‘Sultana’s Dream,’  ‘Decorado,’ ‘Winnipeg’ Lead Basque Animation Surge

Last year proved fairly spectacular for Spanish animation with “Robot Dreams” scoring a best animated feature Oscar nomination, “Sultana’s Dream” winning the Annecy Festival’s Contrechamp, its biggest sidebar, and “Buffalo Kids” proving the third most popular local movie in Spain, grossing €5.2 million ($5.4 million) while breaking out to substantial sales abroad. 

“Robot Dreams” and “Buffalo Kids” were produced out of Catalan capital Barcelona. Two of the five producers on “Sultana’s Dream,” however, are based out of the Basque Country: San Sebastian’s Sultana Films, the production label of director Isabel Herguera, and UniKo, behind Alberto Vázquez’s “Unicorn Wars,” a Gkids U.S. pickup, and “Homeless Home,” an Annecy Best Short winner.   

In 2025, Basque cinema looks on track to grab more international limelight as it builds as an animation hub. Reasons for that growth also suggests why animation is one of the most exciting futures for international cinema.

In recent developments, on Nov. 21,  “Sultana’s Dream” was confirmed by AMPAS as among 31 titles eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 97th Academy Awards. 

Also, buzz is building on Vazquez’s new animated feature “Decorado” as a potential A-Fest play. In its final stages of production at UniKo’s headquarters in Bilbao, it will world premiere in 2025, said producer Iván Miñambres at UniKo which will also bow this year “Cuerpo de Cristo,” a 2D short from Bea Lema, author of the same titled short.

Described by Variety as Chile’s most bankable stars, Paulina García (“Gloria”), Alfredo Castro (“El Conde”) and Luis Gnecco (“No”) have been attached as voice cast to upcoming animated feature “Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope,” produced from the Basque Country by Dibulitoon Studio. Pitched at Ventana Sur’s Animation! It has also attached new outfit Rizco Content Sales as a sales agent on international streaming rights. Directors Beñat Beitia, producer of “Yoko,” and Elio Quiroga (“Fotos,” “Home Delivery”) are now working on the animation. Diego Navarro (“Black Butterflies”) is composing the music, with the film scheduled for delivery in October 2025. 

‘Sultana’s Dream’      

Though Herguera has been directing shorts since 1988’s, “Sultana’s Dream” underscores one reason why animation is attracting ever more young creators in the Basque Country and beyond: its techniques allow for a high degree of original artistry without requiring big-budget entry level, which channeling the social-issue concerns which have characterised quality Spanish cinema since Spain’s 1975-82 transition to democracy down to this day. 

A multi-strand quest movie, Inés, a directionless animation director from San Sebastián flies to Ahmedabad to break up with her egocentric Indian lover. In a bookshop, she stumbles across a copy of “Sultana’s Dream,” a short story written by extraordinary feminist pioneer Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) at the age of 22. Meshing the satire of Jonathan Swift and science-fiction of H.G. Wells, it pictures a utopia, Ladyland, where, flipping purdah, women rule and pursue scientific research while men are set apart in seclusion. 

From then on, Herguera intertwines Inés’ story, told in ink and watercolor 2D with exquisite attention to lacy trees, leaves and rain clouds racing across the sky – with a shadow puppetry projection of Hossain’s own life story, performed at her birthplace in Bangladesh, now a park with a statue of her, and excerpts from “Ladyland,” created with South Asian Mehndi techniques used for henna paste body art.  

Influenced by Herguera’s own life, they are knit by Inés’ journeys to discover Hossain’s life and possible legacy, with a visit to her tomb at Panihati Girls’ High School in Sodepur, as her latent feminist consciousness emerges and she embarks on a close friendship with a female Indian teacher. Under Hossain’s influence, and reflecting Herguera’s own life, Inés discovers a space of her own where she feels safe and free and for the first time is able to dream.

‘Decorado’

Meanwhile, “2025 will be pivotal for UniKo as we bring two of our most ambitious productions to completion, reaffirming our commitment to high-quality animation and innovative storytelling,” Miñambres told Variety.

Again, a colorized expansion on the Annecy prize winning short, “Decorado” targets a decidedly adult audience, looking set to play out as a mordant dramedy plumbing the middle-aged crisis of Arnold, an anthropomorphic mouse, who comes to suspect that everything around him is staged performance and the world a set. He may be right.

“‘Decorado’ is a fable about the meaning of life and existential crises, combining sharp humor with deep reflection,” noting that its art director, José Luis Ágreda, is acclaimed for his impeccable work on “Robot Dreams.”

