The Ottawa International Animation Festival was founded in 1975 by various figures in the world of Canadian animation, most prominently Bill Kuhns, Frederik Manter, Prescott J. Wright, Frank Taylor, and Kelly O'Brien. Many Canadian film and media institutions, such as the
National Film Board of Canada,
Télévision de Radio-Canada,
CBC Television, and
Cinémathèque Québécoise also played a fundamental role in building the festival into its present state. Canada's national capital
Ottawa was chosen as the host city due to its already strong film culture, being the former home of the NFB as well as many of Canada's first animation studios. Additionally, Ottawa was (at the time) home of famed Canadian animator and filmmaker
Norman McLaren, who went on to be recognized for his contributions to the field of animation by the festival as its first honorary president. The festival was originally led by
Wayne Clarkson, until he left in 1978 to become artistic director of the
Festival of Festivals. The OIAF experienced a brief change of location in 1984 when it was moved to
Toronto and subsequently to
Hamilton,
Ontario in 1986 before settling back in Ottawa in 1990, where it has remained since. In 1999 the festival office suffered a fire, leading to many of the files from past years being lost. Nevertheless, the festival has continued to thrive. In 1997 the Ottawa International Student Animation Festival (SAFO) was founded and held in alternate years to the larger OIAF. In 2005 the OIAF moved from biennial to annual and as such the student categories became part of the main festival. In 2002 the festival premiered its business conference component, originally called the Television Animation Conference and now known simply as The Animation Conference or TAC. The Animation conference runs concurrently with the festival and is aimed more at industry professionals than the general public, providing those in the animation industry an opportunity to network with their colleagues. Today the OIAF continues to grow and is known in the festival world for its practice of pitting both commercial and independent projects in competition with one another, a strategy which leads to a wide breadth of styles and formats. The OIAF features traditionally-drawn animated films, animation made with
computer graphics, and more recently, even projects made in
virtual reality. == Grand prize winners ==