If there is one part of Animac that defines us and fills us with pride year after year, it is Incubator—a unique space where emerging talents present their projects under the critical (but always constructive) eye of the industry. It’s not just about receiving feedback; it’s the moment when an idea is strengthened, redefined, or even begins its journey toward production.  We spoke with four creators who experienced this process firsthand. Their stories reflect the essence of what it means to take part in Incubator. If you’re considering submitting your project, don’t miss this.  Eva Pérez Misa: “The Incubator Restored My Confidence in Storytelling”  Eva Pérez Misa is a Galician screenwriter who recently premiered her series The Wavies on Clan TV (RTVE). However, she recalls her first pitch as a traumatic experience. In 2016, fresh out of ECAM film school, she presented Inseparables—her final project—to a national network. “It was horrible. I felt like I was talking to people who didn’t care about what I was saying,” she confesses. The result, although technically positive, led her to shelve the project for two years.  Everything changed when the director of her school unexpectedly asked her about Inseparables at an event. “For someone with his experience to remember my project was a wake-up call. I thought: What if I try again?” That’s how she arrived at the Animac Incubator in 2018.  “It was like a reconciliation with myself,” Eva admits. “The panel of experts wasn’t just approachable; they asked deep questions: Why this story? What do you want to convey? They helped me see that my emotional connection to the project was its greatest strength.”  After the feedback, Eva presented Inseparables at the Non Stop Festival, where it won first prize. That led her to Annecy and, although the project was never produced, it opened unexpected doors: today, she is the co-creator of The Wawies and is developing three new series.  “Don’t underestimate the power of storytelling in your pitch. The industry needs to know why only you can tell this story. When you manage to combine logic and emotion, that’s when magic happens.”  Choche Hurtado: “Facing My Fear Was the Best Decision”  Illustrator and animator Choche Hurtado arrived at the Incubator with Kokuruga, a project of ten animated pieces he had been developing for three years alongside Elías Fraguas and Sabina Urraca. “We started purely on instinct, without knowing how to structure something so ambitious,” he admits. When some friends told him about the Incubator, he saw it as an opportunity to “bring dignity to the chaos.”  Choche was afraid of public speaking. “The thought of people seeing me sweat under the spotlight terrified me, but I also knew it was a barrier I had to overcome,” he says. He prepared a pitch that, despite his nerves, managed to convey Kokuruga’s essence. “I spent several sessions preparing the pitch with Juan Concha. Without his help, comments, and enthusiasm, I would never have dared to do […]

Filmmaker, illustrator, and art director Rocío Álvarez talks about the creative process behind the poster and animated intro for Animac 2025, her collaboration with artist Zaponiak, and the use of AI exclusively based on her own drawings—without prompts—exploring new possibilities and stepping out of her comfort zone.   How does your work connect with this […]

British animator Barry J. C. Purves (UK, 1955) has received the Animac 2024 Animation Master Award for being a master in every sense of the word, a benchmark for others for his extraordinary skill in the subject he teaches, animation. Oscar and BAFTA nominated director, animator and screenwriter who combines, with mastery and deep knowledge, […]

José Luis Farias is the Video Games coordinator at MIFA-Annecy, within the new AR and Video Games section of the Annecy Festival, an essential “leg” in the most important animation event in the world. The section is born with the intention of creating and strengthening links between the animation and the video game industries. If […]

Isabel Herguera, visual artist, director and animation producer from San Sebastian, will receive the Animac 2024 Honorary Award, the first Spaniard to be awarded this award. From San Sebastián, Herguera, who directed Animac from 2003 to 2011, talks about her cinema and her experience at the festival. Animac will dedicate a retrospective to Isabel Herguera […]

The animation of films, series and video games is not only an extraordinary creative territory, but, like all art, it also has great educational and exemplary potential as a social engineer. When we see that animated films and series normalize a gay wedding (Steven Universe), a racialized princess (Tiana and the Frog), a trans protagonist […]

The character Scott Pilgrim, who turns 20 this year, has enjoyed a long and fruitful pilgrimage, as befits his surname, from his birth in the form of a graphic novel to his latest successful animated series released by Netflix. His creator, the Canadian Bryan Lee O’Malley, was born in 1979 in London, Ontario. After studying […]

1.- How did you get into the world of illustration? Since I was little I always liked to draw and do creative things. I studied Fine Arts in Valencia and there I tried a lot of different techniques, from clay modeling to engraving or the basics of animation. In the beginning the teaching of drawing […]

Ben Locket is an Australian composer based in London with over 10 years of experience creating music for film and TV. His work in animation includes Cartoon Network’s BAFTA and Emmy winning series, “The Amazing World of Gumball”, for he was nominated for ‘Best Music in a TV Production’ at the 2012 Annie Awards in Los Angeles and the […]

During this latest Annecy International Animation Festival, we had the incredible opportunity to interview animation legend Glen Keane, who presented his latest short, “Dear Basketball”! Animac Magazine: You started at Disney in the ’70s. How did it evolve and change during your time there, and what were some of your favorite moments? Glen Keane: When […]

This year, Animac 2018’s Lifetime Award goes to a musical goldsmith, as this is the main theme starring our present edition: the composer Zacarías Martínez de la Riva. His exemplary career busts the myth that an artistic path always comes by vocation or is something innate. If anything, it illustrates that one can always forge […]

Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels are a stop motion animator duo based in Ghent, Belgium. His brilliant short film Oh Willy… (selected at Animac 2013) traveled the festival circuit around the world, and its animation on wool inspired a new wave of stop motion filmmakers and animators. In celebration of the theme of […]