ImportError: cannot import name 'animation' from partially initialized module 'matplotlib'

TL;DR: you almost certainly have a local file named matplotlib.py or animation.py that shadows the real library. Find it and rename it, then the import works.

The error

ImportError: cannot import name 'animation' from partially initialized module 'matplotlib'

Fix it

1. Find the shadowing file. From the directory where the error happens:

   ls matplotlib.py animation.py 2>/dev/null; python -c "import matplotlib; print(matplotlib.__file__)"

   Expected: either ls finds a local matplotlib.py/animation.py, or the printed path points at your own file instead of site-packages.

2. Rename the shadowing file to something that does not collide, e.g. myanimation.py. Also delete any matching .pyc or pycache_ entries.

3. Verify:

   python -c "from matplotlib import animation; print('ok')"

   Expected: prints ok.

When this applies

Use this when the error says partially initialized module 'matplotlib' and mentions a circular import.

When it does not apply

If no local file shadows matplotlib, check sys.path for a stray directory containing a matplotlib folder. Genuine matplotlib-internal circular imports are rare and would be a bug in matplotlib itself.

Compatibility

All Python and matplotlib versions; this is a filename collision, not a version issue.

Root cause

Python resolves imports against the current directory first. A script or module named matplotlib.py (or a folder named matplotlib) in your working directory gets picked up instead of the installed package, so the real package never finishes initializing.

Edge cases

Jupyter notebooks run with the notebook directory on sys.path, so a notebook-adjacent matplotlib.py breaks every notebook in that folder. The same class of bug hits any package name you reuse locally (random.py, email.py, and statistics.py are classic repeat offenders).

GitHub issue matplotlib/matplotlib#26181 reports ImportError: cannot import name 'animation' from partially initialized module 'matplotlib' (most likely due to a circular import). The verified diagnosis: the reporter had a local file shadowing part of matplotlib, so Python imported the local file instead of the real submodule mid-initialization. The fix that resolved it was finding and renaming the shadowing local file, after which import matplotlib.animation worked. Full thread: https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/26181