You Should Consider Producing Your Next Animation Project With Hungarians. Here’s Why.

Hungarian animation is strong: many Oscar-nominated features and multi-award winning shorts were made on the Danube. Whether it’s 2d, 3d, vfx, co-production, or service work, Hungarian animation is successful across the board.

The Annecy Festival of Animated Film, beginning this Sunday, June 8, is paying tribute to Hungarian animation. The Magyar industry brings many exciting programs to this top global animation event in the French Alps, including the very first animated dome experience at Annecy, the unique ‘Hunimation Hits the Streets’ exhibition, exciting works in progress, and films highlighting the successes of Hungarian animation — both past and present.

This year at Annecy is the perfect opportunity to meet a wide range of Hungarian filmmakers and animation pros, who will be there to honor 111 years of Hungarian animation legacy and its bold new voices shaping the future.

The story of service works and co-production in Hungarian animation goes back a long way: the first Hungarian-made series, Arthur (1962), was commissioned from the United States, and Hugo the Hippo (1971), an American-Hungarian co-production, was the first full-length work by the legendary team of Pannónia Studio.

Other co-produced projects followed, including the French-Hungarian The Time Masters (1981), the American-Hungarian-U.K.-Japanese The Princess and the Goblin (1991), the Hungarian-German-American The Seventh Brother (1994). Contemporary works include the Israeli-Hungarian The Legend of King Solomon (2017), Slovakian-Hungarian White Plastic Sky (2023), and the North Macedonian-Croatian-Hungarian-Bulgarian John Vardar vs the Galaxy (2025).

A closer look At Kecskemétfilm Studio

Hungary is a favorite destination for co-productions and service work in the animation world. The legendary Kecskemétfilm Studio has been in the animation business for five decades, working on films as A Monkey’s Tale by Jean-François Laguionie (1999), The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily by Lorenzo Mattotti (2019), and Oscar-nominated films such as The Secret of Kells by Tomm Moore (2009), Chico & Rita by Tono Errando, Javier Mariscal and Fernando Trueba (2010), The Red Turtle by Michaël Dudok de Wit (2016), and their latest service work, The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius.

Hazanavicius, director of the five-time Oscar-winner The Artist, worked more than five years on Cargoes, which was in the hands of Kecskemétfilm for two years. The studio provided animator-assistant work, character animation, light and shadow animation, and effects drawing. Also, almost the entire painting of the film was done at the Hungarian studio, with the participation of around 40 artists.

Kecskemétfilm is a favorite creative team for European animation productions. Ferenc Mikulás, head of the studio, explained how word of mouth is responsible for the studio’s success: “The director of The Secret of Kells recommended the studio to the makers of Chico & Rita, then to the team behind The Red Turtle, and one of the producers of the latter film was also involved in Hazanavicius’ new project.”

Tomm Moore, director of The Secret of Kells, originally found the Kecskemétfilm team through the famous series Hungarian Folk Tales (which have been recognized as a Hungarikum) because he wanted to present the traditions of Ireland in a similar way to how Hungarians showcased their heritage.

More recent examples of Hungarian co-productions and service work

Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó’s first feature-length film, White Plastic Sky (2023), received production support from the National Film Institute Hungary, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, and the Council of Europe’s film fund Eurimages, and was co-produced through Hungary and Slovakia.

The Hungarian animators first built the 3d raw environment and vehicles from the director’s designs, and handed it off to Ekran Studio in Bratislava, Slovakia, which played an important role in the production. Then, the 3d team in Bratislava textured, colored, added special effects, and animated the vehicles and all the moving objects. “The Slovakian studio did a very important part of the production and they really went all out to make sure that the final result was of the highest possible quality,” said Szabó.

Production of the Czech-Slovak-Hungarian stop motion film Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light by Filip Pošivač started in 2020. The filming took place in the Barrandov studio in Prague, in a built set, and Károly Papp Kása, senior animator, joined the work very early. A significant part of the post-production phase, which required the implementation of numerous trick techniques, was carried out in Hungary, including the finalization of the vfx and sound design, the latter under the supervision of Péter Benjámin Lukács (27, Symbiosis, Amok).

Macedonia’s first feature-length animation, John Vardar vs The Galaxy (2025) by Goce Cvetanovski, is the result of a four-year collaboration between Northern Macedonia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Croatia. A quarter of the film was made by Hungary’s Umatik Entertainment, and all post-production was done in Hungary. The director met the Hungarian team at an animation networking event in the Czech Republic in 2019.

The episodes of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots anthology are produced in different studios. The LDR installment “The The Secret War,” winner of an Annie Award for best fx, was produced at Digic Pictures in Budapest. Digic Pictures is mainly known for its trailers and cutscenes for videogames, but they also produce 3d animation and visual effects for feature films. The Netflix production was their first short film, which had only a script, and the Budapest team created its world freely. They have also recently created four short films for the recent Secret Level anthology for Prime Video.

Another highly anticipated project is the internationally co-produced Fairyheart (Tündér Lala). Next week at Annecy, the film’s director Anita Doron (who co-wrote the script with Attila Gigor) and producer will give an insight into the film’s production, which is an adaptation of an iconic tale by the popular Hungarian writer Magda Szabó.

The character designs for Fairyheart are created by Simón Estrada (Rick and Morty, Big Mouth), and the film is produced by the Hungary’s Mythberg Films in collaboration with Cinemon Entertainment (Hungary), Storyteller Pictures (Canada), Lakeside Animation (Canada) and Traumhaus Studios (Germany). The film is supported by the National Film Institute Hungary, Eurimages, Telefilm Canada, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Creative Europe Media, and Ontario Creates.

Learn more about Hungarian animation at Annecy

Annecy’s Tribute to the Hungarian animation program is accompanied by a brand-new English-language online platform, Hunimation.com serving as a fresh launchpad for introducing Hungarian animation to the world and building new international connections.

Hungary’s distinguished presence at the Annecy Festival was initiated by the National Film Institute to commemorate the 111th anniversary of Hungarian animation.