Spanish animation will have a professional day at the 25th Malaga Film Festival for the first time, as part of Spanish Screenings

At the event, will present the main novelties, analyses, challenges of the animation and VFX sector in Spain

Madrid. 23/03/2022.- As part of the programme of the 25th Malaga Film Festival and within the framework of the Spanish Screenings, Animation Day, organised by DIBOOS in collaboration with ICEX, will be held on 24 March at the Yelmo cinemas in the Andalusian capital, where various activities related to the world of animation and special effects will take place.

This event, which will be attended by prestigious professionals from the sector, will present the different new developments in the market and will include a detailed analysis of the current situation in the world of animation and special effects. Thus, prominent members of the current board of directors of DIBOOS, Ivan Agenjo (vice-president), Jose Luis Farias (head of communication) and Nico Matji (president) will analyse the sector and will discuss present and future challenges.

It is important to note that the animation and special effects sectors is not only a real pool of talent worldwide, but has also been able to grow steadily over the last decade, creating quality, stable and young jobs. It is striking that, being only 4% of the total number of Spanish audiovisual companies, it generates more than 20% of employment in the sector, employing nearly 8,000 professionals and with nearly 90% of its income coming from exports.

Animation Day is part of the new international market for Spanish audiovisual production Spanish Screenings, which in 2022 arrives in XXL format and includes new strategic lines, including animation. Spanish Screenings XXL’s budget is allocated to frame Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan in order to reinforce the role of Spain as an audiovisual HUB in Europe. The Ministry of Culture and Sports, through the ICAA, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, through ICEX support these animation ventures.

Presentation of 3 projects

Animation Day will be the context for the presentation of three of the most interesting projects on the Spanish animation scene. Clips from the feature film Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow will be screened, which according to director Julio Soto, after the film’s presentation at the American Film Market and the Cannes Festival, will be ready for commercial release in the fall. It’s important to highlight that Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow’s screenplay won the prestigious Samuel Goldwyn Award in 2013, being the first animated script to win this notable award.

Additionally, a 15-minute cut of unpublished sequences of Unicorn Wars will be screened at the festival. The film consists of an anti-war fable narrating the ancient war between bears and unicorns, incorporating the personal conflict between two brothers for the love of their mother coupled with concepts such as ecology, feminism or fanaticism. The film’s producer, Iván Miñambres, anticipates that the feature film will arrive in commercial theaters on July 1, , after its screening at festivals that have not yet been made public.

The third project at Animation Day will be the latest instalment of the popular Tadeo Jones saga, with the presence of its producer, Nico Matji. At this Malaga event, he will share with the audience the details and circumstances in which this project was carried out the strategic financing decisions that had to be made, so that in just 3 years and through a pandemic, have managed to get this far, thanks also, of course, to a very important effort to adapt to teleworking.

The Animation Day is a new event that aspires to continue in the future, taking place for its first edition at the 25th Málaga Film Festival, organized by DIBOOS with the collaboration of Animation From Spain (ICEX), within the framework of Spanish Screenings.