Animayo Lanzarote concludes its edition celebrating its success with 2,173 participants counted in just two days, also online, which took place on December 11th and 12th at the Pancho Lasso Art School in Arrecife. This figure still needs to include around 1,200 schoolchildren from the island who will participate in the activities specifically designed for them by this Festival and which will be held in their own classrooms.
Thanks to the support of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, committed in 2025 to projecting Lanzarote and La Graciosa as sustainable islands and tourist, cultural, and audiovisual benchmarks, Animayo Lanzarote is consolidated as an event with its own Lanzarote identity, recovering the continuity of the editions already held on the island, as pointed out at the institutional presentation of the first day by Jesús Alexander Machín Tavío, Minister of Culture of this Cabildo
A possible return, thanks, also, to the collaboration of the aforementioned Pancho Lasso School of Art -which also had its director Manuel Perdomo at said presentation-, as the official venue for the event, Skydance Animation, 3Doubles Producciones and U-tad, University Center for Technology and Digital Art.
For his part, Damián Perea, director and producer of Animayo, who arrived on the island from the United States after Animayo's successful 20th-anniversary tour, welcomed the Lanzarote edition to the 160 attendees who shared the aforementioned institutional presentation. In it, he revealed one of the big news items of the edition: the **notable increase in the total amount of Animayo Lanzarote Talent Scholarships**, which reaches **188,446 euros** for various training offers.
"We want Animayo to be a real gateway to the industry for those who are training. Scholarships are a key tool for talent to advance, regardless of their place of origin. Animation changes lives when talent finds opportunities. Animayo works precisely to create that meeting point between training, industry, and professional future."
In addition, Perea introduced a **program focused on training and direct contact with the industry** that included four masterclasses, a specialized workshop, portfolio reviews, advice for new talents on working in the industry, and autograph signings, in addition to 4 screening sessions featuring the best of Animayo, an online program of talks and screenings for schools, and the exhibition ‘Raúl García. Fragments of an animated genius’.
In-person masterclasses and their subsequent autograph signings brought together 938 participants in sessions led by prominent industry professionals, such as Sandra Lasso, Talent Acquisition Director at Skydance Animation Studios (sponsored by Skydance Animation Studios); Hidetaka Yosumi, founder and CEO of Studio Nowake; Rocío Ayuso, journalist and producer; and Raúl García, director, producer, and animator (sponsored by 3Doubles Campus).
These were joined by online masterclasses aimed at schools, focusing on animation, VFX, and video games, which had 341 participants.
Also in the training area, the workshop "Drawing in Three Dimensions," led by Raúl García and sponsored by 3Doubles Campus, stood out. It far exceeded the Festival's initial forecast of 25 spots. The portfolio review, led by Sandra Lasso, had 57 participants in a direct, professional dynamic focused on real growth, providing a space for evaluation and guidance for those already building their careers in the industry and seeking to make the leap with confidence, focus, and discernment. Additionally, the mentoring for young talents had 34 participants.
An exclusive exhibition for Animayo Lanzarote
Special mention deserves the exhibition "Raúl García. Fragments of an Animated Genius," a journey through more than four decades of the career of the first European animator to join Walt Disney. An exciting journey through the world of 2D animation through 45 creations by Raúl García during his more than 40 years behind the pencil.
A total of 197 participants enjoyed this exhibition during the two days of the Festival. An exhibition that, in its journey, rescued many of the first 2D animation classics, treasures never before exhibited, showing the creation process of originals of some of the most classic characters to the present day, films and series, from The Flintstones to Extraordinary Tales, passing through Roger Rabbit, The Lion King, and the genius of Aladdin. Drawings that were the protagonists of the television screens of millions of homes and that marked the childhood of several generations.
The exhibition shows through its pieces the process of character creation, from early sketched strokes to creations of worlds loaded with textures and finishes where the 2D animation technique regains all its prominence. The exhibition included in its different exhibition spaces 2D animation drawings, character designs, acetate backgrounds, comics, and modeled figures.