The Latest from YouTube Sensation Bruno Simões, a Tale of Trump-Like Capitalism and the Story of Poet Pablo Neruda’s Finest Hour: How Catalan Titles Stack Up at Annecy 

The next from Bruno Simões, whose “Pip,” when released, became YouTube’s all time most-watched animation short with 540 million views. “Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope,” a chronicle of Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda’s finest achievement. And Tallinn Grand Prix winner, “Because Today is Saturday,” from Portugal’s Alice Eça Guimarães.

All three Catalan animation titles play at Annecy this year, in an 11-title spread, counting both the festival and MIFA, which captures the rich range, talent and spirited co-production drive of Catalonia’s still fast-growing animation sector.  

This year’s Annecy Mifa market will also open a window on the dazzling achievement and potential of projects put through artistic tech program Ibermedia Next.

“Ezcazú Souls,” for example, used Blender’s Grease Pencil module, “combining trad 2D with a 3D world, working in symbiosis with Geometry Nodes, that produces spectacular results,” notes producer Laura Dauden. Photos or videos of real environments were digitally reimagined, the texturing of characters and props achieved by “painting directly onto the models – a technique we use to evoke the aesthetic of Latin American muralism,” she adds.

Watch out too for emerging talent such as the co-directors of “The Journey,” Susana Casares, ex-head of creative talent development and investment for Netflix Spain and Portugal, and Júlia Francino, who founded and directed Barcelona film school ESCAC’s Animation and VFX Department for a decade and was a writer on the 2026 Goya-nominated short “Paradise Buffet.”

A closer look at most of the Catalan titles selected for this year’s Annecy Animation Film Festival or its MIFA market:

“Because Today is Saturday”

Director: Alice Eça Guimarães

Producers: Animais AVPL (Portugal), La Clairière Ouest (France), Studio Kimchi (Spain)

From Eça Guimarães, a Variety Portuguese Animation Talent to Track, playing Annecy’s Perspectives and Tribeca. It’s Saturday, a day of rest. A woman wakes up early to give herself a gift: time. But every time a moment of inspiration arises, she is interrupted – the children, the laundry, the meals. “Women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work, leaving them chronically tired and with little opportunity for personal growth, creativity, or reflection,” says Guimarães.  

“A Dangerous Journey”

Directors: Lucija Stojević, Carla Melo, Iulia Voitova, Laura Ginès

Producers: Noon Films, Spain; Avec ou Sans Vous, France 

Set for Annecy’s Women in Animation from Spain Pitch, a first of two projects at Annecy this year from Barcelona’s rated Noon Films, which made the Doctors Without Borders short “Lost at Sea,” seen at Annecy in 2023. This transmedia project portrays three children classified as “undesirables,” interned at the Rivesaltes concentration camp in France during World War II. Co-directed by Colombia’s Melo “(“La Perra”), Ukraine’s Voitova (“Longue Distance”) and experimental animator Ginès (“Salvaxe, Salvaxe”).

“Escazú Souls,”(“Las Almas de Escazú”)

Creator/Showrunner: Nicholas Hooper H. Directors on individual episodes: Nicholas Hooper H; Laura Dauden and Maria Weis; Sergio Mejía; Anais Taracena; Rita Basurto. 

Producers: Forward Films, Spain; Cubho Audiovisual, Chile; Polygonal Factory, Spain; Leste, Brazil

A projected animated doc anthology series plumbing the lives and suspicious deaths of six environmental activists in Latin America, now finalizing a pilot episode, part of Ibermedia Next 2.0 and in advanced discussions with potential co-production partners. “This is an ambitious international series,” says producer Laura Dauden. “The heart of these stories is the love people have for their communities and territories, and how that relationship is transformed by violence,” she adds.   

“The Factory Beyond the Hill,” (“A Usina Atrás do Morro”) 

Director: Ricardo Kump, Lucas Abrahão,

Producers: LPB Content, Brazil; Noon Films, Spain

Seen by two teenagers, a faceless company sets up near a hamlet, building a factory so huge that it overshadows the village, leaving it in permanent night. It is an absurdist  psychological thriller and dark comedy whose visual language is rooted in Goya’s black paintings and the red earth of São Paulo’s rural interior, say Kump and Abrahão. Already a 2024 Ventana Sur Animation! buzz title and now bound for Annecy’s prestigious MIFA Feature Film pitches.   

“Hunger,” (“Hambre”)

Director: Imanol Ortiz López

Producers: Orlok Films, Mil Monos Cine, Kabiria Films

Wheelchair-bound Eloy tries to persuade wife Mary to kill their baby son Dani who has claw-like hands. Based on a short story by David Jasso, a psychological horror drama shot in widescreen black and white and set in a post-apocalypse world of empty streets and burning cars. “This story is deeply human and universal. Here, we address hunger on a dramatic level to highlight the dilemmas parents face when raising their children,” says director Ortiz López.    

“Impossible!” 

Director: Bruno Simões

Producers: Studio Kimchi (Spain), Cosmo Giantwheel (U.K).

A Mifa TV Special Pitch. Dog yearns to see the sea. ”Impossible!” he sighs, until a lost crab asks him for help getting home. Adapting Tracey Corderoy and Tony Neal’s book, “on the surface, it’s a charming and colourful adventure filled with memorable characters and playful comedy. Beneath that, however, lies a deeply relatable story about fear and self-discovery,” Simões tells Variety.

“The Journey,” (El viaje”)

Director: Susana Casares, Júlia Francino

Producers: Desarrollos Mediáticos Internacionales (WKND), Dos Soles Media (Spain); Nu Boyana (Portugal)

After a period devoted to motherhood, Agus sets off for a long yearned-for trip to Japan with dear friend Loly. “But buried fears and a hidden secret threaten the journey, turning an exotic adventure into a heartfelt reckoning eased by humor, friendship, and self-forgiveness,” the synopsis says. A 2D Women in Animation From Spain pitch based on the graphic novel by Agustina Guerrero, “a warm and engaging narrative, addressing complex subjects such as reproductive choice, unrealized dreams of motherhood, and the existential uncertainty that emerges when life diverges from our expectations,” say Casares and Francino.

“Monster Mia”

Director: Verena Fels

Producers: Arx Anima, Arxlight Pictures, Monstruosa Mia AIE, Peng!Boom!Tschak! Films, Arx Anima MD

Expelled student Mia and her pet rat Quentin arrive at Rotwood Academy, where she’s the only human among monster classmates. With Principal Van Vlad’s hatred of humans, she must team up with monsters to thwart his schemes. A weighty spooky high-school family-targeting comedy CGI animated feature, with a declared €9 million ($10.4 million) budget, which has scored promising pre-sales for Sola Media. Co-produced out of Spain by Spanish animated feature locomotives Nicolás Matji of Arxlight Pictures and Edmon Roch of Barcelona-based Ikiru Films, behind the “Tad the Lost Explorer” film series.  

“Who Killed Cock Robin”

Director: Romina Marti O’Toole

Producers: Frog Animation and Alhena Production

Cock Robin is found hanging dead from the balcony of his country house. “Who killed Cock Robin?” the villagers ask in shock. “I,” Sparrow replies calmly. As the funeral unfolds, however, the village’s dark secrets slowly emerge. From Frog, set up in 2023 by Montse Capón, Mireia Hernández and Xavi Carmona, and veteran Norbert Llamas at Alhena (“The Coffee Table”). A potentially shrewd portrait of power dynamics. “Even when the visible face of power disappears, the system that created it will always find a replacement, allowing the cycle to continue,” Marti O’Toole tells Variety.