ANIMAC PROMOTES THE INCUBATOR AWARD TO GIVE DIRECT SUPPORT TO ANIMATION PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT

The exhibition creates an award worth 2,000 euros to give greater projection and resources to the selected projects

Incubator, the professional space of Animac, the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia organized by the Lleida City Council, takes a step forward with the creation of the Incubator Award. The award, endowed with 2,000 euros and financed by the Fundació de les Arts de Lleida, will recognize for the first time the best project presented in the section, with the aim of offering greater projection, visibility and support to projects in development.

The Incubator section was born in 2013 and, since then, it has established itself as a reference space within Animac for the presentation of emerging project pitches to professionals in the animation sector. In each edition, between 10 and 15 projects are selected that receive expert feedback and have the opportunity to present their potential before an evaluation committee.

As Carolina López, director of Animac, highlights, “the increase in quality and maturity of the proposals has confirmed to us that it was time to take a step further. The Incubator Award was created to recognize this effort and to give a real boost to creators and their projects.”

Candidate projects may be in the pre-production, production or post-production phase. The registration period for the Incubator 2026 Award is now open and will remain active until January 20, 2026 through the Animac website.

The evaluation committee, made up of prominent professionals from the animation sector and linked to the Animac organization, will evaluate the applications according to four main criteria: originality and creativity, technical and artistic quality, viability of the project and potential for development and impact on the sector. From this process, the projects that will participate in the Incubator 2026 session will be selected, where the winning project will be made public.

Decisive space for creators

Throughout its history, Incubator has been a decisive space for many creators. Screenwriter Eva Pérez Misa remembers her participation in 2018 as “the moment in which I regained the confidence to continue telling stories”. Illustrator Choche Hurtado highlights that “without Incubator we would not have had the clarity and security that we have now with the project”. For illustrator Glàfira Smith, the experience was revealing: “Animac taught us that we are not alone; it is a community that accompanies.” Director Pablo del Río summarizes his time in the section as “pure magic” and a turning point for his short film.

The Incubator Award is part of the objectives of the Fundació de les Arts de Lleida of promoting and disseminating audiovisual culture, promoting access to artistic projects and reinforcing the cultural projection of Lleida, as well as supporting initiatives that contribute to the growth and viability of the creative sector.

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.