Black Sea Animation Workshop 2025: Impressions

Black Sea Animation 2025 Overview

It was the second year for the Black Sea Animation Workshop (Sofia, 25-29 November 2025), and the whole team was there. Organized by Saqanima (Georgia), Compote Collective (Bulgaria -this year's local organizer), Animest (Romania), LINOLEUM Festival (Ukraine), and Anim.ist (Türkiye), the animation development programme aims to foster the short animation production from the respective Black Sea countries.

Up to two/three animation short projects per country are selected each year; 12 projects were selected for the 2025 edition - including one project from the guest country Moldova (the full list of this year's selection). Mentors Corinne Destombes and Olivier Catherin then guided the participants in an intensive workshop to be pitched during an open session. The winning projects (one per eligible country) will be pitched at the 2026 Annecy MIFA event (Partners' pitching session) -but other awards (like an accreditation to the CEE Animation forum, SYAA Workshop, or residencies at the Abbey of Fontevraud and Prieuré de Saint-Quirin French venues) are in place.

In this year's lot (like the 2024 edition), women animation directors predominated, being featured in 9 (out of 12 selected) pitching projects. Mostly emerging animators (and experienced animators directing their first animated short), they invested their pitches with good-old-fashioned energy and directness. The harsh format of pitching a film idea in 7-8 minutes (and leaving everything to imagination) becomes even harder for animation short film projects, where visuals take center stage (but it's challenging to have them at an early stage). Still, the participants rose up to the challenge, providing that the unacknowledged Black Sea animation field is beginning to shape up.

Animation Themes Explored

Family relationships, personal concerns, and social issues would obviously find their place in the upcoming animation projects. Still, what was noticeable in the pitches is a sharp dichotomy between our everyday world and an imagined / fantasy / made up world. This is noteworthy, but sadly not unexpected in an increasingly polarized world, in which conflicts and the 'right' of the stronger party to impose its will eliminate all dialogue and conversation. So, instead of staying in your own neighborhood, why don't you get some inspiration from the more magical (meaning more creatively interesting and open to all kinds of discourses) world?

Staying mostly in the 2D animation format (only one project is a stop-motion project for children), the 12 projects still utilized a variety of individual techniques, and, overall, an ongoing search for the best visual print of their intended cinematic statement.

Black Sea Animation Workshop 2025 / Pitching Day

Nature and Wilderness

Take, for instance, the Bulgarian animation project 'Dolphin Kicks', a 6-minute 2D (hand-drawn) animation by Iva Tokmakchieva. Tokmachieva is the author of the critically acclaimed 'Balconada' animation short (producer: Compote Collective). Her new project sharply distinguishes the world of discipline vs. the world of creative acting by putting her character, a synchronized swimmer, out of emotional touch with the shared passion of her teammates anymore. Things change when a team of roller skaters (anarchy and chaos) literally invades the swimming pool. Self-described as a comedy with an absurd tone, with accompanying slick character designs, looks like it is already showcasing two different worlds in the making (looking for music composer, background artists, etc.)

A visit to the Carpathian mountains inspires the Ukrainian Alla Prokopyshyna and her project 'Hradivnytsa'. Director of the student film 'Of Stars and Fables' (2023, Slovakia), she gets a woman, a disappointment to her old Molfar parents (Molfar are wizards/people with supernatural powers), she nevertheless has to restore balance to a natural world that is increasingly out of place. With an ink-on-paper animation selection and some dreamy vibes, the early development project has already garnered support for script & visual development and promises a fine exploration of our old cultural unknown.

Turkish animation director Sude Acikdeniz (an Anadolu University graduate) also utilized the open country settings, putting 2 creative minds in an open space, and making strange things happen in the 2D/3D animation short project, 'What is Happening in Fairyland'. This is one of the few projects with a duo of leading characters, in which fairyland is hereby created -and, according to the director of the 7-minute project, creative thinking can be rehabilitated as a serious adult concern via the power of animation.

A garden and its misuse are the setting in the stop-motion puppet film 'The Boy and the Persimmon Tree' by Lina Aqulashvili, one of the two Georgian animation projects presented (already supported by the Georgian National Film Center). Based on an illustrated book by the first-time director, the 7-minute film project is addressed to children (5+) audiences. It focuses on the erratic behavior of a boy (designed in felted wool for softness). His non-prudent decision to get what he wants from the tree at all costs will bring unwanted consequences. Natural lessons to learn, yet the project entertains a non-didactic atmosphere, also helped by its jocular sound design.

