Black Sea Animation Workshop 2025: The Winners

The award recipients of the second edition of the Black Sea Animation Workshop — a five-day intensive development lab for animated short film projects, created to foster creative exchange between Georgia, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Romania, and Ukraine- have now been announced.

In 2025, the programme also welcomed Moldova as a guest country. 

93 applications for animated short film projects were submitted by participating countries. Following an international selection process, 12 projects were chosen to take part in the workshop, held in Sofia from 24 to 29 November 2025. The sessions were led by French mentors Corinne Destombes and Olivier Catherin, with a focus on project development and effective pitching.

After evaluation by MIFA Annecy experts, five projects were selected from among the workshop participants to take part in the Black Sea Partner Pitch  within the animation market (MIFA Annecy)

Bulgaria: PUER AETHERNUS by Asi Petrov

Georgia: THE BOY AND THE PERSIMMON TREE by Lina Aqulashvili

Ukraine: CHERRY PIEROGI by Olha Havrylova & Mykyta Moiseiev

Romania: GUILTY SILENCE by Alina Gheorghe

Türkiye: THE FLY ON THE WALL by Şule Barman

In addition, 

• DOLPHIN KICKS by Iva Tokmakchieva (Bulgaria) was awarded a one-month NEF International Residency for Animated Films at the Fontevraud Royal Abbey in France.
• I GAVE BIRTH TO MYSELF by Salome Kalandarishvili (Georgia) received a residency at Saint-Quirin in France.
• FAR AWAY by Pavel Koulev (Bulgaria), was selected to participate in CEE Animation Forum in Pilzen, Czech Republic.
• HRADIVNYTSA by Alla Prokopyshyna (Ukraine) was selected for participation in the SYAA Workshop for female authors in Bucharest, Romania.

The Black Sea Animation Workshop is supported by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Institute, within the framework of the strategy for the international export of Cultural and Creative Industries. The workshop is organised by Compote Collective (Bulgaria), Saqanima (Georgia), Animest (Romania), LINOLEUM Festival (Ukraine), and Anim.ist (Türkiye). The third edition will take place in November 2026 in Istanbul (Türkiye).

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