ANOTHER SEED KUHNS PLANTED THAT’S GROWN -- AND GROWN

The Ottawa International Animation Festival

​In 1975, in his farmhouse kitchen in Wakefield, Quebec, Kuhns proposed that Ottawa should sponsor a major animation film festival, to alternate with the biennial Zagreb Animation Festival, the world’s dominant animation festival at that time. The Ottawa International Animation Festival has, over the last 47 years, become the world’s dominant animation festival, and a proud annual feature of Ottawa culture. In 2005, the festival went from an every-other-year to an annual event. Every September the Festival reliably attracts over 10,000 attendees. 
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The Ottawa International Animation Festival is North America’s oldest and largest animation festival, featuring the world’s most quirky, provocative and inspiring animation.  https://www.animationfestival.ca

As to its 1975 origin…?

From the Ottawa Animation Festival website:

​"Many key players of Canadian animation banded together to help festival founders, Bill Kuhns (who came up with the idea for a festival), Frederik Manter, Prescott J. Wright, Frank Taylor and the late Kelly O''Brien (who put it all together) organize North America''s first event of its kind. The National Film Board of Canada, Radio Canada, CBC Television, and Cinémathèque Québécoise, among others, all had a hand in creating and building what is now North America's largest animation festival."

From:  https://www.productionhub.com/profile/ottawa-international-animation-festival