Kilkenny Animated Festival is a celebration of visual storytelling, incorporating cartoons, animation and illustration in a series of exhibitions, talks, performances, workshops and experiences that honour the creativity and craft of the visual image.
Kilkenny Animated is hosted by five time Academy Award® nominated animation studio, Cartoon Saloon, and BAFTA award-winning Lighthouse Studios. The festival is set against and inspired by the backdrop of Kilkenny’s medieval streets and slipways at the heart of Ireland’s Ancient East. Kilkenny Animated is the first festival of its kind in the world to bring together so many different aspects of visual storytelling for the enjoyment and appreciation of wider public audience.
In the past there has been hilarious stand up comedy with 2D animation and anarchic projections from Bec Hill and Howard Read; spell-binding and award-winning dance with live animation from Hungarian group Bandart; the premiere of animated series Cul an Ti (TG4, Paper Panther, Cartoon Saloon) with live music from Kila, Lisa Hannigan and special guests; and the Hometown Gala Premiere of Cartoon Saloon’s Golden Globe-nominated feature The Breadwinner, with a special post -show interview with director, Nora Twomey.
There has been amazing programmes of workshops, talks and slideshows from some of the world’s greatest character designers, illustrators, animators and cartoonists who, between them, are responsible for work at Disney, Dreamworks, Pixar, New Yorker magazine. The New York Times, The Irish Times, Washington Post, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures and the Jim Henson Company among many, many others.
Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon is a four-time Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, BAFTA and Emmy nominated animation studio formed by Paul Young, Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey. From award-winning shorts to feature films and TV series, Cartoon Saloon has carved a special place in the international Animation industry.
In 2010 the studio’s first feature film, The Secret of Kells, was nominated for an Academy Award® and in 2015 Tomm Moore’s follow up feature, Song of the Sea, garnered Moore a second Oscar® Nomination and a nomination for Producer Paul Young. Song of the Sea was also the first animated feature to win Best Picture at the Irish IFTA Academy awards.
Golden Globe® and Academy Award® nominated The Breadwinner was released in November 2017 to huge critical acclaim. Directed by Nora Twomey, it is based on the internationally acclaimed young adult novel of the same name by Canadian author Deborah Ellis.
The Short Film Late Afternoon, written and directed by Louise Bagnall and produced by Nuria González Blanco has won multiple international awards, including in the Best Animation Short category at the 2019 Oscars.
Their Emmy nominated preschool series, Puffin Rock, is currently being broadcast worldwide in over 30 countries along with streaming on Netflix. Dorg Van Dango, is a comedy tv series for 6-11-year-olds co-created by Nora Twomey and Fabian Erlinghäuser and currently broadcasting on RTE and Nickelodeon.
Cartoon Saloon’s 4th feature Wolfwalkers, directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, premiered in 2020 and is available to watch on Apple TV.
The studio’s 5th feature My Father’s Dragon, directed by Nora Twomey, was released in 2022 and is available on Netflix.
Lighthouse Studios is a BAFTA-winning animation studio based in Kilkenny, Ireland, and led by Managing Director, Claire Finn.
Founded in 2017, the studio has provided animation services for some of the best-known entities in modern 2D animation, including The Bob’s Burgers Movie (20th Century Studios), The Cuphead Show! (Netflix) and Rick and Morty (Adult Swim).
Lighthouse has also produced Bug Diaries for Amazon Prime and the multi-award winning El Deafo for Apple TV+, for which the studio and its head creative, Gilly Fogg, won the Content for Change award at the 2022 Children and Young People’s BAFTA ceremony.
Lighthouse Studio’s first original short, Póg mo Pigeon, was released in 2024, wining the Best Animated Short prize at the Academy Award Qualifying Foyle Film Festival in December of the same year.
Most recently, Lighthouse provided production services for partners, Mercury Filmworks, on Goldie, an all-new series which Mercury produced for Apple TV+. Goldie was released in February 2025.
Lighthouse is currently animating the 2D feature, Light of the World, for partners Pencilish and Epipheo and the next season of Rick and Morty, while also developing further original content including Savage Town, a gritty Irish tale for adult audiences set at the turn of the millennium, Showbiz School, a coproduction with Derry studio, Dog Ears, and a yet-to-be-announced series for young adults.
Kilkenny Animated is co-directed, with Paul Young of Cartoon Saloon, and produced by Naoise Nunn of Schweppe Curtis Nunn, which company is involved in some of Ireland’s leading festivals and events including the Bram Stoker Festival, Electric Picnic, Body&Soul, The Irish Times Theatre Awards, Kilkenomics and many more.
3rd – 5th October 2025
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