Dolphin Kicks, Iva Tokmakchieva

 'Hradivnytsa', Alla Prokopyshyna

'The Boy and the Persimmon Tree', Lina Aqulashvili

Families in animation

Many animation projects featured domestic and family settings, a familiar focus but still a big source of creative inspiration. The Ukrainian Olha Havrylova
, another illustrator turning into an animation director, pitched (along with producer Mykyta Moiseiev) her 'Cherry Pierogi', 2D digital animation short. Cherry Pierogi is a traditional Ukrainian dish, and the story focuses on a girl, and the grandmother, and the advice of not 'sewing up your memory' (otherwise you will end up forgetting something important). The 6-minute animation film project promises its own 'natural symphony' of images and sounds, balancing imagination and reality, and the use of watercolor aesthetics (check her previous,  similarly imaginative film, 'Topsy-Turvy', 2018), 

Dogs trapped in life-changing situations inside the family is the topic of 'Tangled Tails' by Moldovan screenwriter and animation director Oleg Condrea. The 7-minute, 2D animation film that he writes and directs has a dog whose usual function to protect the ones it loves is challenged when faced with the life-threatening situation of his owner (a dying grandpa). The director wants to portray the story from the dog's POV, with only hands and silhouettes for the human characters, while the whole, well-prepared project asks the question of when empathy ends, and the personal story begins.

The girl-grandmother relationship is again investigated in the third-year BA student project, 'Running Out of Time' by Mire Raicu (Romania). Raicu constructs her 5-minute, 2D animation film (watercolors on paper) as the outcome of two parallel storylines: the old woman living alone in her apartment (starting to fade away) and her granddaughter's daily activities. The two stories (with their distinct color palettes and beautifully eerie feel) will inevitably converge, and the overriding question is how you compensate for not being there for the people in your life.

Running Out of Time', Mire Raicu

Individual troubles in animation

A young woman with a successful career is trapped in a routine in the autobiographical 'I Gave Birth to Myself' by the Georgian director Salome Kalandarishvili
, whose first background was in psychology studies. The 9-minute, mixed animation film navigates the internal world of its main character, bordering to depression, with a voiceover text in certain sequences -and a highly stylized animation technique. The monochrome-minded film utilises the levkas technique (drawing by progressively erasing colors), leading to a very particular outcome of a character covering her face with her own hands. The promising work in the making also uses art as a narrative device as well.

The male side of this psychological instability is taken in the Bulgarian short animation project 'Puer Aethernus' by Asparuh (Asi) Petrov.  Although expertly skilled as an animator (part of the Compote Collective team), Asparuh Petrov had his animation directing debut with the 2022 animation short, 'Trace'. The present, 12-minute, 2D animation project borrows its title from Jung's psychological archetypes ('eternal boy'); it features a 40-year-old male in a pot, living with his mother, who's taking care of him (watering, etc.). Until something unexpected happens. This interesting regeneration story touches upon a still-contemporary issue (that the economic crisis has made all relevant again).

Another Bulgarian project, the 8-minute, 2D animated project 'Far Away' by Pavel Koulev
 (pr. Koulev Film Production / KFP) reflects on an old lighthouse keeper who cannot keep up with the present time and is slowly drifting into madness. His granddaughter attempts to take him out of both this condition and the locale in which he operates, back to the big city. Here's another project (now in pre-production) in which the separation between the two environments (lighthouse vs. city) is visually depicted, with the city becoming a cubist/abstract character in its own right, in the absence of a musical soundtrack.

I Gave Birth to Myself,  Salome Kalandarishvili


Puer Aethernus, Asi Petrov

Social Awareness in Animation

Şule Barman (Turkey) asks in her 3-minute, 3D animation project what it entails to be a passive participant. In the dark comedy animation project, a fly is caught in what eventually becomes a scene of crime. It witnesses everything, but reacts positively to nothing. The project (produced by the emerging Vapur Collective) presents a metaphor and symbolism that reflects on the perceived inability (sometimes even increased by social media) of ordinary people to react to injustice. As with other projects presented at the workshop, the project will not rely on a musical soundtrack, but sound design will rest on natural scene sounds.

Romanian animation director Alina Gheorghe has made 'Glass Fingers' (2022) and 'Paradis Murdar' (2024). But 'Guilty Silence' is the first professional animation short. A 7-minute, 2D animated film: a woman tries to escape a relationship with a man who is becoming a monster. Taking its impetus from the femicide issue, Gheorhe meticulously designs both a visual world (the space and room of the character and the restaurant she attends) in spiky, aggressive lines -which reflect the increasingly aggressive atmosphere. In the pre-production stage, the project is one that aims to build awareness by showing (rather than telling).

