Inside Catalonia’s Build as One of Europe’s Most Exciting Animation Hubs

In 2017, one Catalan animated feature hit cinema theaters. Eight years later, after a 2023 Oscar nomination for “Robot Dreams,” produced by Barcelona’s Arcadia Motion Pictures, in 2025 six Catalan animated features saw a theatrical release. This year, Catalonia has 11 titles selected for Annecy, between its festival and MIFA market, led by Contrechamp contender “Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope.”

At least a dozen upcoming Catalan animation titles bid fair for international sales. These include a modern-day makeover of one of Catalonia’s biggest IPs, 1990’s TV series “The Triplets,” plus “Tad and the Magic Lamp,” the fourth “Tad the Lost Explorer” toon pic iteration, a potential blockbuster, and “Pink Punk Delta,” a feature which harnesses much of the aesthetic revolution in animation techniques in a tale of young feminist rebellion. 

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“Catalan animation is no longer a promise anymore. It’s a consolidated industry,” says producer David Matamoros at Mr Miyagi Films (“Agent 203,” “Juul”).

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Last year at Annecy, Variety wrote that Catalonia was “building a global animation powerhouse,” becoming “one of Europe most exciting hubs for animation.” The foundations now laid, one year later, more of the powerhouse is visible.

10 takes on Catalonia’s presence at France’s 2026 Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival, running June 21-27:

Catalonia’s Banner Title: ‘The Triplets’

The latest surge comes in a drive into IP. One banner case in point: a rebooted “The Triplets,” set for release on Catalan state TV network 3Cat in December 2026, produced by Barcelona’s Peekaboo Animation and B Animation. As ever, the challenge is to deliver something fresh while retaining the essence of the hugely popular original, released over 1995-2004. The characters, three ebullient triplets and a Bored Witch, remain, says producer Iván Agenjo, though the sisters are “a little bit older and complex.” Also, episode length is halved to 11 minutes, and graphic design lighter and airier, while the series “embraces girls empowerment diversity and inclusion.”

But Catalonia Shows Its Animation Depth and Breadth at Annecy 

Catalan Annecy titles run, however, a broad gamut of original titles ranging from arthouse 2D historical drama “Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope,” directed by Beñat Beitia Urresti and Elio Quiroga and selected for Contrechamp, to “Monster Mia,” a spooky high-school family-targeting comedy. Also in the mix is MIFA feature film pitch “The Factory Beyond the Hill,” a painterly Kafkian take on rampant capitalism, to multiple shorts such as “Because Today Is Saturday,” a psychological portrait of a put-upon mother, and “Hunger,” playing Midnight Shorts, a black-and-white post-apocalypse psychological horror-thriller. Techniques vary from the artisanal to high technology or a combination of both as animation represents one of the default options for a new generation of creators.

The Revolution: IP

With its original selling to 158 territories, “The Triplets” plays to one market development. A CNC/Unifrance French TV export report published last September noted members’ animation sales plunged in 2024, withered by a sharp downturn in U.S. buys, pubcaster cuts in youth programs and streamers’ abandonment of animation in favor of entertainment and sports. In such a risk-averse environment, strong IP was needed to drive sales, the report concluded. “Kids content with massive scalability,” is one of the export phenomena which is starting to work, PlumResearch’s Jonathan Broughton observed in a keynote presentation last month at Conecta Fiction. “The Triplets” sold to 158 territories, making it “one of the few Spanish IPs that is able to raise licensing deals before airing,” observes Agenjo. Peekaboo is currently closing its first three licensing deals, two for Spain and one a multi-territory accord. The series targets 5-8s, but can also appeal to nostalgic mothers who grew up watching the show, he adds. 

Catalan Animated Feature Surge 

Few TV properties in Catalonia or indeed most parts of Europe, however, have the potential IP punch of “The Triplets.” So Catalonia’s new IP surge turns largely on upcoming hit series feature film spin-offs – “Jasmine & Jumbo: The Movie,” “Superthings,” “Agent 203” – and “Tad Jones and the Magic Lamp,” whose movie saga to date, from its first three movies, has grossed $118 million worldwide. “The TV series ecosystem has changed a lot in recent years, [focusing ever more] on series based on toylines or which are highly commercial,” says Ivan Díaz, head of international at Filmax, which has co-produced and sells “Superthings Rivals of Kaboom: Kazoom Power,” inspired by the toy franchise created by Catalonia’s Magic Box Toys. “If you have a quality production, it’s easier to have immediate international returns with animated features,” he adds.

