Spotlight on Belgian animation
The 2024 edition of Cartoon Business, from 18 to 20 November, turns the spotlight on animation in Belgium, bringing together animation professionals to look at new business models and discuss the challenges faced by the animation industry.
Demonstrating a strong ambition for co-production, both within Belgium and internationally, the country’s cultural and economic funds have joined forces to put together a programme dedicated to the Belgian animation industry, with a focus on studios and talent.
The partners are the Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel, Wallonie Bruxelles Images, Wallimage, screen.brussels, Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Screen Flanders and Flanders Image.
Flanders
In the Flanders region, both the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) and the Screen Flanders economic fund support animation productions, whether they are majority Flanders productions or international co-productions. In 2023 Screen Flanders invested 670,000 euros in animated features and 380,000 euros in animated series. The total VAF support for script, development and production of animated films and series in 2023 totalled 3.69 million euros.
Notable animation studios in the Flanders region include Animal Tank, Beast Animation, Creative Conspiracy/Spicy Acorn, Cyborn, Fabrique Fantastique, Haptic, Studio Hungaria Animation, Lunanime/Lumière Studio, See You Baby, Visuals International, Vivi Film/Creature, and Walking the Dog Studio.
High-profile titles include Valemon: The Polar Bear Prince (currently in post-production, co-produced by Vivi Film), The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol from Sylvain Chomet, director of The Triplets of Belleville (co-produced by Walking the Dog), and the animated series Quentin Blake’s Box of Treasures by Gerrit Bekers (co-produced by Creative Conspiracy for the BBC).
Wallonia-Brussels
The Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel (CCA) of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles is the main partner for French-speaking Belgian cinema. In 2023, the CCA put more than 1.27 million euros into the animation sector, including 240,000 euros dedicated to short films. Each year the CCA funds approximately 40 animated shorts, around 10 produced by independent studios and production companies, with the rest made by students at CCA-funded film schools in Wallonia and Brussels.
In 2024, two animated feature films supported by the CCA were presented in the official selections of the Cannes and Annecy festivals: Savages by Claude Barras and The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius. In addition, the CCA has recently supported Melvile, a promising feature project by Romain Renard, produced by Need Production. Since 2024, the CCA has also supported animated series, marking a new commitment to diversity and innovation in the animation sector.
The Walloon Region
Wallimage is the Walloon economic fund dedicated to the audiovisual and video game sectors. To develop and sustain these industries in Wallonia it finances audiovisual projects (feature films, series, fiction and documentaries, live-action and animation) and video games (pre-production and production). It also supports audiovisual and video game companies with capital and loans, and acts as a film commission.
The Walloon region currently has around 10 animation studios of various sizes and specialisations, providing a comprehensive, internationally recognised animation offer. In 2023, the region’s Wallimage economic fund invested 3.4 million euros in six animated feature films and eight series.
Recent coproductions include The Most Precious of Cargoes (coproduced by Les Films du Fleuve), Silex and the City (coproduced by Left Field Ventures/Steel Fish Pictures), The Legendaries (in production, coproduced by Belvision), Chickenhare (produced by nWave Pictures), Stinky Dog (coproduced by Taka/Panique!), The Smurfs (produced by Peyo Company), Partie de Campagne (coproduced by Scope Pictures) and Living with Dad (coproduced by Belvision).
The Brussels-Capital Region
Animation in the Brussels-Capital Region is supported by screen.brussels, which has invested in almost 40 animated features and series since 2016. In 2023, it put 632,000 euros into one animated feature and three series, all international co-productions. In 2024, it has invested 838,000 euros in five animated features and one series.
Activity is focused in a group of animation studios and production companies located along the canal that runs through the region, dubbed the Brussels Animation Valley. Its studios include Carbone 14, Enclume Animation Studio, Mac Guff Belgium, Miyu Productions BE, nWave, Panique!, Squarefish, Studio Souza, The Pack, and Walking the Dog. Production companies in the valley include Vivi Films, nWave Pictures, Umedia, Panique!, Take Five, La Compagnie Cinématographique, Artemis Production, Stacka, Need Productions, and Kwassa Films.
The Brussels Animation Valley produces features, series and shorts, with recent notable titles including: Savages, Our Summer of Freedom, and Olivia and the invisible earthquake (all coproduced by Panique!); The Inseparables and Chickenhare (produced by nWave Pictures); Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds (coproduced by Take Five); Valemon, The Polar Bear Prince, Upside Down River and Titina (coproduced by Vivi Film); The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol and Outfoxed (produced by Walking the Dog); Le Corset (produced by Be Side); Night of the Zoopocalypse (produced by Umedia); and La grande rêvasion (produced by Kwassa Films).
And throughout Belgium, further private investments flow into animation thanks to the federal government’s Tax Shelter Incentive.
