NORA TWOMEY CLAIMS COLLECTIVE WORK AND BRAVE STORIES IN ANIMAC
febrer 21st 2026
Laudenbach and Sacrebleu complete a day dedicated to the strength of European authorship
The screenings of “Olivia and the Clouds”, the Dissident Maternities session and the Animac de Noche set the pace for Saturday
The 30th edition of Animac, the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, organized by the Lleida City Council, reaches its halfway point with a day marked by the masterclass of the Irish director Nora Twomey, Honorary Prize of this edition. The Leandre Cristòfol Room at La Llotja has been filled to hear the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, the five-time Oscar-nominated production company.
Twomey has shared with the public his creative process and his way of understanding animation as a tool to tell stories with emotional depth and social commitment. The filmmaker has reflected on the importance of point of view and the need to preserve artistic identity in productions of international scope.
He has highlighted that throughout his career he has learned “more from mistakes than from successes” and has claimed the importance of collective work as the basis of any project: “when you have difficult moments, if you work with other people, the project continues”. He has insisted on the need to have more than one skill within the studio and to understand animation as a deeply collaborative process, where each decision—from storyboarding to editing—conditions the entire film. For the director, the construction of the story is especially played out in editing and time management, leaving space for silence and the viewer, because “the audience’s time should never be taken for granted; it is the most valuable gift we have.”
The director has also stressed the importance of building its own identity as a studio, beyond the dominant models, and has explained how it took years for Cartoon Saloon to find a differentiated voice. He has defended the need to tell “brave stories, told with beauty”, even if this implies taking aesthetic and narrative risks. Twomey has also spoken about the responsibility of creating community – both within the studio and in the territory where it is rooted – and how trust, support and a single word of encouragement can change the trajectory of a young creator.
The day also included the talk Under construction: “Long live Carmen, with Sébastien and Isabelle Laudenbach”, in which Sébastien Laudenbach, one of the most unique voices in contemporary European animation, presented this project for the first time in Spain, a free adaptation of the opera Carmen from the point of view of childhood. The director has explained that the origin of the film dates back to 2018, from the proposal to imagine the story from the children’s choir that opens Georges Bizet’s opera, a brief but symbolic presence that here becomes the center of the story.
Laudenbach has detailed the long development process of the project, from the first sketches to the consolidation of the creative team with the production company Folivari, and has underlined the importance of collaborative work in a feature film: “making a feature film is like driving a large ship that fills with people until it reaches port”. Accompanied by Isabelle Laudenbach, responsible for the soundtrack, both have shared how image and music dialogue in a proposal that combines formal freedom, chromatic commitment and a contemporary rereading of one of the most universal operatic myths.
SACREBLEU: PRODUCING AUTHOR ANIMATION FROM RISK
Ron Dyens, Oscar-winning producer of “Flow”, today presented a retrospective that covers the most emblematic short films of the French production company Sacrebleu Productions.
The production company has been a benchmark for independent animation thanks to a filmography that combines formal risk, visual poetry and bold narrative. More recently, it has also become a symbol of resilience for artists around the world, cementing its international recognition.
In the retrospective we could see “Madagascar, carnet de voyage”, “Tram”, “L’heure de l’ours”, “Papillon” and “Don Quixote contre les forces du mal”.
OUTSTANDING SCREENINGS: “OLIVIA AND THE CLOUDS” AND DISSIDENT MATERNITIES
Among the most relevant screenings of the day, today the feature film “Olivia and the Clouds” was shown, a proposal that combines fantasy and introspection with a unique visual commitment, and that has captivated the public for its sensitivity and formal originality. His tour of festivals such as Annecy, Locarno, Malaga and Ottawa, as well as his nomination for the Annie Awards, endorse his international career.
Attendees have also been able to enjoy the Dissident Motherhoods session, which has focused on narratives that question traditional imaginaries about motherhood, with a selection of seven short films that explore diverse experiences and alternative perspectives.
Today, Animac offered an intense program that combined feature films, short sessions and discovery spaces. The official sections Curts 3 and Curts 4 have once again filled rooms with an international selection that covers diverse aesthetics and themes, while the Global monograph has opened the gaze towards postcolonial narratives, identities and challenges of the Global South. At the same time, Futur Talent 3 has focused on new voices from animation schools around the world.
The family audience has also played a central role with the different Petit Animac sessions, which have filled La Llotja and CaixaForum with proposals designed for all ages. Added to all this is the continued activity of Animacrea, with workshops, stands and screenings at the Open Screen, consolidating Animac as an intergenerational and professional meeting space with a wide and transversal offer around contemporary animated cinema.
EXHIBITION “HELLO ANIMALS”
Saturday’s day also included the opening of the exhibition “Hello, Animanimals!”, by the German director Julia Ocker, in the Espai MiniPanera of the Center d’Art La Panera. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with Animac, invites children and adults to enter the playful and reflective universe of the series “Animanimals”, internationally recognized with more than one hundred awards and a nomination for the International Emmy Kids.
The inauguration was completed with the family workshop “Write your own animal story”, taught by Julia Ocker herself, a creative activity aimed at boys and girls from five years old that has allowed them to experiment with the creation of their own characters and stories in dialogue with the exhibition.
NIGHT ANIMAC
The day will close today with the Night Animac at the Cafè del Teatre, where the set designer and director Marc Salicrú will present the show “Breu inici d’aproximació al trajecte pel trajecte”, a video-musical action composed in real time that combines animation and live music.
The projection is transformed into a living and changing experience, in which the soundtrack, by Col·lectiu Free’t – leaders in improvisation and soundpainting – dialogues with the images.
