animation! 14 projects announced at Ventana Sur

Among the 14 animated feature and series projects that make up Ventana Sur Animation are Brazil’s “Sunflower March,” Chile’s “Anita Froggy” and Colombia’s “Noah.” 2025 Pitching Session.

From Brazil’s Cup Films and Caola Films, producers of the Annecy Contrechamps and Ottawa Animation Fest winner “Bob Spit: We Don’t Like People,” “Sunflower March” reunites “Bob Spit” producer Ivan Melo and director César Cabral, here as producer, to work on the award-winning project at Rotterdam Cinemart in February. The feature “combines the handcrafted beauty of stop-motion with the soul of Brazilian storytelling,” said producer Iván Melo.

“Anita Froggy” is the latest work from Germán Acuña, one of Chile’s leading animation directors, and Sebastián Luz, the producer behind the 2020 Annecy masterpiece “Nahuel and the Magic Book” and “The Devil’s Veins,” the only Latin American title to be screened at Annecy’s “Work in Progress” this year.

At Ventana Sur, Diego Gaviria attracted attention at Annecy in June with “Noah”, a fantasy short film influenced by 2D animation, “Crystal Iris”.

Animation has spread to every corner of Latin America. Bolivia’s Moushon Studios comes to animation with its first feature, “Esilda.” “Utopia”, another animation with unique features and possibilities! “Standout” is the first feature-length production by Ursa Cinematographica, based in Alagoas, northeastern Brazil, and is director Rafael Barbosa’s follow-up to last year’s well-received “Cavallo.”

Llolleo Creativo, the creator of “The Giant Little Girl,” is based in San Antonio, in the Valparaíso region of Chile.

Anime of 2025! This selection also highlights the growing influence of anime outside of Japan.

Co-produced with Taiwan’s Brilliant Animation, Argentina’s 2veinte’s “Life of Delphi, Astro Detective” is “a Western aesthetic inspired by girls with a unique twist…2veinte’s authorial approach,” said Pilar Mega of 2veinte Design and Animation Studio.

Check out this year’s anime in detail! project:

feature film

“Esilda: The Path of Destiny” (Moushon Studios, Firebot, Bolivia)

Created using mixed animation techniques, it is a coming-of-age story for young people that follows Esilda as she carves a career as a female lawyer in 1920s Bolivia with the help of her magical cat Ilari. “By blending poetic animation with Bolivia’s vibrant culture, we give voice to women who have defied the impossible,” says Motion’s Andi Garnica Iriarte.

“The Forgotten Town” (David Andrés Mesa, Bombillo Amarillo, Colombia)

From the Sphinx’s nose to Alexandra’s library, the 2D action blockbuster for kids, The Forgotten Town, reveals the destination of everything humanity has lost. Maxi mourns her grandfather and ends up confronting the monster A Petit. A spin-off from Mesa’s 2021 TV series, a fable about the importance of memory and part of Colombia’s burgeoning animation scene, fresh from Mesa’s transmedia kids blockbuster hit Zuñadores (CreaDigital).

“Formiga” (Bruno “Basque” Makio Saito, Mono Animation, Brazil)

A 3D family drama from Mono, the São Paulo studio and production company behind Grobinho’s Annecy’s Pick Pipas and Disney’s Pilar’s Dairy. Two young friends from the suburbs, Naoki and Formiga, learn to deal with grief and breakup in this animated fantasy action-adventure set in the kite-filled world of Kitekami.

“From the Border Within” (Andres Tudela, Colombia)

In Bogotá-based Orion Films, which also produces the action-crime drama “Fura” in Ventana Sur, 12-year-old Paulina explores her grandmother’s house, discovers a concrete wall that becomes a space for memories, and discovers why her grandmother abandoned her daughter. “We combine various 2D techniques to evoke the fragile, dreamlike atmosphere of family memories,” says Tudela.

“Sunflower March” (Erick Ricco, Tubz Studio, Cup Filmes, Coala Filmes, Brazil)

Billed as a heartwarming family adventure about resilience and hope in dark times, that’s exactly what happens in this near-fairytale story about Marialis, whose father is forced to cook the farm’s only rooster. With no rooster to crow on the new day, Marialis takes her little chick, Little, on an endless night journey to find the sleeping sun. The feature “combines the handcrafted beauty of stop-motion with the soul of Brazilian storytelling,” said producer Iván Melo.

