International animation in 2025 has produced some of the most ambitious and heartfelt films of the year, yet many remain unseen in North America. What these animated films offer in how they they can be different from traditional narratives.
The global animation scene in 2025 has delivered a spectrum of visually striking and narratively bold films, yet many of these treasures remain unseen in North America. Whether sidelined by limited festival runs, language barriers, or distribution hurdles, some of the year’s animated films from afar are not being screened in North America.
From intimate European adventures to imaginative Asian reinterpretations of classic tales, these international works offer worlds that deserve a broader audience. Here are five animated films from 2025 that North America is missing — and why they’re worth seeking out.
Jumbo
🇫🇷 France / 🇧🇪 Belgium
🇱🇺 Luxembourg / 🇮🇩 Indonesia
Directed by Ryan Adriandhy, this tender adventure follows Don, a young boy whose size makes him the object of schoolyard teasing. To prove himself, he creates a play filled with fairies and spirits, blending slice-of-life drama with whimsical fantasy.
Although Jumbo has screened in Indonesia and appeared at select European festivals, it still hasn’t reached North America. Its cross-cultural charm, heartfelt characters, and festival pedigree make it a standout example of a smaller international co-production that deserves far more visibility.
A Magnificent Life
🇩🇪 Germany / 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
This imaginative biography reflects on the life of playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. He’s considered to be one of France’s greatest talents whose works are considered a national treasure. At 60, he finds himself confronted by a vision of his younger self, prompting a meditation on memory, destiny, and the wonder threaded through his work.
Premiering at Cannes, the film represents the kind of sophisticated, festival-leaning European storytelling that too often goes undistributed in North America. Its blend of nostalgia, fantasy, and emotional depth makes it a gem that deserves recognition beyond the festival circuit.
A Chinese Ghost Story 2025
🇨🇳 China
This new animated adaptation revisits the iconic series that have seen countless sequel and remakes. From the first film directed by Tsui Hark to a live-action series, just what it offers is romance, horror, and supernatural intrigue. Just who loves whom more is the trope that gets explored in different ways.
With no marketing, inclujding a poster release, and it looking like vapourware, maybe it never saw release at all. The sources consulted for this entry are suspicously minimal, even when checking Chinese reports. Despite maybe being offered at the wrong time due to a competing work, this work did not get the love it deserves, and for long time fans, it still needs to be seen!
Strange Tales: Lan Ruo Temple
🇨🇳 China
Inspired by Strange Tales of a Chinese Studio, this adaptation may not cover the full breadth of the anthology, but it captures some of its best-known stories. Paired with larger-scale works like A Chinese Ghost Story 2025, it highlights the range and ambition of contemporary Chinese animation.
Its absence from the American and Canadian markets reveals a recurring distribution gap: even studios with proven North American success — such as those behind Chang’an — still struggle to secure releases for follow-up projects.
Balentes
🇮🇹 Italy / 🇩🇪 Germany
Set in Sardinia in 1940, this painterly, somber film follows Ventura and Michele, two young boys who discover that a herd of local horses is being sold to the army. Driven by idealism and a fierce sense of honour — balentes means “bravery” in Sardinian — they plot to free the horses before they reach the battlefield.
Despite a strong presence at European festivals throughout the year, there is no confirmed North American release. It’s a familiar fate for smaller European animated features, particularly those that favour personal themes or painterly experimentation over commercial formulas.
At the end of December, the season can feel less like a celebration and more like a rat race through consumer culture and obligation. When that happens, I like to suggest something radical in its simplicity: slow down. With this Studio Ghibli holiday guide, I’m sharing what I fallback to when looking for a way to make a full stop, destress and treat the break as it’s originally intended.
Nine years is a long gap between films, and whether that much time was truly needed to bring Zootopia 2 to theatres is debatable. I suspect Disney pushed for a release rather than waiting for genuine creative inspiration. Even so, what arrives on screen is a handsome continuation, expanding its world-building while revisiting familiar ideas of segregation within a society of animals that prides itself on being “civilized.” Fear continues to simmer beneath the surface, particularly around questions of supremacy and who ultimately becomes the victim.
On Disney Plus
As the year winds down, 
