Animation Filmmakers Face COVID Effects from Baltics to Balkans

By FNE and CEE Animation

    PRAGUE: FNE and CEE Animation, the umbrella organisation for animation associations across Central Europe, spoke with animation representatives and filmmakers regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their local industries.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has had a range of effects on the film industry. How in particular has it affect logistics in the animation industry in our region?

    Temple Réka, Executive Producer, Cinemon Entertainment (Hungary): I believe that animation studios, especially the ones working internationally, were well equipped with online facilities, remote servers or workstations. The pandemic might have had a lesser effect on animation than on other fields in the industry, like live action shooting. Puppet animation studios had many difficulties, as they need to work together and touch the puppets.

    Michal Podhradský, Producer, Animation People (Czech Republic): Animation has long production times, long preparation times. Thus, it is one of the few fields that is not so prone to crisis, whether economic or pandemic. In addition, in many cases it is possible to work on animation from home. Since many creative people work in animation, moving to an online space was not a problem for them but a challenge. We do not feel the pandemic as a threat to production, but rather as a threat to financing and co-financing.

    Anna Zača, Managing Director, Latvian Animation Association (Latvia): Latvia has seen no serious effect on logistics.

    Juste Michailinaite, President, Lithuanian Animation Association: The main effect is that maybe there is less direct contact. Most of the teams work from home. It affected management a bit, and keeping deadlines. 

    Dimitar Petrov, Association of Bulgarian Animation Producers (ABAP) - Manager of international partnerships (Bulgaria): In Bulgaria, animation managed to quickly adapt to a work-from-distance model. The government also released a few new methods of funding: grants for commercial art companies by the National Culture Fund for instance, and EU funding from the Innovation and Competitiveness programme, which managed to partly offset the initial blow from COVID.

    Have animation filmmakers had to delay production? Or have they been adapting new techniques or methods for cooperation? 

    Temple Réka: I believe that other than the general stress and delay in all administration (which was normal last year) no big delays directly related to Covid occurred.

    Michal Podhradský: The pandemic period brought a number of limitations. In several cases, production was limited due to the inability and less safety in travel. Worse were the cases when a foreign partner withdrew from the project due to their own financial uncertainty.

    Anna Zača: Most of the studios had already been working with remote team members and tools.

    Juste Michailinaite: It depends on the project and its technique. If live shooting is involved, it can delay production. 

    Dimitar Petrov: Yes, there have been delayed projects, and a lot of studios have started implementing new software solutions for work from home. Right now, most of the studios are coming back to their pre-covid capacity.

    What impact has the pandemic had on international coproductions?

    Temple Réka: I believe it has had a slight impact on International cooperations, as people cannot meet, the pitches are not the same online, and many secure cooperations fell apart because of the uncertain situation.

    Michal Podhradský: Coproduction is a serious economic and personal relationship. The pandemic situation had a major impact on these relations. The inability to travel, to solve things on the spot, to network and make new contacts, weakened especially the creation of future projects. The animation is slow and we are afraid that we will start to feel the consequences of this exclusion most when the whole world takes a new breath.

    Anna Zača: There are less possibilities to meet physically and the amount of online possibilities, even though convenient, seems to be quite overwhelming and uncomfortable for decision-making and establishing new collaborations.

    Juste Michailinaite: For international coproduction, it was impossible to travel. For some productions it was quite a big challenge.

    Dimitar Petrov: We saw delays. Due to the uncertainty of the time, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of projects were postponed, including projects in negotiations. Producers and TV channels were hesitant to invest in new content at first, not knowing what the future holds. Gradually, some projects moved to streaming platforms, where the hunger for content is very big and right now, and slowly, things are starting to come back to normal.

    Do you see any new trends as a result of the pandemic?

    Temple Réka: In a way it is more difficult, but on the other hand it requires from studios and individuals to be very creative in communication, in maintaining contact with one another, in keeping a team together, having production meetings live.

    Michal Podhradský: Signs of new trends can be seen in the behaviour of the viewers. The big unknown will be the new way of distribution and the related demand for new formats and new types of content.

    Anna Zača: There are even more projects in development in animated film, but this seems to be a trend that had started even before the pandemic. It is possible to observe more interest towards international collaboration and VOD platforms.

    Juste Michailinaite: It is hard to say at this time. 

    Dimitar Petrov: A lot of countries have expanded their support for local productions and have sought new partners. Bulgaria is not an exception, not directly due to COVID, but the government has introduced a long-awaited cash rebate and equal support for animated projects in the new Film Industry Law, recently approved. For the first time, animation productions receive equal funding opportunities in all forms of financing, in no small part due to the efforts of the Association of Bulgarian Animation Producers as well. Starting from the second half of 2021, Bulgaria will also have a 25% cash rebate, and from the beginning of 2022, financial support of up to 50% for local animated series which pass a cultural test. We hope this will allow the local animation studios to show more of their potential and bring in a new wave of modern animation.

    Where (in which countries) in our region is the animation industry thriving?

    Michal Podhradský: In the Czech Republic it is growing slowly but steadily, thanks to the huge interest of young creators, students but also animation producers. It is probably not possible to talk about prosperity in terms of great economic expansion, but it is a persistent and positive trend. The pandemic did not reverse this trend. On the contrary - it showed that it is one of the jobs of the future.

    Anna Zača: There are two features in development, and four in production. We also have one TV series, two cycles and loads of shorts in development and production.

    Dimitar Petrov: As usual, we see a quickly evolving industry and a lot of projects in the traditional “best animation” countries, like France and Ireland. The crisis has affected every country, of course. However, this effect was much less negative in countries which already had good support, and the recovery there was much quicker. Also, this helped the local economies there in general, as animation remains a high value industry. In our region, I think we should keep looking for good practises and figure out a way to apply them locally, if we are to thrive.

    What lessons is the animation industry taking away from this situation?

    Martin Vandas, Producer, MAUR film (Czech Republic): It is still valid that animation = coproduction. The coproductions will (and due to economic uncertainties) be needed more and more, and in a better way. Experience suggests that the world will change even if it returns to its old ways. Animation can still benefit from the fact that it is cosmopolitan and universal, the audience is constantly renewing it and loving it. Of course, they will change their habits in terms of formats, and ways of approaching it. But they certainly won't betray the animation.

    Anna Zača: This pandemic brought up the question of artists’ official income and taxes. The pandemic came along with a tax reform that had been a problem. We can see more interest in collaboration within and outside the countries, not only to produce films, but also to work on relevant industry events and lobbying. 

    Juste Michailinaite: Planning, management, decision making, creativity, and team work.

    Dimitar Petrov: Flexibility is key. Being a relatively high-tech industry, a lot of animation has the ability to be very flexible in terms of work. We still have to develop more flexibility in terms of production and funding though, including the orientation towards new types of content, which would be beneficial for the quickly growing streaming platforms. On the national level, this is a very competitive industry, so local state funding and legislation has to move quickly as well, so that there are no countries put in an uncompetitive position. This can only happen with an active professional sector and good communication. The investment in art-forms such as animation can return a lot though, and this is evident through the huge demand for content and new stories right now.