Manchester Animation Festival

General public tickets go on sale at 7:30pm on Monday 22nd September.

There are many ways to experience MAF. All events have the ability just to purchase individual tickets. If you plan to come to a lot of events, a pass might be a good way to do that – it allows you to pre-book 3 events for free per day but also allows you to queue for free entry to additional events and access the online festival, its a great way to see more and support the festival!

We also have film bundles which give access to 5 films for the price of 4 and other offers. Check out the tickets page for more info.

Buying a Festival Pass allows you to pre-book free tickets to events and screenings (excluding workshops and the Animation Nation Forum). However, we only allow you to pre-book guaranteed tickets for 3 events per day in advance. We then allow passholders to queue outside events for any spare seats on the day. Tickets for spare seats are included in the cost of a festival pass.

A Festival Day Pass provides the same access as the above, but for a specific day rather than the entire festival.

An ANF Pass gains you access to all Animation Nation Forum events and allows you to book meetings at ANF Connect.

An ANF+ Pass includes access to every event at the festival (excluding workshops). That includes full access to the Animation Nation Forum and allows you to book meetings at ANF Connect. Essentially its a ANF and Festival pass together so don’t forget to pre-book your festival events!

Our Film Bundle allows you to book tickets to 5 Short or Feature Film screenings throughout the in-venue festival  for the price of 4. It’s great for those who just want to take in some fantastic films over the week.

The YAY Bundle is a new addition to MAF 2025! This bundle is specific to Sunday (9 Oct) and includes access to the YAY Awards Ceremony, 2 Talks & 50% discount for any screenings. It’s the ideal choice for those attending as part of the Young Animator of the Year Awards.

Pre-booking guarantees that you can get into some of the events you want to attend. Passholders can prebook a maximum of 3 events per day to ensure that non-passholders also have a fair chance at accessing some of the bigger events. It also makes sure that we don’t have empty cinemas as a result of people booking in everything and not attending.

All ticket holders need to be in their seats 5 minutes before the event/screening begins, because if the event is sold out, we allow passholders to take any remaining seats.

We also ask that if you don’t think you’ll be able to attend an event, that you cancel your pre-booked ticket in your account and book onto something else.

You can also join the waiting list for tickets – this operates in advance only.

Yes! We recommend all people experiencing the festival with a Festival Pass aim their bookings for the Monday-Thursday period of the festival. Sunday is aimed at more of a general public audience and families, who may only want to attend one event. Passholder ticket allocations for Sunday will be much more limited, so we highly advise that you arrange your trip around our Monday-Thursday programming.

Check out the programme ,then buy your passes online through the links above. Once you’ve bought your pass and are logged in — book via the links on our website! REMEMBER: You can only pre-book 3 events a day. Workshops, and the Animation Nation Forum is not included.

When you arrive at the festival we’ll give you a physical pass with a unique QR code on it which has all of your bookings tied to that code. Simply flash your pass at the events you’ve booked, and we’ll scan you in on entry. The process is exactly the same of any events you may queue for on the day – if there are available seats we’ll scan you in.

For sure! The online programme will run 14-30 November and will consist of screenings, events and more. Short films are geo-blocked to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland due to international rights, talks are accessible internationally. Check out our FAQ’s for more info on that.

You have been taken to Eventive, our ticketing system for the festival. Don’t panic, just complete the process as normal. You can book event tickets either via our website (recommended) or via Eventive once purchased. Just make sure you are logged in!

Workshops are individually priced. To book onto a workshop, simply click the ‘buy tickets’ link on the workshop’s page. Workshop attendees must be aged over 18 for any workshops running Monday-Thursday.  Family day workshops and activities will state the appropriate age range in their event description.