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 2025 Screen Flanders invested 860,000 euros in one animated series and two animated films. The total VAF support for script, development and production of animated films and series in 2025 totalled 3.5 million euros.Notable animation producers & studios in the Flanders region include A Private View, Animal Tank, Beast Animation, Creative Conspiracy/Spicy Acorn, Cyborn, Fabrique Fantastique/Studio Fantastique, Haptic, Lunanime, Pimple Productions, See You Baby, Studio Zwendel, Vivi Film/Creature, Wailing Wolves/Playful Pandas and Walking The Dog/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 Luce and the Rock (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 audiovisual production.
In 2024/2025, the CCA allocated around 1.63 million euros to the animation sector, including 760,000 euros for short films. During that period, 27 animation projects were supported by the Commission du Cinéma, including 19 animated shorts and 6 animated feature films, while the Commission Séries also supported animation through a writing grant for one animation series project. The CCA also contributes to the production of around 25 school films each year.
In 2026, two animated feature films supported by the CCA were presented in the official selections of the Annecy festival but also in Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section and at La semaine de la Critique: Iron Boy by Louis Clichy; In Waves by Phuong Mai Nguyen.
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.
In 2024, Wallimage, the region’s economic fund, invested 2.2 million euros in 13 animation productions (9 feature films and 4 series).
Wallonia is home to a number of leading animation producers and studios of various sizes and specializations, providing a comprehensive, internationally recognized animation industry. Notable players include : 20STM Studio/20 Pictures to Midnight, Aromates Studio, Bardaf!Productions, Belvision, Dreamwall, Nwave Wallonie, MPC Film & Episodic, Peyo Company, STIM Liège/MITS Prod, Taka, The Picture Factory/Freaks Factory, Waooh!.
Recent high-profile coproductions include In Waves (coproduced by Taka, Panique!), Dandelion's Odyssey (coproduced by Umedia Production), Spiked! (coproduced by Freaks Factory), Allah is not obliged (coproduced by Need Productions, Lunanime), Valemon : The Polar Bear Prince (coproduced by Vivi Film, Beside Productions), The Inseparables, Yulgy, Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog (produced by nWave Pictures), The Most Precious of Cargoes (coproduced by Les Films du Fleuve), Jim Queen (coproduced by Umedia Production), Hamsters (produced by 20 Pictures to Midnight), Big Lizard (coproduced by Bardaf! Productions), The Smurfs (produced by Peyo Company), The Legendaries, El Tesoro de Barracuda, The Marsupilamis (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.