'Guilty Silence', Alina Gheorghe

Final Impressions

Training workshops and co-development initiatives are always helpful to emerging animation filmmakers; sometimes, financing or the physical distance to the training venue can make it difficult for talents to attend. So, it's really helpful that the whole Black Sea Animation Workshop initiative aims to bring the training to your own back door (for the relevant talents in the region), moving each year to a different country. The second edition has shown that there is both demand and fertile ground for such medium-scale but carefully orchestrated efforts, which should continue and develop further.

 The final results will be announced on 30 Jan 2026, with a screening of the Best of Annecy 2025 programme at the Cinema House in Sofia, as well as online.

The List of Projects and their Synopses

RUNNING OUT OF TIME by Mire Raicu (Romania)
An old woman spends her days alone, waiting for someone to visit her, while her granddaughter is caught up in her own busy life, postponing the visit until it is too late, when she finds an empty apartment, after the dust has settled.

GUILTY SILENCE by Alina Gheorghe (Romania)
A woman is trying to escape a relationship with a man who is gradually becoming a monster.

CHERRY PIEROGI by Olha Havrylova & Mykyta Moiseiev (Ukraine)
Short animated film that captures the essence of an idyllic summer day spent between a young girl and her grandmother in the Ukrainian countryside. Inspired by memories of familial warmth and generational wisdom, the film offers a glimpse into the deep bond shared by the two characters, highlighting how ordinary moments - like picking cherries, watering the fields, or riding a bicycle - can carry significant meaning, especially when seen against the backdrop of hardship.

HRADIVNYTSA by Alla Prokopyshyna (Ukraine)
When a molfar - the last guardian linking people and nature - dies in the Carpathians, his secluded daughter, Gradivnytsia, feels the world begin to collapse: the earth cracks, waters vanish, the sky stills. Guided by a black cat, she returns to the lake and discovers her own subtle, intuitive magic. By listening instead of forcing, she learns to restore balance.

| GAVE BIRTH TO MYSELF by Salome Kalandarishvili (Georgia)
A young woman who hates her routine job and wants to be in a different but challenging field art - faces the fear of stepping out of her comfort zone.

THE BOY AND THE PERSIMMON TREE by Lina Aqulashvili (Georgia)
A young boy and his tiny friend live in a small garden with an old persimmon tree. The tree gives them warmth, peace and sweet fruit throughout the seasons, but everything changes when the boy impulsively decides to cut down the tree. As the seasons change and he and his friend struggle without the tree’s shade, food and warmth, he regrets his action and decides to grow a new one.

THE FLY ON THE WALL by Sule Barman (Turkiye)
In a lavish mansion, a fly hovers lazily, unaware of the deadly shootout around it. It ignores the chaos, survives near misses, until the final explosion takes everything, including the fly.

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN FAIRYLAND? by Sude Acikdeniz (Turkiye)
While two friends are hiking in the mountains, the sunlight hitting the opposite mountain catches their attention, and they begin to verbally brainstorm ideas about it. Stories that blend all emotions together; happy, cheerful, frightening...

TANGLED TAILS by Oleg Condrea (Moldova)
An empathic Family Dog is faced with an impossible moral dilemma: to help Grandpa find peace or force him to live.

DOLPHIN KICKS by lva Tokmakchieva (Bulgaria)
An awkward synchronisation swimmer is out of sync with her teammates and is not feeling a connection to their shared passion for swimming anymore. Bonded together by long-term training, their loyalty is put to the test, because a new gang of freestyle Toller skaters empty the water from their sacred pool to skate.

FAR AWAY by Pavel Koulev (Bulgaria)
A girl spends the summer with her grandfather, a lighthouse keeper whose mind is beginning to fade. After a dangerous episode, the family moves him to the city, where he loses his sense of purpose. One night he wanders off, searching for the sea. The girlguides him back by blinking her room light like a lighthouse, helping him find his way and himself.

PUER AETHERNUS by Asi Petrov (Bulgaria)
Bozho lives dormant life of a plant in a flowerpot, while Mother looks after him meticulously. One day he is stolen by Draga who teaches him to walk and gives him opportunity for life rich of experiences, but this appears too scary for him. Now he must make a choice.

Black Sea Animation Workshop mentors and participants

Black Sea Animation Workshop is supported by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Institute as part of the strategy for the export of Cultural and Creative Industries internationally.  The workshop is organised by Compote Collective (Bulgaria), Saqanima (Georgia), Animest (Romania), LINOLEUM Festival (Ukraine), and Anim.ist (Türkiye). The second BLACK SEA ANIMATION WORKSHOP — an animation development workshop — took place November 25–29 in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

Vassilis Kroustallis

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