More than 280 films from 50 countries screened in Ermoupoli this year at Animasyros, a Greek festival now in its 19th edition. Its organisers say it’s become a reference point for the animation industry in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The programme featured seven competition sections: International, Student, K.ID.S, AnimaPride, National Competition, TV & Commissioned Films and Feature Films. Beyond screenings, the festival offered educational workshops, parallel events, international collaborations and an industry market. It also focused on Irish animation and marked 200 years of Ermoupoli.
An Industry Hub, Not Just a Festival
Vassilis Karamitssanis, President of the Animasyros International Festival, made the case in commercial as well as cultural terms. The festival began in 2008; 18 years have elapsed since then. “I believe it has become the most important hub for animation in the Mediterranean and in Greece,” he said. He added that it puts “strong emphasis on showcasing Greek and European talent around the world.”
Karamitssanis also linked the festival’s mission to the sector’s economics. Animasyros aims to highlight new techniques and technologies, which he called “the key to a sustainable future for the audiovisual sector in general and for European animation in particular.” Next year, the festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Cooperation Between Nations
The opening night relied on bilateral backing, not a supranational programme. The Embassy of Spain in Greece and the Cervantes Institute supported the Greek premiere of Decorado, by Goya-winning Spanish creator Alberto Vásquez. The film won the Paul Grimault award at this year’s Annecy animation festival and has been described as an animated version of The Truman Show. Vásquez’s earlier works include Unicorn Wars and Birdboy: The Forgotten Children.
José Luis Ágreda, the film’s creative director, called it “a dark parable about our society.” He said it also explores “the way in which... companies try to dehumanise people.” He described a story about a man without a job, for whom everything seems unrelated to his reality. The film draws on classic American animation, but Ágreda said it gives the style a twist, so viewers sense something is wrong. “We do not deal with the great problems of our society,” he said of the world the film depicts.
Canadian sound designer Olivier Calvert, who is based in Montreal, led a masterclass on sound as a storytelling tool. His credits include the Oscar-nominated short The Girl Who Cried Pearls, and he was part of the Oscar-winning sound team for Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival. The festival paid tribute to his work and screened a selection of his films. Calvert described working with a director and a composer as a trio. “The image is the body, but sound is the soul,” he said.
The Winners
Anna Mantzaris won the Grand Prize of the International Competition for Please. Konstantinos Demis won the Greek Competition for The Dog. Five GOBELINS Paris students took the Student Competition with Gauze, a film about Palestine. The students are Noran Fikri Alezabi, Nicholas Arujah, Xinyue Ma, Yulin YUE and Xiaonan Zhou.
Eilidh Nicoll of the United Kingdom won TV and Commissioned Films for Saltwater. Aisha Boujilouli won the AnimaPride prize for Eyeliner. Paul Jadoul of the Czech Republic took the K.ID.S first prize for The Eagle and the Kinglet. Martin Lund’s Unstoppable won the Audience Award.
The wider coverage also pointed to the Egyptian first animated feature, which took 20 years to make. It noted Merike Estna’s The House of Leaking Sky at the Estonian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2026.
Why This Matters: Animasyros shows how a mid-sized European sector can build commercial infrastructure from the ground up. Founded in 2008, the festival now runs an industry market and international collaborations, and next year it reaches its 20th anniversary. Its president links the sector’s future to new techniques and technologies rather than to subsidy. The Spanish embassy and the Cervantes Institute backed the opening film, showing that cultural exchange can work through national institutions. For policymakers concerned with competitiveness, the question is whether regional hubs like this one can turn talent into a self-sustaining audiovisual industry. Karamitssanis’s stated goal is a “sustainable future” for European animation.