Spotlight on Belgian animation
The 2025 edition of Cartoon Business, from 12 to 14 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 2024 Screen Flanders invested 165,000 euros in animation series. The total VAF support for script, development and production of animated films and series in 2024 totalled 2.6 million euros.
Notable animation studios in the Flanders region include Animal Tank, Beast Animation, Creative Conspiracy/Spicy Acorn, Cyborn, Fabrique Fantastique/Studio Fantastique, Haptic, Pimple Productions, Studio Hungaria Animation, Lunanime/Lumière Studio, See You Baby, Studio Zwendel, Vivi Film/Creature, Wailing Wolves/Playful Pandas and Walking the Dog Studio.
High-profile titles include Nicolas Keppens’ Oscar nominated short film Beautiful Men (produced by Animal Tank), the feature films The Songbirds’ Secret (co-produced by Lunanime), A Magnificent Life from Sylvain Chomet (co-produced by Walking The Dog), and Juul (produced by Fabrique Fantastique), and the animated series Mush-Mush & The Mushables (produced by Thuristar), Mister Paper (produced by Mockingbird Productions), and Quentin Blake’s Box of Treasures by Gerrit Bekers (co-produced by Creative Conspiracy for the BBC).
Ketnet, the Flemish public broadcaster VRT's children's platform, is focused on high-quality animated content and co-produces both homegrown and international animated series.
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 2023/2024, the CCA put more than 1.71 million euros into the animation sector, including 480,000 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 2025, four animated feature films supported by the CCA were presented in the official selections of the Annecy festival: Allah Is Not Obliged by Zaven Najjar; Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake by Irène Iborra; Mary Anning by Marcel Barelli and The Secret of the Chickadees by Antoine Lanciaux. In addition, the CCA has recently supported Melvile, a promising feature project by Romain Renard, produced by Need Production and Hyacinthe by Gerlando Infuso, produced by Wrong Men. Since 2024, the CCA has also supported animated series, marking a new commitment to diversity and innovation in the animation sector.
RTBF, the public broadcaster for radio, television and digital content in french-speaking Belgium, is involved in animated programmes produced by independent Belgian companies and invests in innovative contemporary European and international content.
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, including: 20STM Studio, Aromates Studio, Dreamwall, Nwave wallonie, MPC Film & Episodic, NeXtFrames Animation Studio, The Pack Wallonia, The Picture Factory, and Waooh. In 2023, the region’s economic fund, Wallimage, 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 50 animated features and series since 2016. In 2024, it has invested 838,000 euros in five animated features and one series. So far, the investment for 2025 amounts to more than 500,000 euros, for three animated features and two 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: Melville (produced by Walking the Dog and Need Productions) Savages, Our Summer of Freedom, The Tinies and Olivia and the invisible earthquake (all coproduced by Panique!); Yugly, 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); Patouille et Momo, Night of the Zoopocalypse (produced by Umedia); Bottanix (produced by Stacka) 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.
The international animation festival Anima in Brussels attracts 40,000 people a year. It is qualified to nominate its candidates for the Oscars®, and is famous for its friendly atmosphere and its pancakes.
