ABRACA NEWSLETTER 04/08/2025 - ENGLISH VERSION

4 août 2025

Version Français / Nederlandse Versie

Dear ABRACA members,

With the end of July, we’re experiencing the full brunt of the summer, we hope you’ve had some time to bask in the sun!

Here at ABRACA we are working hard on our current projects. While this edition of the newsletter might seem a bit light compared to the last one, rest assured! We will soon have a lot more news to share with you.

This time, our Newsletter will cover the following subjects:

– Vote for ABRACA’s new tagline!
– A reminder of useful documents to help yourself, and ABRACA
– The date for Annecy 2026 has been confirmed
– Interesting opportunity for young directors via the VAF
– Zorobabel artist residency
– First coaching session of the Anima Belgian Rendez-Vous
– Prente Art Market 2025

Vote for ABRACA’s new tagline!

ABRACA is going through some changes! 

Behind the scenes, we’ve been busy working on a small graphic rebranding of the visual identity of our organisation. To mirror our identity as a professional federation, we also need to look the part! In that spirit, we have listened to your feedback and will modify the current ABRACA logo to be more easily identifiable and recognisable.

Which is where you all come in!

As you know, ABRACA stands for: « Association Belge Regroupant les Auteur·ice·s Créateur·ice·s de l’Animation. » However, that is quite a mouthful to use as the tagline for a logo. We would also like to have a tagline that introduces us as an animation union, representing both sides of our little country.

We’ve been workshopping a new ABRACA tagline, and we’ve narrowed it down to about 5 options, which we’d like you, our members, to vote on! Not only that, but we would also love to hear any new suggestions that you all might have for a new tagline. Remember, we are a Belgian organisation, so we want our taglines to represent that!

1. Belgian Animation Federation

2. Belgische Federatie voor Animatie / Fédération Belge d’animation

3. Fédération d’animation / Animatie federatie

4. Fédération d’animation / Federatie van Animatie

5. créateurs d’animation / animatie-makers

You can vote for our new Taglines here!

We look forward to seeing the results, and hearing your thoughts. The results of the poll will be shared at a later newsletter, so please look forward to it.

Useful documents to help yourself and ABRACA

At ABRACA we like to keep our ears close to the ground and remain up to date with the coming and goings of our cherished animation industry. Therefore we are always interested in hearing from you!
In the last newsletter, we put a spotlight on a new form where you can inform ABRACA about any harmful experiences you may have had out in the work field. This time, we want to remind you about some

• The GenAI tip line. 

This tipline is intended to monitor the use of GenAI, that includes image, video, sound and text generators, in the Belgian animation industry. Through this document you can anonymously share your experiences about any harmful practices with GenAI in the work field.

Understanding what happens in the industry, allows ABRACA to push for better regulations for our animation workers. 

ANNECY 2026

Fans of animation rejoice!
The official dates for the Annecy Film Festival in 2026 have been confirmed. As you know, the festival usually takes place around the beginning of June. Unfortunately, they had to move their regular planning due to a gathering of the G7 countries at the same dates. Both events happening at the same time would have put too much pressure on the local infrastructure, which prompted the organisers of the Annecy film festival to exceptionally postpone the dates of the festival.

This means that next year, Annecy will be held from the 21st to the 27th of June instead. Submissions are open, so don’t forget to send in your project(s)! You can find the deadlines and more here. 

Mark your calendars and see you there!

VAF Workshop for aspiring directors

We have one interesting opportunity to share with you this month if you live in the Flemish Region of Belgium.

The Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) and the Danish animation college, The Animation Workshop, are working together to bring you The Mind The Gap 2025 workshop. This workshop will take place during the week of 06 – 10 October of this year, and is intended for everyone who has recently graduated from a Flemish film school within the last 5 years.

The week-long workshop will cover many topics that new directors commonly encounter when they start working in the field. Their goal is to give you a taste of all aspects of directing. The workshop will be hosted in English and will take place in Brussels.

You have until the 26th of September to confirm your candidatures.

Zorobabel animation residency

Our Brussels and Wallonian artists with an animated short film project can apply to the Zorobabel animation residency.

You can apply until the 30th of September 2025 , and can find more info about the residency here.

First coaching session of the Anima Belgian Rendez-Vous

The first coaching session for the Belgian Rendez Vous speeddate” projects took place earlier this month. During this year’s Anima edition, a diverse group of walloon, flemish and international artists have matched up to develop a mix of animated shortfilms, features and series and will pitch their project at the next edition of Anima.They are herein supported by professional coaches. 

Among these are the projects of several ABRACA members,
We eagerly look forward to your projects and wish you all the best of luck! Meanwhile we are already coordinating the next edition of this event, more info coming in the following months. 

PRENTE ART MARKET

Prente Art Market is a one-day event celebrating all things illustration, comics, and children’s books with a focus on creating new opportunities for artists who are just starting out. This year they are collaborating with the Cartoon Festival Knokke-Heist, the local library and the culture center. The program includes an artist market, an animation screening, and a panel talk with publishers focused on connection and conversation.

Whether you’re an artist or just curious about the scene, Prente is all about meeting people, supporting local artists, sharing work, and being part of a growing creative community right at the Belgian coast.The event takes place on August 16th and you can find more info about the Market here.

Thank you for reading this edition of our monthly Newsletter!

This month, we also want to remind members who haven’t paid their contributions this year. A reminder e-mail will be sent at a later date with instructions for how to do so. 

Your contribution helps ABRACA function and gives us the room to organise future events and actions that benefit all of our members, as well as improving the infrastructure of our organisation.

You can join ABRACA via this link. Membership is paying, but we work through voluntary contributions. This means you are not held to a standard subscription tariff, but are instead encouraged to give what you are willing and able to. On average, we recommend 5 euro as a student, and 20 euro as a professional. As a member, you will be able to benefit from access to ABRACA exclusive events that we’re actively organising.

If becoming a member seems too big of a step for you right now, you’re always welcome to join the discussion on our Discord.  Either way, you’ve already been a big help by being interested in our wonderful community!