Greece’s Animation Powerhouse Extends Its Reach

Animasyros has closed its 19th consecutive edition in Ermoupoli, reinforcing its position as Greece’s leading international animation festival and one of the most significant events of its kind in Europe. Over nearly two decades, the festival has evolved from a cultural gathering into a strategic industry platform, drawing creators, buyers, educators and executives from across the animation ecosystem.

This year’s programme brought together seven competition sections — International, Student, K.ID.S, AnimaPride, National Competition, TV & Commissioned Films and Feature Films — alongside a special focus on Irish animation, events tied to Ermoupoli’s 200th anniversary, workshops, industry meetings and international collaborations. The Market, now a recognised reference point for animation professionals in the Eastern Mediterranean, has become central to the festival’s growing influence.

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“In the 18-19 years that Animasyros has been in the spotlight, or that have elapsed since its founding back in 2008, I believe it has become the most important hub for animation in the Mediterranean and in Greece,” said Vassilis Karamitssanis, president of the Animasyros International Festival, in comments to Euronews. “It places strong emphasis on showcasing Greek and European talent around the world and also aims to highlight new techniques and technologies in the field of animation, which I consider to be the key to a sustainable future for the audiovisual sector in general and for European animation in particular.”

Sound As A Strategic Storytelling Asset

Among the most notable guests this year was Olivier Calvert, the Montreal-based, award-winning sound designer whose credits include Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival and the Oscar-nominated short The Girl Who Cried Pearls. Calvert led a masterclass dedicated to sound as an essential narrative instrument, underlining the growing importance of audio craft in a sector often dominated by visual innovation.

“Sound design shapes the overall sound of a film, which means you can work with its sonic environment,” Calvert explained. “It can be realistic – birds, traffic noise, the sea, the waves. But it can also operate on a subconscious level. You can really create tension in a scene by adding other sounds beneath the music or the voice, or by removing sounds.”

For Calvert, the role of sound in animation is especially expansive because the medium builds entire worlds from the ground up. “In an animated film we do not need the sound to be realistic,” he said. “So yes, we can create a completely different world, a unique world. A new universe to discover, both in terms of image and in terms of sound.”

He also described sound as a creative partnership rather than a technical afterthought. “The challenge is to build a story through the collaboration between images and sounds,” he said. “I am something like an artistic director for sound.”

That collaborative model, he argued, depends on a close working relationship between director, composer and sound designer. “For me the soundtrack of a film is a whole,” Calvert added. “There is the music on the one hand and the sound effects on the other. Everything goes together, so it is a major collaboration between director, composer and sound designer.”

Cross-Border Partnerships On Screen

The festival opened with the Greek premiere of Decorado, the latest film from Goya-winning Spanish filmmaker Alberto Vásquez, known for Unicorn Wars and Birdboy: The Forgotten Children. Backed by the Embassy of Spain in Greece and the Instituto Cervantes, the film arrived in Ermoupoli after winning the Paul Grimault Award at the Annecy animation festival.

Creative director José Luis Ágreda described the project as a dark parable about social conformity, corporate dehumanisation and the pressure to perform within modern systems. “Decorado … is a parable, a dark parable about our society and the way in which each of us, every individual, feels within it,” he told Euronews. “The film is also about how society or, more specifically, companies try to dehumanise people.”

Ágreda said the film’s visual language deliberately plays with the contrast between apparent innocence and underlying unease. “It is as if we have a very happy world, like the society they try to sell us, but inside it there is something rotten,” he explained. “In the end, people feel: ‘OK, this is a nightmare, not a dream’.”

That tension, he added, is meant to resonate with contemporary digital culture. “What happens to the hero, Arnold, is very similar to what we experience on social media,” Ágreda said. “You feel that you are at the centre of attention and of everything, but you are not. Everything around you is constructed, fake, not real.”

The Year’s Winners Reflect Animation’s Range

The 19th edition’s awards highlighted the breadth of contemporary animation, spanning social commentary, personal storytelling and family programming. The Grand Prize in the International Competition went to Please by Anna Mantzaris, while the Greek Competition award was given to Konstantinos Demis for The Dog.

In the Student Competition, the prize was awarded to Gauze, a film about Palestine created by five students from GOBELINS Paris: Noran Fikri Alezabi, Nicholas Arujah, Xinyue Ma, Yulin YUE and Xiaonan Zhou.

In Television and Commissioned Films, the winning title was Saltwater by Eilidh Nicoll from the United Kingdom. The AnimaPride section, dedicated to LGBTQI+ themes and queer expression, recognised Eyeliner by Aisha Boujilouli.

Meanwhile, the K.ID.S prize went to The Eagle and the Kinglet by Paul Jadoul from the Czech Republic, and the Audience Award was collected by Martin Lund’s Unstoppable, described by the festival as a subversive, emotional and humorous adventure film.

Looking Ahead To The 20th Anniversary

With its 20th edition on the horizon, Animasyros is entering a new phase of maturity and ambition. Its trajectory reflects a broader shift in the animation industry: festivals are no longer just screening venues, but year-round engines of talent discovery, dealmaking, education and cross-border collaboration.

For Greece, and for the wider Mediterranean region, Animasyros now stands as both a cultural asset and an industry benchmark. Its next chapter will determine whether it can translate two decades of momentum into even greater international influence.