Middle East and Africa emerge as vital creative hubs for global animation
Leading industry figures gathered at the Sharjah Animation and Comics Conference to discuss how the region's producers and artists are reshaping international co-production and building sustainable models for original intellectual property.
The animation industry is turning its gaze toward new horizons. At the Sharjah Animation and Comics Conference, held this week at Aljada, a compelling vision emerged of the Middle East and Africa as emerging powerhouses within the global creative landscape, offering fresh perspectives and untapped potential for international collaboration.
Pietro Pinetti, CEO of Studio Bozzetto, articulated this sentiment during a session exploring international co-productions. The region, he suggested, stands at an inflection point where producers and artists can contribute distinctive creative voices to projects destined for audiences across Europe, North America and Japan. Rather than remaining peripheral to the industry’s centre of gravity, Middle Eastern and African studios possess the capacity to drive innovation and bring culturally nuanced storytelling to global platforms.
Pinetti pointed to Japan’s collaborative model as instructive. There, producers, publishers, toy companies and distributors engage from the earliest stages of development, pooling resources and aligning commercial interests to build projects collectively. This approach addresses a fundamental challenge facing animation producers: the mounting difficulty of securing financing. A compelling creative concept, it seems, no longer suffices. Success demands strategic thinking about funding, distribution, publishing and merchandising from inception, coupled with the cultivation of professional networks sustained through personal relationships.
The efficacy of this model became evident in the case of Pino Shinobi, an Italian-Japanese collaboration that entered production within six months of initial discussions between Studio Bozzetto and Japanese broadcasting professionals met at Expo 2025 Osaka. This compressed timeline stands in stark contrast to the two to three years typically required to develop animation projects, illustrating how early coordination can accelerate progress significantly.
Yet distribution remains the linchpin. Abdulrahman Khedr, co-founder of Egypt’s Giraffics Studio, identified distribution as the central impediment to securing investment in original productions. Financing, he observed, naturally follows once distribution pathways are secured. This insight proved particularly poignant when discussing his studio’s Egyptian animated feature, which garnered international attention at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2019. Despite encouraging critical reception, the studio proceeded cautiously with production spending, unwilling to advance without firm financial commitments.
The challenge of building sustainable intellectual property extends beyond production budgets. Nathalie Habib, co-owner and executive producer of Blink Studios, emphasised that commercial viability hinges on identifying target audiences early and developing revenue streams through licensing, merchandising and ancillary markets. A character, story and world, once created, become assets capable of generating income far beyond their original broadcast context.
This principle illuminates the experience of Freej, an Emirati animated series that captivated family audiences during Ramadan yet appealed more profoundly to adults than children. When its creators contemplated extending into merchandise such as toys, this audience mismatch presented a considerable obstacle. Understanding one’s audience from the outset, therefore, becomes essential to developing intellectual property that sustains revenue beyond the screen.
The fourth edition of SACC, organised by the Sharjah Book Authority, ran from 22 to 25 October, drawing more than 75 speakers from over 30 countries to participate in 150 activities at Aljada.
Source: WAM