OTTAWA — After years of sluggish turnout, features are set to make something of a comeback this week at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.

‘I think the feature competition is the strongest we’ve ever had,’ says OIAF artistic director Chris Robinson, ‘and that’s a relief because I was reaching a point where I was going to nix it.’ The annual fest kicks off on Wednesday, screening seven features and 91 shorts.

Robinson concedes that since the festival added its feature category a few years ago that the quality ‘has been weak overall, and we were lucky to get three features to fill five slots. This year we have seven; we’re so strong that we increased the number.’

The animated features in competition are: $9.99 by Israeli director Tatia Rosenthal; recent Universal release Coraline; the stop-motion festival regular Edison and Leo from Canada’s Perfect Circle Productions and Infinity Features; Life Without Gabriella Ferri from Estonia; Mai Mai Miracle by Japan’s Sunao Katabuchi; Mary and Max by Aussie Adam Elliot; and the U.S. film My Dog Tulip by Paul Fierlinger and Sandra Fierlinger.

The festival also includes a kids television competition, a look at Quebec animation, and the annual animation industry conference.

OIAF, first held in 1975, last year shifted from September to October, a less busy time. ‘It’s colder but there’s a little more color,’ thanks to the leaves,’ says Robinson. ‘September is such a festival month, with Toronto, Montreal and the Atlantic fetes.’

The festival runs Oct. 14-18.