Dear ABRACA members,

The new year has begun! The whole ABRACA team wishes you a happy new year full of creativity and wonderful projects. As for us, we will be going into the new year with some renewed fervour to support the animation community of Belgium, with plenty of events and roundtables coming up. Some of which we can disclose here already, but for others you’ll have to wait a while longer. Either way, it’s looking to be a very busy year!

In this newsletter, we would like to tell you about the following:

ABRACA’S NEW LOOK

It has been a long time coming, and the time has finally arrived…ABRACA has a new coat of paint! The website will gradually change its layout and style, but you can already fully enjoy it on our Instagram page. 

We wanted our new look to represent our connection to animation and animation workers more so we’ve sprinkled a few references everywhere.

For starters, our new logo is inspired by traditional animation desks, featuring the distinct perforation holes of an ACME hole punch!

Our colours are also inspired by the Col-Erase pencils that are the preferred tools of the trade for any traditional animators. 

If you’ll remember, last year we asked you to vote on our new taglines. The result of which is now also revealed! We’ve decided to use both French and Dutch, to represent both the Flemish and Wallonian sides of Belgium. That’s why we’re henceforth the “Fédération d’animation Belge,” and “De Belgische Animatie Federatie,” we hope you like it as much as we do! 

ABRACA AT ANIMA

Anima is soon approaching, with the film festival starting the 20th of February! We’ve talked a bit about our involvement before, but now we’ll take the opportunity to tell you all about it!

For starters, we will hold the ABRACA drink on the evening of Monday the 23rd of February. We hope you’re coming! This is a great opportunity to get to know your fellow ABRACA members, and to enjoy being in each other’s presences. Drinks are on us!

We’re also planning to hold a “General state of the Animation Industry” event on Sunday, the 28th of February. Here we’ll talk about the health and condition of the Belgian animation industry. The event will be fully in French, and will unfortunately not be bilingual. This event is private, and will not be accessible to the public. 

In collaboration with SACD, RITCS, l’Association des Scénaristes de l’Audiovisuel (ASA) & Scenaristengilde, we’ve invited Meg Lefauve for a masterclass at ANIMA. She is a screenwriter with experience working at Pixar, Marvel and Netflix! She has written for movies like “Inside Out 2”, “The Good Dinosaur”, “Captain Marvel” and “My Father’s Dragon”  Naturally, she will be holding a masterclass about screenwriting for animation!

This year, once again, in association with SACD, deAuteurs, le Folioscope, de Scenaristengilde, de Unie Van Regisseurs and ASA, ABRACA is organizing the Belgian Animation Rendez-Vous. If you are looking for someone to help you write your future animation project, or if you are willing to work on someone else’s story, this is a great opportunity to meet scriptwriters. The selected candidates will have the opportunity to be coached by professionals throughout the year and to pitch their project to producers at the 2027 edition of Anima. The submission deadline is Sunday the February 8 at 11:59 PM. Registration form here.