“This project, like other productions from UniKo, highlights the region’s creative capabilities and its potential to produce unique and meaningful animated content,” said Mimambres.

Equally, based on Spain’s National Comic Prize winner, “El Cuerpo de Cristo” turns on Adela, who is plunged into psychiatric crisis sparked by historical abuse that she doesn’t recognize as such. Instead, she believes she is being attacked by demons and turns to religion for remedy. 

‘Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope’

In “Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope,” Julia, now 86, thinks back to her childhood when 7, she flees with her father from Barcelona as it falls to Franco’s troops in 1939 and ends up in a concentration camp in France. There they get wind of Winnipeg, a cargo ship chartered by Pablo Neruda and wife Delia del Carril which can carry 2,400 Civil War refugees to Valparaíso in Chile, offering the hope of a better tomorrow.

Painterly in its colors and rich in the visual information it provides via depth of field and its extension often across the whole of a frame but a story seen from the POV of a child, “Winnipeg” is radically different in animation tone from the mordant satire of “Decorado” and the quest narrative of “Sultana’s Dream.” It can expect to attract not only adult demos but family audiences as well. 

Basque Animation Drivers and Challenges

In industry terms, however, the three titles share common denominators, underscoring growth drivers for the regional sector. 

Animation is a significant source of employment for younger age groups who can now make a living divvying up work for Hollywood’s studios and global streamers with national production and their own short-format projects without the need to move to the U.S. 

Production volume is growing. Dibulitoon, for example, now has one title in early production stage, titled “Run, Kuru, Run!” 100% backed by Dibulitoon Studio and Dibulitoon Factory AIE and a project in development, “Surmarina,” in co-production with Brazil and Argentina. 

All three titles are co-productions with companies outside the Basque Country, both in and outside Spain:  “Sultana’s Dream” twins UniKo and Sultana Films with Chelo Loureiro’s Abano Producións in Galicia – also behind Vázquez’s “Decorado” and “Unicorn Wars”  as well as El Gatoverde Producciones and Germany’s Fabian & Fred. 

Teaming UniKo and Abano, “Decorado” is also produced by Jose María Fernández de la Vega for The Glow Animation Studio and Sardinha em Lata’s Nuno Beato. In 2023, it was boarded by Le Pacte, the legendary French boutique studio, which acquired French distribution and international sales rights. Dibulitoon Studio and Catalonia’s La Ballesta (“Wrikles,” “Josep”) produce “Winnipeg” in Spain, with Chile’s El Otro Film (“The Prince”) and Argentina’s Malabar (“Guardian Monsters”).

“Decorado” underscores the importance of both national and international co-productions to realize ambitious projects,” said Mimabres. 

“We don’t co-produce internationally every project we produce, but it’s a way for joining forces for financing and also for distribution and getting a project out to the market,” agreed Dibulitoon’s Jone Landaluze. 

“Decorado,” “Sultana’s Dream” and “Winnipeg” are all art films, which thrive in a heavily subsidised environment. Creating bigger, more commercial propositions is a larger challenge.

Adding a new tailwind on the Basque animation scene, however, from 2023 and 2024 respectively, the provinces of Bizkaia and Álaba have raised tax credits for production produced in their provinces to up to 70% of investment. 

Like most Spanish toon features, Basque animated pics consistently underperform in domestic distribution. “Unicorn Wars,” for example, despite making a large impact at Annecy, grossed just €24,461 ($25,439) in Spain. Miñambres has observed that there is a lack of understanding here about how to support such films.

Basque animation producers look to the future with optimism. 

“The Basque Country is making much better works for various reasons, including Basque tax credits and support from institutions,” says Diego Herguera Acosta, at Sultana Films.”

“Post-pandemia, talent is migrating to the Basque country. Also, our works are garnering ever greater recognition for their talent,” he adds.

“Financing possibilities, great job opportunities and of course great artists mean that the Basque Country has a great potential in animation at the moment,” notes Landaluze. 

“The growth of animation in the Basque Country can be observed through several key indicators: An increase in local productions: There’s a growing number of animated projects developed within the region,” observes Miñambres. “Also, we have an improved production ecosystem: Enhanced fiscal incentives are encouraging more ambitious projects. Plus, the region is seeing a rise in partnerships for international co-productions, boosting its global footprint.”

“With an increasingly developed ecosystem, the Basque Country is positioning itself as a key animation hub in Europe,” he concludes.