Catalonia’s Animation Build: More Drivers

IP does not explain alone the build of Catalonia’s animation sector, however: Just between 2018 and 2023, according to the 2024 Libro Blanco of the Spanish animation industry, the number of animation companies in Catalonia grew 27% to 717. Catalonia’s six features released in 2025 is equal to the annual average for the whole of Spain over 2020-22, when 18 animated features were produced, according to animation federation Diboos. In part, that must be put down to a push phenomenon of ever more talent coming onto the market. “A lot of young people are going into animation,” says Matamoros. “Catalonia has very decent art, animation and VFX schools. Spain’s video games industry has set up in Barcelona. There’s a huge talented animation community, a talent market of graphic artists, writers and storytellers,” he adds. “There is a combination of circumstances: the support we provide to the sector, the talent, the industrial base of the same,” notes Francisco Vargas, head of the audiovisual area at the Catalan government’s ICEC film fund. “There’s a young generation of creatives, including producers, who are bold enough to try on anything, fiction, documentaries or animation.” 

Public Support: One Key

In 2025, Spain produced more feature films than any other country in Europe: 423, nearly twice France’s output (228), according to a Cannes Marché du Film Focus report. This growth can be attributed to the support schemes put in place at both national and regional level,” the report said. “Nearly everyone in the industry agrees: without consistent public investment, Catalan animation would not be where it is today,” Variety wrote in 2025. It is no coincidence that Catalan animation begins to grow as its government created in 2017 a specific funding line for animation, or that animation has skyrocketed in 2025, when Catalonia’s Department of Culture, through the ICEC, dedicated nearly €60 million ($70 million) to the audiovisual sector, a record figure, when animation funding rose from €1.45 million ($1.7 million) in 2017 to over €5 million ($5.8 million) last year. Funding also recognizes the singularity of animation, its longer production timeline and multi-territory financing, Vargas notes.  

Co-Production 

All of the Catalan productions screening at Annecy are co-productions, either with other parts of Spain (“The Hunger”) or Chile and Argentina (“Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope”) or Austria and Germany (“Monster Mía”) or Portugal and France (“Because Today Is Saturday”). Animation is by default international, “The Triplets” producer Agenjo has said. By 2023, 70% of Spain’s animation revenues came from exports. According to Vargas, animation producers can look to not only a specific animation funding line in Catalonia but also development funding – not the case all over Spain – and a minority production fund that has been one of Catalonia’s biggest success stories. 

Another Boon for Animated Art Films: Tax Breaks

Add to this tax credits of 25%-30% requiring a €1 million ($1.16 million) spend in Spain, and similar fiscal facilities in co-producer partner companies which are replacing traditional TV finance, Matamoros notes. Tax breaks also facilitate co-production in animation, making it possible to split layout in one country, compositing in another, he adds. It’s now feasible to produce animated movies at €2 million-€4 million ($2.3 million-$4.6 million) made by auteurs with a sense of artistic freedom, he says. That indeed looks to be one fertile future for Catalan animation. One example: Ibermedia Next 2.0 project “Pink Punk Delta,” a Catalonia-Slovakia-Chile-Colombia co-production presented at Annecy’s MIFA Feature Film Pitch last year, a film with a 2D finish but using shaders to give texture, experiments with mo-cap and recourse to 3D to base the character models in Blender.       

The YouTube Connection

One reason which TV series sell less is because kids consume ever more titles on YouTube, Díaz notes. But YouTube can also serve as a source of inspiration. Sola Media introduced at Cannes “Gus the Guide Dog,” about an oh-so cute stray which wants to move into service, based on Bruno Simões’ 2018 short “Pip,” which scored over 540 million views on YouTube. Simões himself is at Annecy with two shorts, “Impossible!” and as a producer on “Because Today Is Saturday.” With that sort of track record, buyers will want to know more.  

The Future

“The challenge between 2018 and 2023 was to build a critical mass of studios and talent,” says Matamoros. By 2026, “the focus right now has shifted towards scaling internationally competitive projects and positioning Catalonia alongside emerging animation hubs such as Belgium, Ireland and even the Canary Islands,” he adds. “Catalonia’s animation sector is already leading in Europe in many ways,” says Vargas, citing its annual Animar-BCN Animation Days think tank. And animation is certainly a sector with a future, he argues. “It’s intense in its international reach. It practices innovation, is accustomed to delocation and its labor force highly qualified in technology.” That, in uncertain times, is a large attraction. 

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