From Gran Canaria to Hollywood, Animayo is taking its winning stories to the world. The 21st edition of the International Film Festival of Animation, visual effects and video games closed with 27,664 participants, with its 2026 official awards now travelling to New York, Los Angeles and Spain.
Held from 6 to 9 May in Gran Canaria, the festival’s activities continued across the eight Canary Islands and online until October. This year, Animayo received 1,932 film entries and welcomed 72 guests from nine countries, including 41 speakers. Its training programme featured 22 masterclasses and 10 hands-on workshops, while talent scholarships worth more than €600,000 were offered for in-person and online training during the 2026–27 academic year.
The festival also strengthened its international standing. It became the only Spanish festival on the first Annie Awards qualifying festival list, announced by Asifa-Hollywood in April 2026, adding to its Oscar-qualifying status recognised by the Academy since 2022. Since 2018, nine films awarded at Animayo have progressed to the Oscars, with four earning nominations, four reaching the shortlist and In the Shadow of the Cypress winning the 2025 Oscar for best animated short film.
Among this year’s winners, the Grand Jury Award went to 18 Months, directed by Paulo Garcia and Natalia Gouvea of the United States. Porque hoy es sábado, by Alice Eça Guimarães, a Spain-Portugal-France co-production, won best Animación con Ñ short film, while Sandra Powers’ Bestias de la Muerte from Mexico took the Audience Award. India’s Rajesh PK won best 3D for Blu’s.
The awards programme began its international run in October with a session at Pratt Institute in New York. In Los Angeles, screenings and presentations are scheduled across major animation studios, including Sony Pictures Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Netflix and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation. The programme also features LightBox Expo, Egeda U.S.A. and the Animation Magazine Summit, alongside a public screening and workshop at the Instituto Cervantes in Los Angeles. The tour will conclude in Spain in December, with stops in Zaragoza and Lanzarote, distinct geographical and cultural locations in Spain.
The festival director Damián Perea shared, “We are closing an edition with twenty-two master classes, ten workshops, over 600,000 euros in talent scholarships and seven thousand students trained, which is what matters most to us: training and young people. And we are closing it by taking the awards abroad, which is the other half of our work: making sure the films we award are seen by the international industry.”
With scholarships backing emerging creators and its winning shorts heading overseas, Animayo is proving that a festival’s impact need not end when the screenings do.
