Despite the fact that only one production is up for the Goya for animation, Diboos defends that the sector “enjoys excellent health”

The lack of participants in the best animated film category of this edition of the Goya does not reflect the reality of the animation sector, according to the Federation of Animation and Visual Effects (DIBOOS).

When the list of nominees for the 35th edition of the Goya Awards was announced last Monday, January 18, it was striking that in the best animated film section there was only one candidate: La Gallina Turuleca. From the Federation of Animation and Visual Effects (DIBOOS) They emphasize that this circumstance, although not common, is not the first time it has happened in the history of the Goya Awards.

This situation is “specific and practically anecdotal,” say the producers, since At least 4 animated feature films have been released during 2020: La gallina Turuleca (Filmax), nominated for the Goya Awards, Animal Crackers (Blue Dream Studios Spain) released on Netflix, Land and Dream (Link Films) and Josep (Imagic TV), a French co-production that was nominated for best animated film at the Cannes Film Festival and won the award for Best European Animated Film at the EFA. All of them are Spanish productions although except La gallina Turuleca They were not in the initial candidates due to external or circumstantial circumstances, and in some cases, bureaucratic ones.

The animation employers' association highlights that Spanish animation is experiencing a particularly productive moment, as can be seen with the at least seven feature films in production that are expected to be released during 2021. And there is no doubt that the Spanish animation sector is going through a great moment both creatively and commercially. Proof of this is the national and international success of feature films such as Klaus and Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, both released in 2019, as well as the batch of short films and animated series that are produced and released every year both inside and outside our borders.

Another example of the excellent health enjoyed by the animation sector in Spain can be seen in the resolution of the last call of the ICAA of general aid for the production of project-based feature films, where five of the selected projects belong to the animation sector and three of them top the scoring classification, in a clear example of the quality and viability of the animation projects presented.

It must be remembered that animation, despite being only 4% of the total of Spanish audiovisual companies, generates 20% of employment in the sector, employing nearly 8,000 professionals (of which 32% is female employment) and that around 70% of the turnover of Spanish companies dedicated to animation comes from abroad.

Changes for a promising future

At DIBOOS they consider that it would be appropriate to analyze the sector's historical demand not to set the same rules for live image and animated products. The lack of specific regulations The fact that it collects differential points affects all phases of an animation product, including its journey through festivals and awards.

Los largometrajes de animación juegan con unos tiempos de realización más largos y unos presupuestos mucho más elevados. Todo ello hace que conseguir la financiación en España para una producción de un largometraje de animación sea un proceso mucho más complicado por lo que muchos proyectos necesitan buscar coproductores fuera de España y van perdiendo porcentaje de titularidad de la obra con la entrada de financiación extranjera, convirtiéndose muchas veces el productor español en minoritario o incluso, en el peor de los casos, la pérdida total de la nacionalidad española al no superar el 20% de participación española, aún siendo producidos por profesionales españoles en su mayoría.

Este ha sido el caso de alguna de las películas de animación que no han podido ser candidatas a los Goya este año. Si bien la Academia ha flexibilizado las bases para cubrir las especificidades que la irrupción del Covid19 ha causado en el sector cinematográfico, aún así ha habido trámites dependientes de otras instituciones públicas que han impedido a algunos largometrajes participar, al considerarlos no elegibles o no concediendo la nacionalidad española según la actual normativa.

Mientras tanto, en esta edición de los Premios Goya cabe destacar y no perder de vista la abundante cosecha de cortometrajes of the highest quality animation that have been presented this year. The transition from the shortlist of 10 short candidates to the selection of the 4 nominees for the 35th edition of the Goya Awards, has been close and excitement is guaranteed until the end of the competition between the four finalists: Blue and Malone, impossible cases, by Abraham López, Homeless Home by Alberto Vázquez, Metamorphosis, by Carla Pereira and Juan Fran Jacinto and fly, by Carlos Gómez-Mira Sagrado.