Charukola Animation Festival celebrates young animators

At Charukola, where brushes and colours ruled the whole canvas, something different has happened this time- the art began to move. Sketches turned into stories, and drawings came to life. The Faculty of Fine Arts recently came alive with colours, motions in frame, where every motion is crafted with imagination and creativity by many young artists.

The 1st Charukola Animation Festival 2025 turned into a hub of thoughts, dreams, amazing people, ideas and a lot more!  Organised by Charukola Animation Society in the premises of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka, the event brought together creative animators, artists, students, mentors and filmmakers. 28th October was World Animation Day, and by keeping that in mind, a three-day festival was organised, bringing out talented artists, getting to know about animation and others to be a part of the celebration.

Mubtasim Alvee, the festival director, talked about his journey behind hosting the festival. “We learned valuable lessons from here. Before the event, many patrons supported us as it is a crowd-funded festival. Other than that, the support we got from our audience, participants were very welcoming, and we are overwhelmed by it”.

The festival brought out different segments for the audience to experience animation beyond the frame. In the venue, the stalls were assembled by several entities from community members to institutes and the students.

Cartoon People, a community based on Bangladeshi cartoonists and visual storytellers, works with animated characters and turns them into comics.

Their stall was seen at the venue, and responses from the visitors were good. The stall owner added, “The response was very good on the 2nd day of the event. As this animation event is hosted for the first time in Charukola, I’m happy that something new has started here about animation”.

The stall owner was asked about their thoughts, and they replied, “The festival brought people together who are interested in drawing and animation. Visitors eagerly explored the event and brought their friends for the film screening. This type of event should be organised more in future as many artists and animators will be interested to come forward and showcase their work as well as inspire others into animation”.

Special film screenings from students and studio works were showcased. The open call for all also invited international screenings to light up the festival.

Mohammad Tawhid Ur Rashid, a student of the University of Dhaka, has participated in the open call category, submitted his animated work named ‘Rat Race’ and got selected.

According to him, the responses for the screening were really good.

He added, “In this three-day event, a film screening was organised twice per day. So, the schedule was flexible for people to enjoy. The film screening created an opportunity to bring animators and visual storytellers all together in one place”.

“In the open call selection, we have got 85 works from both Bangladeshi and International participants. Also, there was a Bangladesh segment where we displayed the projects of different animation studios and independent artists,” commented Mubtasim Alvee about the responses from international participants.

Panel discussions on industry and academy were scheduled, where studios, platforms and educators were invited to talk about the reality, challenges of the growing animation world and the future generation of animation storytellers.

Another eye-catching highlight was the Cosplay Day on the 2nd day of the festival. In collaboration with the Bangladesh Association of Cosplayers, three cosplayers joined the festival, and a few others were also dressed up as their favourite character.

Sidratul Muntaha Ohee, a member of the Bangladesh Association of Cosplayers and one of the cosplayers to join the event, shared her experience. “Being a cosplayer myself, I got really excited upon hearing about the event. I cosplayed Reze, the Bomb Devil from the anime ‘Chainsaw Man’, and I personally liked it very much”.

While asked about the reactions for the day, she was really satisfied with it, but the crowd wasn’t up to her expectations on the event day.

She showed great interest in more events like this in future, as more people like her might join the event to hype up the crowd. “I think this type of event will bring out more cosplayers and other animators to participate. I’ll definitely join for more events in future”.

People of all ages came to visit the festival. Students brought their friends to go to a film screening, and parents gathered around the stalls to buy comic books and a diary for their child. Others came for a sneak peek, chit-chatting with their friends, enjoying the vibes.

“I came to visit the stalls in between my class breaks. I really enjoyed the panel discussion segment. What I liked about it people are talking, questioning and giving their ideas to the creators who inspired many into animation,” smiled Md Musfikur Rahman, a visitor and a student of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Dhaka.

The wall painting was done by a collective collaboration of expression by the students of Fine Arts. Musfikur jokingly shared the scene behind one particular crow wall painting. “On that painting, we have seen someone drawing a funny, muscular crow; someone drew a realistic-looking crow. I drew a crow wearing an orange t-shirt riding a bicycle. This is the part that I liked the most is everyone is collectively expressing their imagination into their drawings, which we don’t usually see everywhere.”

As the screen faded and the lights went on, the applause of the audience filled the halls of Charukola. The Charukola Animation Festival reminded everyone that art doesn’t only live in the form of paper- it moves, it speaks, it tells a story.

Animation in Bangladesh is not completely recognised by everyone. The purpose of the event is not just academically, but animation should be recognised professionally as a serious art form. Charukola Animation Society will continue to inspire the new generation into animation and storytelling to revive the country’s motion culture.

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