Tonight the Ackland Film Forum will host the U.S. premiere screening of a collection of 18 animated shorts from around the world.

Bloc Animation Project is a film festival that showcases the work of established and up-and-coming animators. In its inaugural year, the festival will feature films from the U.S., India, Singapore and Spain.

Allison Portnow, the Ackland’s events and program coordinator, said the festival aligns with the Ackland’s goal to highlight various forms of art – in this case, filmmaking and animation.

Portnow said that the Ackland strives to help viewers make connections between the forum films and visual artwork on display in the museum. Art and Cinema Guides are available at the museum, connecting the Film Forum to exhibitions in the museum.

The Bloc Animation Project festival correlates with paintings by contemporary artist Jim Shaw, whose paintings imitate quirky thrift store finds. Shaw made up a fake sect of Christianity called Oism and created an entire world of practices and beliefs.

“He paints these thrift store paintings as if they were inside this world, painted by his believers,” Portnow said.

“This artist basically created his own world in a similar style as some of the animators who dream up a world artistically.”

Following tonight’s screening, a question and answer session with the animators and the festival’s organizers will help viewers understand the workings of animation and the animators’ creations.

Francesca Talenti, a UNC Communication Studies professor of media production, is one of the jurors who decided which films to include in the festival. She collaborated with the festival’s co-creators Marc Russo and Georges Le Chevallier and the Ackland Art Museum to debut the films in Chapel Hill.

Russo, an assistant professor of art and design at North Carolina State University, said he hopes the festival will become an annual event that will grow over time.

“I have this dream that we will foster a lot of local animators,” Russo said.

“Helping local animators show their work is part of the mission — bring in fun international stuff to Raleigh and Chapel Hill, but also foster a local community.”

The festival begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Varsity Theatre. Admission is free with OneCard, $4 for all others.