The animation sector represents a smaller, yet remarkably dynamic segment of the Slovenian audiovisual industry. Despite its limitations, it has achieved notable international visibility over the past decade, particularly in the festival sphere, with awards at the most prestigious events in Annecy, Berlinale, and Ottawa, as well as recognition from the César du Cinéma, the European Film Awards, and even Academy Award nominations.
This is the result of the sector’s gradual development and steady strengthening. High-quality higher education programmes continue to bring new talent into the field, public funding for project development and production is increasing, and support for minority co-productions has become more regular. At the same time, training programmes and workshops dedicated to project development are ongoing.
The community of artists, producers and professionals working in supporting activities is gathered around the Slovene Animated Film Association, whose mission is to foster the development of the sector. Its programmes are shaped by the animation community itself, drawing on its own needs and expectations. Today, the local animation community is strongly integrated into the international environment, follows market trends, understands production processes, and is better equipped to enter co-production partnerships.
The professionalisation of the sector is now more advanced and comprehensive than ever before, placing Slovenia alongside much larger industries. Despite significant limitations that still largely confine it to short-form work and make access to creative and production resources more difficult, Slovenian animation clearly points to a direction in which progress and success are possible.
CEE Animation: An Umbrella for the Animation Industry in Central and Eastern Europe
To develop the animation industry, a large animation community has gradually grown across the region. Today, it brings together 18 countries and carries out important regional and European projects in the fields of training, promotion, market access, capacity development and talent development.
The Slovene Animated Film Association has been involved in CEE Animation activities from the very beginning. As either a lead or partner organisation, it also participates in all European-supported projects under the Creative Europe and Horizon programmes. CEE Animation is a consortium of national associations established as an EEIG (European Economic Interest Grouping), with an international team of collaborators responsible for implementing several key regional activities.
Its oldest event is the CEE Animation Forum, a pitching and B2B gathering held in the Czech Republic, where dozens of animated projects in development from across Europe are presented each year. The CEE Animation Workshop, led by the Slovene Animated Film Association, is a year-round programme focused on project development and production skills. It brings together promising European projects of all formats with leading experts from a wide range of fields, with particular emphasis on narrative, script, and visual development, and with the goal of preparing projects comprehensively for presentation to international markets at the end of the development process. It is the only comprehensive European programme dedicated to developing projects, competencies, and talent in animation.
CEE Animation HUB, meanwhile, is an online catalogue of animated films, with a particular focus on works from the CEE region, providing greater access to content and curated film programmes. This network is further complemented by a number of workshops, including Rise & Shine, a three-part workshop dedicated to shaping storytelling approaches and presenting projects, and CEE Animation Labs, a series of shorter workshops on animated film production for professionals entering the sector from other film formats.
CODA Co-development Awards: A Creative and Production Accelerator
One of CEE Animation’s activities also includes meetings of industry representatives in the form of think tank events, where participants discuss the various challenges and opportunities facing the animation industry in the region. It was precisely the development phase, especially demanding and crucial in animation, that emerged during these meetings as one of the key bottlenecks in existing project funding models.
CODA will therefore provide support for animated projects in development that demonstrate creative and production collaboration between at least two member countries of the mechanism, through financial awards for the most promising projects. In the pilot year, applicants from the countries joining the mechanism, Slovenia, Croatia, Estonia, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, will be eligible to compete for awards ranging from EUR 5,000 for short-form projects to EUR 15,000 for more demanding formats.
The mechanism is a valuable tool for gradually developing capacities and for expanding early access to international markets. At the same time, it encourages the early formation of international partnerships in countries emerging from the smaller and more fragmented markets of the CEE region. Its key purpose is to address the challenges of accessing development funding for animated projects and to facilitate access to international markets.
