Eight Cape Town animation studios have been selected for a UN-backed programme that will help them grow their businesses and bring more African stories to life!
Cape Town, South Africa (22 October 2026) – You might not know it, but some of the animated productions you’ve watched on platforms like Disney+ have South African talent behind them!
The talent certainly exists here, but turning that creativity into real business is the difficult part. Finding investors, securing funding and getting original projects into international markets can all be really big challenges for smaller studios.
A new initiative is giving eight Cape Town animation studios a helping hand to take their businesses to the next level!
The studios have been selected for an eight-month accelerator programme backed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). It’s part of the UNDP’s timbuktoo Creatives Hub, with support from the Government of Japan, in partnership with Digital Frontiers and Triggerfish Foundation.
The programme is designed to help promising animation studios grow into more successful businesses through mentorship, masterclasses and opportunities to connect with investors and industry professionals.
An important part of this is helping African studios develop and own more of their original stories and characters, rather than being limited to creating animation for other companies. This means they have a greater opportunity to benefit from the success of their own creations.
Some of the selected studios have already worked on major productions like Star Wars: Visions, Mad Max: Fury Road and Disney+’s Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire. Others have earned international awards and Emmy nominations, collaborated with entertainment giants like Netflix and Sony, and produced animated series that have reached audiences in more than 40 countries!
The eight studios selected are Bugbox Animation, Fancy Horse Studios, Goon Valley, Lucan, Motif Studios, Pixcomm, Sparks Flew Development Studio and Studio Bo.
According to the International Finance Corporation, Africa’s creative economy could contribute 20 million jobs and $200 billion in economic value by 2030. Yet creative businesses in emerging markets receive less than one per cent of global financing for the sector.
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The timbuktoo Creatives Hub, which is hosted in South Africa aims to be the change by connecting African creatives and entrepreneurs with the skills, people, investment opportunities and international markets they need to succeed.
Over the next eight months, the selected studios will get to build valuable partnerships, explore new projects and get more homegrown stories onto screens around the world.
The more these studios can grow, the more opportunities there could be for South African animators, artists and storytellers to build careers doing what they love.
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