The Spanish Federation of Animation and Visual Effects Producers (DIBOOS) released a whitepaper earlier this week that provides an assessment of Spain’s growing animation industry, based on revenue data from 2018 to 2023. 

Sponsored by trade orgs ICEX and EGEDA, the report shows that the number of animated films and series produced in Spain has been gradually climbing. The country produced 15 series in this genre in 2023, which is up from 14 in 2022, nine in 2021 and 13 in 2020. And it’s a similar story with theatrical projects, with eight getting made domestically in both 2023 and 2022, up from five in 2021 and three in 2020. 

Highlighted in the whitepaper are a few kids projects that have garnered awards and attracted global audiences. These include SPA Studios’ Klaus for Netflix, Mummies (produced by 4 Cats Pictures, Anangu Group, Moomios Movie and Atresmedia Cine, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures) and Jasmine & Jambo (pictured, produced by Teidees and Televisió de Catalunya, and distributed by Dandelooo). 

There are currently more than 300 animation and VFX companies in the Spanish industry. The biggest portion of them (28%) earned between US$112,000 and US$558,000 (€100,000 and €500,000) in annual revenue between 2020 and 2023, and 20% fell into the US$1.13 million to US$2.68 million (€1 million to €2 million) bracket. Roughly 70% of these earnings stem from exporting content, rather than purely local work. 

The country’s animation/VFX industry earned total revenue of roughly US$674 million (€595 million) in 2023, which was down by 1.19% from 2022, but up from 2021 (US$622 million/€549 million) and 2020 (US$643 million/€567 million). 

DIBOOS’ nearly 200-page whitepaper shares several proposals for strengthening this sector of Spain’s entertainment industry, including increasing the tax credit for works made by indie animation producers from 30% to 50%. It also suggests the country should set up a national organization to explore how to improve production pipelines with AI and machine learning, and that the Spanish government should provide studios with financing for hiring interns and buying software licenses.