flagship, and other exciting activities happening in its wake, they brought their passion for and knowledge of animation to a wide audience. With different themes each year they were not just entertaining their visitors, they were also trying to make them think about larger issues at play in society. At the same time, KLIK functioned as a platform, knowledge hub and catalyst for the sector.

    KLIK treated animation as an independent art form instead of treating it as a genre of film and aimed to make the medium of animation, in the broadest sense of the word, accessible to a wider audience in fresh and exciting new ways to stimulate the emancipation of the medium as a fully realized art form. To this end, KLIK organized the annual KLIK Amsterdam Animation Festival since its inception in 2007 and a host of other activities throughout the year. Throughout the years KLIK had evolved into a brand with international allure and range. The activities organized by KLIK had become events where anyone who is interested in animation gathers and meets with likeminded souls and created a growing community where animation professionals and animation lovers meet and enjoy the medium together.

  3. KLIK x HAFF = KABOOM

    The First Edition of Kaboom Animation Festival

    The Award Winners of Kaboom 2019

    JURY AWARDS

    Best Short
    I’m Going Out For Cigarettes by Osman Cerfon

    Best Student Short (Powered by Cartoon Network)
    Sounds Good by Sander Joon

    Best Commissioned Short
    The Story of François & Amélie by Douwe van der Werf

    Best Experimental Short
    Don’t Know What by Thomas Renolder

    Best Documentary Short
    Saigon Sur Marne – Aude Ha Leplège

    Best Dutch Short
    Human Nature by Sverre Fredriksen

    Best Music Video
    Tatran – White Lies by Shahaf Ram

    AUDIENCE AWARDS

    Best Virtual Reality
    The Line by Ricardo Laganaro

    Best Feature Kids
    Kapitein Morten en de Spinnenkoninging [Captain Morten and the Spider Queen] by Kaspar Jancis

    Best Feature
    The Swallows of Kabul by Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec

    Best Short
    Memorable by Bruno Collet

    Best Short Kids 3+
    Knofje – Voorzichtig [Huggleboo – Careful] by Anneke de Graaf

    Best Short Kids 3+
    Zibilla by Isabelle Favez

    Best Short Kids 6+
    Draak Dries [Zog] by Max Lang, Daniel Snaddon

    Best Short Kids 9+
    Hors Piste by Léo Brunel, Loris Cavalier, Camille Jalabert & Oscar Malet

     

    > See the full selection here