LAIKA's stop-motion feature Wildwood has won Best Animated Feature at the 2026 Tampa Animation Festival. The studio announced the win last night and congratulated director Travis Knight and the artists and crew who worked on the film. Wildwood opened the festival in Tampa, Florida, and the award comes a few weeks after the film's theatrical release in the United States. Check out the official post down below:
How Wildwood Played At The Tampa Animation Festival
The 2026 Tampa Animation Festival ran from November 5 to November 8 at the Charlene A. Gordon Theater in the Ferman Center for the Arts at the University of Tampa, and every screening was free. This was the festival's third year. Its official selection included 117 films from 33 countries, and awards in 11 categories were announced on the final day.
Wildwood opened the festival on November 5. Brad Schiff, LAIKA's Head of Animation and a University of Tampa alum, introduced the screening, and reservations for that Thursday night screening sold out 10 minutes after they opened. The festival added an encore showing of the film on November 8. Schiff also presented 2 earlier LAIKA films during the festival, ParaNorman on November 6 and Kubo and the Two Strings on November 7. While discussing the production, Schiff explained that the expressions on Prue's face come from 3D-printed face plates that the animators swapped out on almost every frame.
The festival's overall award for narrative animation went to Beyond Measure, directed by David Ferrier.
Wildwood's Release So Far
Wildwood had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11 and opened AFI FEST in Los Angeles on October 21. Fathom Entertainment released it in US theaters on October 23, including 4DX, D-BOX and Dolby screens, and FilmNation Entertainment handles international sales. The film opened in third place at the domestic box office, and Knight explained why the story needed a PG-13 rating in LAIKA's Wildwood Lands In Third Place As Travis Knight Explains Why It Had To Be PG-13.
About Wildwood
Wildwood is based on the 2011 novel by Colin Meloy, the frontman of The Decemberists, with illustrations by Carson Ellis. Chris Butler, who wrote and co-directed ParaNorman and wrote and directed Missing Link, wrote the screenplay, and Knight directed and produced the film. It is LAIKA's 6th feature and its first to carry a PG-13 rating, and at 132 minutes it is the longest stop-motion feature ever made.
The story follows 12-year-old Prue McKeel, whose baby brother is carried off by a murder of crows into the Impassable Wilderness, a hidden world on the edge of Portland, Oregon. Prue goes in after him with her classmate Curtis Mehlberg and ends up in the middle of a conflict between the forest's factions.
The voice cast is led by Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue, Jacob Tremblay as Curtis and Carey Mulligan as Alexandra. It also includes Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits and Richard E. Grant.
LAIKA's Track Record
LAIKA is based in Hillsboro, Oregon, near Portland, where Wildwood is set. Its 5 features before Wildwood were Coraline in 2009, ParaNorman in 2012, The Boxtrolls in 2014, Kubo and the Two Strings in 2016 and Missing Link in 2019. All 5 were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and Missing Link won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film.
Knight, LAIKA's president and CEO, previously directed Kubo and the Two Strings and Bumblebee, and he was a lead animator on Coraline and ParaNorman.
Here is the official trailer for Wildwood:
With Wildwood now picking up festival awards, do you think it has a real shot at a Best Animated Feature nomination at the Oscars alongside Kubo and the Two Strings and LAIKA's other nominated films?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.