ALGORA: “IN CREATIVITY, ART AND ANIMATION THE HUMAN BEING IS AT THE BEGINNING AND AT THE END, WE ARE AN ANIMAL THAT CREATES AND FEELS”
febrer 22rd 2026
Delivery of the Prize Career to Montxo Algora in the closing of Animac 2026, honored for his multidisciplinary career and for his ability to merge art, design and animation in a unique style
Montxo Algora has received this afternoon, at the closing ceremony of Animac, the Mostra Internacional de Cinema d’Animació de Catalunya, organized by the Lleida City Council, the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to the introduction and consolidation of contemporary digital culture in the State. Linked to the creative scene of Madrid’s Movida at the end of the seventies and during the eighties, he developed visual interventions in spaces such as La Vía Láctea and graphic works for groups such as Aviador Dro and La Mode.
Trained at the School of Visual Arts in New York, he worked as artistic director at Digital Productions, in Los Angeles, one of the pioneering studios in computer graphics and 3D animation. In 1990 he founded ArtFutura, an event dedicated to exploring the future of art and new technologies, which he has directed for more than thirty editions and which has included figures such as William Gibson, Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno.
Throughout his career he has defended a humanistic view of technology and digital creation, a vision fully aligned with the motto of this edition of Animac, “Things Change”.
Montxo Algora has made the public attending the closing ceremony reflect on the impact of art and creativity on people’s lives. He related this year’s motto, “Things Change”, remembering that, although “artificial intelligence is a powerful tool”, the essence lies in humanity, since “we are an animal that creates and feels”. The founder of ArtFutura has pointed out that “the human being is at the beginning and the end” of all creation. Algora has also expressed its gratitude to the city and Animac.
For her part, the director of Animac, Carolina López, has assured that it has been a very profitable edition “because high-level international professionals have come, who have been very generous”. López has highlighted the meetings that have been held between these professionals and producers with new creators, a fact that positions Animac as “a meeting point, which in this 30th edition has been very special”. The director of the exhibition has also explained that the size of the city of Lleida is ideal to celebrate Animac, since it makes it possible “for people to meet and talk”.
ANIMAC PUBLIC AWARDS 2026
During the closing ceremony, the Animac audience awards for this edition were also made public. They are the following:
- Petit Animac Award: “Das Huhn will Fliegen” (Germany), by Elena Walf
- Futur Talent Award: “Gauze”, by Noran Fikri Alezabi, Nicholas Arujah, Xinyue Ma, Yulin Yue, Xiaonan Zhou, produced by the French school
- Best Short Film Award: “Sulaimani” (France), by Vinnie Ann Bose
It should be noted that the Petit Animac Award has been collected by Andreas Hykade, who is precisely the Animac Animation Master Award and mentor of Elena
Walf. The closing event concluded with the screening of the short film “Anaglifo”, presented by its screenwriter Xavier Manuel. Manuel, a native of La Seu d’Urgell, was a collaborator of Animac. Previously, it was also possible to see the result of the workshop that the animator Joanna Quinn has carried out with the students of the Leandre Cristòfol Municipal Art School.
Animac 2026 closes its doors in an edition that has commemorated three decades of history with a program that has combined memory and future, with retrospectives dedicated to key figures such as Nora Twomey, Honorary Award 2026, and Andreas Hykade, Animation Master Award 2026. Under the motto “Things Change”, the exhibition has vindicated animation as a language capable of accompanying the social, technological and emotional changes of our time.
The exhibition has the support of CaixaForum Lleida, the Fundació de les Arts de Lleida, the Ministry of Culture (ICAA), the Provincial Council of Lleida (IEI) and the ICEC of the Department of Culture of the Generalitat of Catalonia.