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Animation in Spain: the boom and the future

Spanish animation: milestones and the figures of a boom

The data once again confirms the positive momentum of the Spanish animation industry. In a sector experiencing significant growth, the recognition of Spanish talent is reflected in festivals, international awards, and the increasing volume of business.

Emilio Mayorga & Gerardo Michelín

18 December 2023

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According to "Who is Who 2022"—the general report on the sector prepared by ICEX and Diboos—25 feature films and 70 series were produced over the past four years, providing 8,540 direct jobs and 21,000 indirect jobs. Of this production, 70% were international co-productions, mainly with the rest of Europe and Latin America.

Robot Dreams, the film by Pablo Berger, premiered in 2023 at Cannes Premieres and became, in December, the fourth Spanish film to win the European Film Award for Best European Animated Film, after Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (2019), Another Day of Life (2018), and Chico and Rita (2011). Spain is now the country with the most animation awards in the history of the European Film Academy Awards, launched in 2009.

At the 2023 San Sebastian Festival, the only two animated films included in the official competitive section were Spanish, They Shot the Piano Player by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal and Sultana's Dream by Isabel Herguera. There are also other recent milestones of this boom: the Oscar for best animated short film in 2022 for The Windshield Paper (Alberto Mielgo), the Oscar nomination for best feature film by Sergio Pablos, Klaus, which won the Bafta award and two Annies two years earlier, and the overwhelming success of Juan Jesús García Galocha's film Mummies, which has grossed 49.7 million euros worldwide, making it the second highest grossing Spanish animated film in history, behind Planet 51.

So far, these are some of the most visible signs of a blossoming. But others show a consistent and expanding industrial machine. 

· According to data from the European Audiovisual Observatory and the ICAA, of all the European countries, Spain was the only one to place a homegrown animated film in the list of the 20 most watched films of 2022: Tad the Lost Explorer and the Emerald Tablet, which reached 1.8 million viewers.

· From 2020 to 2022, Spain trailed only France—the largest European exporter of animation and the third largest worldwide, behind only the United States and Japan—in the number of projects presented at the Cartoon Movie co-production forum, an international barometer of the industrial status and trends in the European sector. A total of 26 Spanish feature film projects have been presented in that three-year period. In 2023, there were five.

· In 2021, the animation sector in Spain recorded a turnover of around 950 million euros, according to ICEX sources. And "90% of annual revenues came from international sales and services," according to Iván Agenjo, producer and VP of Diboos, the national association of the sector that represents more than 80% of the Spanish VFX and animation production.

· According to "Who is Who 2022"—the general report on the sector prepared by ICEX and Diboos—25 feature films and 70 series were produced over the past four years, providing 8,540 direct jobs and 21,000 indirect jobs. Of this production, 70% were international co-productions, mainly with the rest of Europe and Latin America.

· International companies are establishing themselves in the territory. A case in point is Skydance Animation, which, in 2020, acquired Ilion, the studio behind Planet 51, and set up shop in Madrid. Another case is the French production studio Fortiche, behind the Netflix series Arcane, which also moved to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 2020, undoubtedly interested in local talent and creativity and its attractive incentives—a 50%-45% direct deduction for international animation productions.

· Five solid animated feature films will compete in the 2024 Goyas: They Shot the Piano Player, Sultana's Dream, Hanna y los monstruos, Robot Dreams, and Mummies. There have been years in which one or two titles have competed.