“Noah” (Diego Gaviria, 3N+1, Colombia)

A 2D suspense thriller aimed at tweens and teens, it follows Noah, who relies on painkillers after an injury ends his career as a dancer. It draws her into a dreamlike vision of Mita, an evil being who feeds on her pain. “‘Noah’ was born out of the need to explore loss and transformation from a fantasy perspective. We seek to create an impactful visual experience that connects with human emotions and spiritual emotions,” says Gaviria.

“Utopia” (Rafael Barboza, Ursa Cinematographica, Brazil)

A slave revolt forces young medium Dandarunda to search for the utopian quilombo of Angola Janga. They find it destroyed by a great war. “But the war is not over,” the synopsis says. Barbosa’s other dig into ancestry is a 2D epic adventure drama set in Brazil in 1695, “the longest-running and most organized refuge for enslaved Africans outside of Africa,” Barbosa told Variety.

series

“Anita Froggy” (“Anita Ranita”, Germán Acuña, Chile)

Depicting a lush forest habitat in a loving 2D sense, it’s aimed at ages 2 to 6 and follows a little frog and his friends on wild adventures around the forest, where music and friendship turn every day into discovery, learning, and fun, the synopsis says. The 26-part series is written by Natalia Luque (“Bocassia”) and Leticia Aker (“Yaya,” “Premonition”).

“Howling in the Forest” (produced by José Ángel Osorio Cuéllar, Mexico, Axtli Jiménez Siguenza)

Fast response to animation! A work from Mexico’s Pixelator, drawn with painterly precision of sharp lines, “Howl in the Forest” depicts a timid young coyote who must search for a missing ranger in a village full of mysterious creatures in order to return home. Osorio and Jimenez say, “This is a 2D animated horror-comedy series about the horror of feeling lost in life, caught between the expectations of others and your own ideas of who you should be.”

“The Giant Girl” (“La niña gigante”, Tomas Montalba, Lloreo Creativo, Chile)

Positioned as an all-encompassing Latin American proposition, the series depicts seven-year-old Sol as he drinks his scientist parents’ experiments. Living in a castle tailored to her size, she and her friends face daily life turned into epic battles. The 20-episode adventure, animated in warm and colorful 2D, is supported by a generous grant from Chile’s National Television Network (CNTV).

“Jazz & Pizza” (Joaquín Sanchez, InLimbo Content, Argentina)

After a space accident, Jazz and the dog Avatar Piz are forced to land on post-apocalyptic Earth, where they discover what happened to humanity. Buenos Aires-based InLimbo aims to “create minimalistic 2D animations that combine adventure and lo-fi aesthetics, where sound and music play a central role in the story,” Sanchez said, adding that InLimbo hopes to show the finished teaser at Spain’s Weird Market next year.

“The Life of Astro Detective Delphi” (Pablo Gostanian, 2Veinte Design & Animation Studio, Argentina)

A 2D comedy adventure aimed at the YA demo. Delphi, a young astrologer with a unique talent for reading the stars as living maps, opens a detective agency to solve emotional and spiritual mysteries while secretly searching for her long-lost twin sister. “Richochet Splendid,” produced by Argentina’s 2Veinte and directed by Gostanyan, was also the subject of the 2025 Annecy TV Mifa Pitch.

“Marie’s Lives” (“Las Vidas de Marie”, Sofia Andrade, Piranha, Colombia)

Sourced from July Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM). In this young adult miniseries, an 18th-century witch braves the realities of the 2020s to take over Marie’s seven former souls and give her cat a never-ending ninth life. It’s backed by Piragna, the 2D studio behind the viral phenomenon “Frailejón Ernesto Pérez,” which also aims to expand into the transmedia universe. Directed by Andrade. Project Director and Production Coordinator at Piranha and Animator at Frailejon Ernesto Pérez” Season 1.

“One About Vampires” (Una de Vampiros, Alycides Izaguirre, Agustín Payet, Nuveen, Argentina)

Based on Payet’s graphic novel of the same name, it tells the story of two five-year-olds who spend their childhoods with the same level of drama and anxiety as adults. The 2D adventure comedy is “a combination of wholesomeness and dark comedy,” Payet said. “The humor comes from the collision between the seriousness of the subject matter being depicted and the naive world of childhood,” he told Variety.