Animahenasyon 2025 yields promising biz leads for original Filipino animation content
Discovering rising talent and all-original animation work is a tradition for Animahenasyon: The Philippine Animation Festival.
By September Grace Mahino
December 19, 2025
Discovering rising talent and all-original animation work is a tradition for Animahenasyon: The Philippine Animation Festival. But for its recently concluded 19th edition, held last November 24 to 26 at various locations across Metro Manila, it introduced a new component that could be a game-changer for an industry that is ready to level up.
Organized by the Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc. and co-presented by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions’ (CITEM) CREATEPhilippines, Animahenasyon 2025 was a three-day celebration of Filipino animators’ technical skills and creativity that have made the country a go-to destination for animation servicing. It also signaled the ripe opportunity for strengthening the production of original local content, which can position the country as the next global animation hub. With the Philippines’ animation sector projected to reach a value of US$141 million and employ around 15,000 by 2028, ACPI believes there is an urgent need to empower local talents and businesses so they can achieve and sustain that kind of growth.
Prepping Filipino animators for a world “hungry for fresh voices and new stories"
Chairperson of the Special Committee on Creative Industries and Negros Occidental Third District Representative Congressman Javi Benitez shares the same sentiment. Addressing the audience during Animahenasyon’s opening ceremony on November 25 at The Samsung Hall of SM Aura, he said, “This is a new era we are entering: an era where we move from [providing animation] services to [telling] Filipino stories. I know our creators are now developing series, films, and games that are deeply Filipino and have a globally appealing quality. The world is hungry for fresh voices and new stories, and we have so much to offer.”
This was exemplified by the 10 films featured during the festival’s AniSine screening on November 24 at The Shangri-La Red Carpet Cinema. The films are also the finalists for AniKompetisyon, Animahenasyon’s annual film festival, with the awarding ceremony held the following evening at The Samsung Hall of SM Aura.
The Dark Harvest: Graveyard Shift by Cebu-based animator Bryan Velayo won two categories: the Grand Prize - Professional Division, in recognition of the film’s narrative and technical excellence; and the John Martin Award, in recognition of its 2D-animation quality.
Animahenasyon’s second day also had some of the most prominent Filipino-American figures in the global animation industry inspiring local talents on how they can grow their artistry and careers further. Headlining the AniTalks conference, also at The Samsung Hall of SM Aura, were Academy Award-nominated writer and director Ronnie del Carmen (Inside Out), who shared why “The World Needs Your Voice: The Power of Your Authentic Self”; Academy Award-nominated director Bobby Pontillas (One Small Step) who discussed how heart and heritage can shape world-class animation with “Our Stories, Our Worlds”; and Hollywood VFX artist, art director, and animator and arts educator Thomas Esmeralda, who spoke about “Navigating the Artist’s Journey.”
Providing a more localized context on how the industry landscape is evolving was the fireside chat “Igniting Originality: The Future of Filipino Animation,” featuring Filipino filmmakers Carl Joseph Papa (Mapukpukaw) and Mark Mendoza (of Friendly Foes Studio). Finally, YouTube content creators and animators JenAnimation and Elybunny headed the panel discussion “Animating for the Algorithm: The Rise of YouTube Animators,” designed to help independent artists make the most of the video platform.
Growing beyond outsourced services to include IP generation
For its third day, Animahenasyon 2025 launched the B2B convention AniBusiness. As the festival’s concluding activity, AniBusiness allowed local animators to meet and network with international and local buyers, producers, and publishers, creating avenues for possible international partnerships, outsourcing solutions, co-production ventures, and other business opportunities.
Held last November 26 at SEDA BGC, the B2B convention welcomed representatives of animation and production companies from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Brazil who were invited by CREATEPhilippines, with the support of different Philippine Trade Investment Centers. “This convention is like a manifestation of what we want to do for partnerships,” ACPI Executive Director Daniel Enriquez said. “The Philippines has no problem when it comes to talent, but we need to strengthen the functions that are crucial in building and running a creative business. Hopefully, our potential foreign buyers understood what we can do and will invest in fruitful collaborations with us.”
IN PHOTOS: The B2B convention AniBusiness was a new component for this year’s Animahenasyon. It was made possible through the partnership between ACPI and CREATEPhilippines, who invited potential buyers, investors, and collaborators from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, and Brazil to meet with local studios and animators.
Aside from learning more about the local animation industry and hearing pitches from Filipino talents, the guests also saw the broader cultural context through which Philippine animation stories are conceptualized, developed, and produced, thanks to the Bleisure Program AniXperience. Organized by CREATEPhilippines in cooperation with the Intramuros Administration and the La Union local government unit, AniXperience took foreign buyers on a tour through two of the country’s premier destinations, Intramuros and La Union, and gave them a closer look at Filipino history and culture that often serve as the foundation of local animators’ storytelling.
Animahenasyon’s new business trade component is part of a long-term plan to make the leap toward establishing the Philippines as the next global animation hub. “For the past 45 years, providing outsourced talent has been the bread and butter of the country’s animation industry,” Enriquez stated. “But because of the volatility of the global market, we want to have more security.”
Part of raising the Philippines’ profile as an intellectual-property generator is addressing the challenges that are currently holding the local industry back. Congressman Benitez specifically highlighted the need to train Filipino artists in the popular and rising animation styles that international studios are looking for, such as 3D and hybrid animation. He also raised the valid concern about artificial intelligence (AI) threatening the livelihoods of creators. “We need to ask ourselves, are we training our artists to excel in these new styles?” he said. “Our pipelines and people need to catch up with these emerging technologies so that we can leverage AI to our advantage, rather than be disrupted by it.”
Francisco Benitez, Director General of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), shared how different agencies have begun working on strengthening talent development with the Philippine Skills Framework for animation. “It teaches us how to create competency-based curricula, assessment tools, and imagery for animation,” he shared in his speech during the AniKompetisyon Awarding. “More importantly, it helps us design curricula that can be leveraged from senior high school all the way up to the university level to strengthen, widen, and deepen our talent pipeline.” He added that animation is a high-priority component of the digital technology cluster under the government’s National Education and Workforce Development Plan.
All the Animahenasyon speakers and stakeholders agree that multi-sectoral collaboration is key to transforming the Philippines into the next global animation hub. In a speech, CITEM Executive Director Leah Pulido Ocampo called on other government agencies working with the creative sectors, stating, “Let us continue to use our respective expertise and networks to promote Philippine talent and culture on the global market and increase our animators’ revenue opportunities.” Through collective effort, stakeholders can continue building on local animation’s hard-earned wins and helping local studios overcome challenges so the industry can reach its full potential. ***
Photos by Camille Dellosa.
CREATEPhilippines is the official co-presenter of Animahenasyon 2025. As the country's first government-led content and community platform for the local creative industries, it is the ultimate resource for stories and updates on the Philippines' creative community and a centralized directory and sourcing platform where Filipino creatives can share their portfolio and engage with a global audience.
CREATEPhilippines is a promotional program for the creative industry by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the export promotion arm of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Banner Caption:
From left: YouTube animators and AniTalks speakers Jen Animation and Elybunny, Ito Takeko of the ASEAN-Japan Centre, Sharon Wu-Coffey of Chimney Animation (Taiwan), CITEM Service Business Department Manager Marjo Evio, animator and filmmaker Mark Mendoza, Congressman Javi Benitez, Academy Award-nominated animator Bobby Pontillas, Hollywood animator and educator Thomas Esmeralda, Joanna Bowers of Cheeky Monkey Productions (Hong Kong), and Gabriel Garcia of HYPE Animation (Brazil).
