- The 2025 edition of the Animalcoi Animation Film Festival concludes by consolidating itself as an international benchmark in animation, the creative industry, and training, with remarkable growth in audience, professionals, and programmed works.
- Animalcoi brought together 4,679 attendees, reinforced its international vocation, and awarded the best of contemporary animation, both in the official competition and in the audience awards.
Animalcoi 2025 lowers the curtain on its fifth edition celebrating the most significant growth in its history. This year, the festival strengthened its identity as a meeting point between artistic creation, the animation industry, and emerging talent, establishing itself as an unmissable event within the panorama of international animation film festivals.
An edition that, in the words of its director, Jorge Vañó, confirms that the project is entering a new stage: “We are very happy because the audience has responded in an extraordinary way. We had 1,813 participants in professional activities, more than 1,485 children in school sessions, and 1,381 spectators in public screenings. This allows us to close the festival with 4,679 attendees, a figure we did not expect, but which makes us very optimistic.” Vañó also highlighted the presence of more than 50 guests, including 10 international ones, and the clear global momentum of this edition.
Vañó pointed out four key aspects that define the festival’s growth: the increase in audience compared to the previous year (more than 1,000 additional spectators), the qualitative leap in professional sessions, the internationalization of the event, and the consolidation of the film program, which this year brought together more than 50 short films in competition and five feature films, four of them regional premieres. “This year we have grown in audience, in projection, and in internationalization, and that encourages us to continue working so that Animalcoi becomes an essential meeting point for the animation sector,” concluded Vañó.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: AN EXPANDING PROGRAM
The festival’s growth is explained, in large part, by the boost of the professional sessions, including the Showroom, conferences, workshops led by top-level experts and professionals, Animalcoi-PRO, and pitch sessions. All of this took place at the Rodes Urban Technology Park, a space that allowed for expanded capacity, diversified content, and the attraction of companies, producers, and experts both national and international. Among them were delegations from Eastern Europe, with whom Valencian companies had the opportunity to engage in conversations aimed at promoting animation or video game projects.
In addition, the presence of more than 50 distinguished guests, such as Irene Iborra, Stuart Messinger (Aardman Studio), Jordi Grangel (Grangel Studio), Mariona Valls, and Toni Alarco, strengthened the global dimension of the festival, which this year took another step toward the internationalization of its professional market.
SCREENINGS: A SELECTION MARKED BY DIVERSITY AND TALENT
The film program of Animalcoi 2025 offered a comprehensive journey through contemporary animation. The Official Section brought together more than 50 short films distributed across the three main categories, consolidating itself as an essential showcase of animated short films at the national level. In addition to the official competition, the program included school sessions, family screenings, and a special session of short films in defense of Gaza.
The festival completed its proposal with the screening of five feature films, four of them regional premieres, offering a plural perspective in style, technique, and origin. These included Olivia y el terremoto invisible by Irene Iborra, Decorado by Alberto Vázquez, Maya, dame un título by Michel Gondry, Arco by Ugo Bienvenu, and Little Amélie by Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang and Mailys Vallace.
ANIMALCOI 2025 WINNERS
Official Awards
- Fundación Mutua Levante Award: One Way Cycle, by Alicia Núñez.
- Fundación Mutua Levante Runner-up: Carmela, by Pangur Animation.
- AITEX Award: Cuando llegue la inundación, by Antonio Lomas.
- AITEX Runner-up: Soup, by Ava Azarmi.
- Solitium Award: Percebes, by Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves.
- Solitium Runner-up: Wander to Wonder (Oscar nominee in the previous edition).
Audience Awards
- Best International Short Film: Wander to Wonder.
- Best National Short Film: Carmela.
- Best School Short Film: How to Make a Friend.
AN EDITION LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
The festival’s balance is not only quantitative. Animalcoi closes its fifth edition consolidating itself as a cultural and creative engine for Alcoy and its surroundings, strengthening the relationship between training, industry, and artistic creation.
Families, schools, young people, producers, and the professional ecosystem responded strongly, reaffirming the festival’s vocation to become a national benchmark with an international vision.
SPONSORS AND PARTNERS
Animalcoi 2025 is supported by the Generalitat Valenciana, the Institut Valencià de Cultura, the City Council of Alcoy, the Diputación de Alicante, and the Ministry of Culture of the Government of Spain; sponsored by Grupo Solitium, AITEX, Fundación Mutua Levante, and the Alzamora Shopping Center, as well as the collaboration of Fundación SGAE and the Audiovisual Analysis and Foresight Chair of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV). À Punt is the festival’s official media partner.
