Intermediate Animators Production Residency

Intermediate Animators Production Residency 2025-26
What is the Intermediate Animators Production Residency?
The Intermediate Animators Production Residency is a production-focused program offered by the Quickdraw Animation Society (or QAS) intended to assist a local animator in completing an independent animated short film, and targeted towards animators developing their practice. This is a cash award open to Calgary, AB (and area) artists of all disciplines, at intermediate to advanced stages in their careers, who use animation as a primary part of their artistic practice.

Applicants must have animation experience to apply for this program.

The 2025 Intermediate Animators Production Residency (IAPR) will foster the development of an animated film through mentorship, production space, equipment and resource access, technical support, and a cash award of $8,000 to go towards artist fees and supply budget in the creation of an independent animated short film. QAS will publicly screen the completed film, ideally at our annual GIRAF International Animation Festival in November, 2026, following the successful completion of the program.

For the  IAPR a successful project will be awarded to an individual who is hiring a collaborator for the duration of the project. This means that a principal artist will receive the grant, but in their application, they must have defined roles within their project production such as a character designer, keyframe artist, inbetweener, story boarder, background designer, etc.

Working together should be a way to uplift a project during the dark days of production and hurl you towards success! We want to encourage people to work with peers and see each other as professionals. Please note that each artist should be paid and thus may affect the project scope and/or runtime of the film. A successful project must have 2 or more artists working together in a way defined by the residency application.

If you need help finding a collaborator, QAS can assist you. Projects that have collaborators in mind and defined roles will be considered stronger applications.

This twelve-month long program is broken down into three phases: PRE-PRODUCTION phase (August 2025 – October 2025), PRODUCTION (October 2025 – June 2026), and POST-PRODUCTION (June 2026 – July 2026).

The Applicant is expected to host a workshop on a specific skill or technique they have learned due to the residency and share their project in the form of an artist talk at or leading up to our GIRAF festival.

The Successful Applicant will receive from QAS:

A professional animation mentor to help lead you through the program

A two-year producing membership at the Quickdraw Animation Society (value of $50/year) granting access to our studios, equipment, and animation library

1,200 production credits (equivalent to $1,200 in equipment and studio/production desk rental) to be used at the Quickdraw Animation Society for the rental of animation equipment or studio rental. Successful applicants may choose to work remotely

$8,000 cash

Public screening of your finished animation

* One production credit is worth $1 of studio or equipment rental at Quickdraw Animation Society and holds no cash value.

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