H-AIR HIROSHIMA ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

H-AIR is a residency program for people involved in the animation industry. The purpose of the program is to invite animation artists to stay in Hiroshima City for a short period of time and engage in their new projects here. The aim is to help the invitees to build their careers and enrich the art and culture environment in Hiroshima.
or H-AIR 2026, we are pleased to announce the selection of three invited artists from a pool of 74 applicants representing 30 countries: Clara Trevisan (Brazil), Bence Halavary (Hungary), and Zohar Dvir (Germany).
The artists will reside in Hiroshima City for 80 days, from Monday, June 8 to Wednesday, August 26, 2026. During their stay, they will focus on their creative projects and participate as instructors in a community exchange program designed to engage with local residents.

ARTISTS

Clara Trevisan

Profile

A visual artist from Porto Alegre, Brazil.
She works as a freelance illustrator, animator, and art director. Her personal investigation revolves around the fantastic, the imaginary, and the "non-human," with a particular interest in mythical creatures. Her primary media are drawing on paper and 2D frame-by-frame animation, though she also explores analog object building.
From 2022 to 2024, Clara participated in the ReAnima Masters Programme, where she directed her first short film, Mother of Dawn (2025). The film marked her first experience with puppets and stop-motion and has been screened and awarded at numerous festivals worldwide.

Overview of project

Investigations on Therolinguistics

Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin's The Author of the Acacia Seeds and her broader work, I intend to investigate the concepts surrounding the "Association of Therolinguistics"—a fictional institution focused on studying the language and poetics of non-humans, such as animals, plants, and minerals. In her text, Le Guin imagines a vast realm of languages that we may or may never be able to fully understand.
Being immersed in another culture and language opens us to the unknown and to different methods of understanding. I believe this residency will provide the ideal inspiration to investigate these ideas of Therolinguistics. Which non-human creatures constitute this environment, and what do their languages look like?
I want to gather inspiration from Hiroshima’s environment, culture, and mythology to produce hand-drawn loops showing the language of beings that humans cannot fully comprehend. I’d like to explore the structure of diagrams—carrying an exact, scientific code—to express things that are deeply mysterious and inexact. These drawings and loops will serve as the starting point for developing a short film based on Le Guin’s text.

Bence Hlavay

Profile

A Budapest-based animation director and illustrator.
In 2023, he graduated from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME). His diploma film, I would eat it if I could, has been screened at more than 30 animation festivals worldwide and won the Best Student Short Film award at Anima 2025.
After graduation, he co-founded the animation studio "Piros Animation." In addition to his studio projects, he actively produces editorial illustrations for magazines.
His artistic focus is on "everyday life." He is passionate about encapsulating small, inspiring events from daily life within his creative works.

Overview of project

GUIDED BY YOU

The idea for this project stems from exploring the city through my own eyes, combined with the lived experiences of its residents.
What daily scenes do those who live in the city see? And if asked, "What is your favorite part of the city?", what would they answer? It could be a park bench, a single tree, a specific building, or perhaps even a particular person at their favorite bar.
I intend to organize workshops where participants can express their own interpretations of this simple question. Whether through drawing, painting, or creating small sculptures, the method of expression is free. The final outcome will be a published art book gathering the participants' creations into a unique "guidebook." Alongside this, I will produce an animated film about my journey, guided by this one-of-a-kind "map of Hiroshima."

Zohar Dvir

Profile

A Hamburg-based animation director.
Her work blends 2D and 3D animation, combining surreal imagery with dark humour and emotional storytelling. Self-taught in animation, she developed a distinctive visual language that explores philosophical and psychological questions about identity, loneliness, love, and the human need for connection.

Her recent short film Butterfly Kiss, an Oscar-qualifying animation, has won multiple awards and has been presented widely at international festivals.
Growing up in Israel, her artistic voice has been shaped by living in a region marked by ongoing conflict. She is currently developing new animated projects that engage with political and social themes while maintaining a playful and accessible tone.

Overview of project

Pax Æterna

High above a war-torn Earth stands the Pax Æterna Resort, a luxurious sanctuary for Peace Doves that has, over time, become a hollow institution, cynically capitalising on the idea of peace. Run by pigeons, the resort caters to guests who lounge in comfort while the world below burns.
Jona, an idealistic young mail pigeon on her second day at work, discovers an urgent delivery: an olive branch addressed to the last remaining peace dove. As a mail pigeon, she must obtain the dove's signature to complete the delivery, or risk losing her job.
But the aging dove, disillusioned after a lifetime of carrying olive branches that led nowhere, refuses to accept it. Instead, she takes Jona on a tour of the resort, determined to show her its true nature. Together, they encounter guests who speak endlessly about peace while doing nothing to achieve it: fake activists, religious tourists, criminals, and queer ravers.
Jona's journey is a story of hope and disillusionment. The dialogue spoken by the resort's guests is based on recordings from real interviews about peace. Blending satire, allegory, and recorded testimonies, the film investigates what meaning, if any, the word "Peace" still holds. Or perhaps just a fragile attempt to give this conversation a place in the world again.

The number of the invited artists

3

Period of Stay

June 8 (Mon) - Aug 26 (Wed), 2026 (80 days)

Application(Closed)

Dec 1 (Mon), 2025 - Jan 31 (Sat), 2026

Selection Committee

Nobuaki Doi, Koji Yamamura, Shizuka Miyazaki

How to apply

To apply, the applicants need to fill out the online application form on the official website of Hiroshima Animation Season and include your proposal document for your new project. Any style of proposal document is acceptable, but please be sure to include the following information.

Proposal document contents:

• Project overview
• Reason why participation in H-AIR is necessary for this project (in the case of working on your own new project)
• Why is a visit and stay in Hiroshima necessary for your career? (in the case of working on a short film based on a stay in Hiroshima)
• A summary of how the applicant satisfies the “3. Selection (2) Selection criteria,” written in the Application Guideline.

Your proposal should be no more than 10 pages long in PDF format, and it should be written in English or Japanese.

Please read the Application Guideline carefully before applying.
◎Application Guideline (PDF)
Applications are now closed. Thank you very much for the many submissions we received.

Report

Please click here to see the invitees, reports, etc. for H-AIR2024.
https://animation2024.hiroshimafest.org/en/air/