With an international prestige built up over decades, Spanish animation has definitely made a splash in recent years. Steadily consolidating a competitive internal structure across different industrial centers, the sector is gaining important foreign recognition and having a great commercial impact. 

Another key factor in the development of the industry is the effort made to publicize both the achievements and the talent within in the sector, which is receiving an increasing amount of attention from abroad.

During the recent Marché du Film in Cannes, the celebration of New Animated Shorts from Spain, organized by ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, was evidence of this.

During the event, Emmy Award-winning Spanish director Rodrigo Blaas presented his dazzling short film Sith, part of the Disney+ Star Wars season 2 anthology: Visions.

Also featured was the acclaimed short film The Windshield Wiper by Madrid-based creator Alberto Mielgo, which was an Oscar winner in 2022.

Last year Mielgo won an Emmy for Jíbaro, part of season 3 of the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots. An earlier episode in the series titled The Witness - also one of Mielgo's creations - had already won three Emmys in 2019.

Another Spanish animator who has achieved worldwide recognition in recent years is Sergio Pablos, whose film Klaus, a Netflix production, won seven Annie Awards in 2019.

Mummies and Tadeo Jones 3

In recent years, Spanish animation has also demonstrated its ability to create content that can connect with family audiences in foreign markets.

Warner Bros. decided to get involved in Mummies and distribute the film as a blockbuster, sensing its huge potential for success with international audiences.

Prior to its February release in Spain and the United States, the feature film directed by Juan Jesús García Galocha had already been screened in a dozen countries, including France, Poland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Romania, Lithuania, Turkey, South Africa, Slovakia, and Australia. And was later shown in theaters in Germany and Italy as well.

Momias has ended up making history as the Spanish film that has been most widely distributed internationally by a Hollywood studio.

The box office performance of the feature film produced by Jordi Gasull for 4 Cats Pictures and Atresmedia Cine has been magnificent, grossing $52.8 million worldwide, of which $6.4 million came from Spain, $6.3 million from France, and $4.3 million from the United States.

Released in 2022, Tadeo Jones 3. La Tabla Esmeralda, directed by Enrique Gato and produced by Telecinco Cinema and Lightbox Entertainment, the third installment of Spain's top-grossing cartoon franchise, also grossed a splendid $33 million, and was distributed by Paramount.

SuperKlaus

The last edition of the Malaga Festival also served to confirm the effervescence of Spanish animation production.

"We are growing at a phenomenal pace," said president of Diboos Nico Matji enthusiastically, at the beginning of a presentation at the festival.

First, in terms of production capacity. This booming sector has produced 16 feature films, 72 TV series seasons and 156 short films in 2020-2022, according to Diboos.

In Malaga, Diboos announced some 40 Spanish titles that will arrive in theaters this year or will be presented as projects.

The association affirms that the Animation and VFX industry in Spain generates more than 10,000 direct jobs, 20% of those in the audiovisual industry, and has an annual turnover of 900 million euros in 2021.

Some of the biggest commercial deals announced in Malaga involved animated feature films.

Among them is the Pink Parrot sales agency's pre-sale of SuperKlaus -formerly known as 4 Days Before Christmas- a 3Doubles and Captain Araña co-production with Canada's PVP Media to key countries. The world premiere is to take place in December.

"Incentives are contributing to the development of a solid offer of animation and VFX services," says Dario Sanchez, CEO of Tenerife-based 3Doubles.

One of the factors behind the success of Spanish animation stems from the competitive advantages of a creative market with reduced costs.

"Now that studios are thinking a bit more about how they spend money, Spain is in a good position with a broad range of talent: creators, technicians, etc., and productions don't cost as much here as they do in the UK or France, or indeed the US," says Gasull.