At the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in early June 2019, the head of MIFA Veronique Encrenaz, announced "a special pavilion" for African Animation scenes, "as well as a series of meetings and project presentations." This announcement highlighted the know-how of African studios and gave room for possible international collaboration.
International studios like Netflix, which has acquired its first African animated film Mama K's Team 4, are exploring African animation projects for new ideas. Pixar and Toonz Media Group have partnered with Africa-based animators to provide production services for their films. Eight Lagos studios with over 50 animators will work on the Toonz Media Group project Wool Wool Town, a Chinese kids TV series.
Collaborations between studios on the continent have also boomed. DISCOP Africa and African Animation Network (NAA) with the International Animation Film Market (MIFA), have partnered to launch the first African pitching competition for animators. They hold the pitching competition each year, and winners whose projects are selected compete with eight other projects at Animation du Monde.
Despite the remarkable success of African animation scenes, animators are still struggling to get content onto local screens. For a good reason. It is cheaper for television stations to import programs produced abroad than it is to finance original productions. However, the market demand for African cartoons is now growing and this trend is changing.
As a result, the international animation community is responding. Given the need to reinforce the skills of animators and ensure fair competition, Netflix is partnering with Les Gobelins image school, based in Paris, to train ten African students per year free of charge.
Bibliography
“Annecy 2020 Puts African Animation In the Limelight.” Squid Mag, 19 June 2019, squidmag.ink/annecy-2020-african-animation/.
Bradford, Garlan Waide. “Toonz Media Group Archives.” African Animation Network, 2019, africananimation.net/tag/toonz-media-group/.
Treanor, Vivienne Nunis & Sarah. “Why Africa's Animation Scene Is Booming.” BBC News, BBC, 14 Oct. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/business-54438334.
