SHARJAH, 25th October, 2026 (WAM) -- The Middle East and Africa could become important markets for the global animation industry, offering new creative perspectives and opportunities for international coproduction, according to Pietro Pinetti, CEO of Studio Bozzetto.
Speaking during a session titled International Coproductions Beyond the Idea at the Sharjah Animation and Comics Conference (SACC 2026), Pinetti said producers and artists from the two regions could bring new ideas and creative approaches to international projects, with opportunities to reach audiences in Europe, North America and Japan.
“What I believe is that the Middle East and Africa will be the future markets for animation. It's a great moment to connect the Middle East with Japan, as Japanese producers are starting to open up to international co-productions,” Pinetti said.
Pinetti urged regional producers to involve potential partners much earlier in the development process, pointing to Japan’s model of bringing producers, publishers, toy companies and distributors together from the outset to share investment, align commercial interests and build projects collaboratively.
He said international co-production was becoming increasingly important as financing grows more difficult, adding that a strong creative idea alone is no longer enough. Producers must think early about funding, distribution, publishing and merchandising, while building the professional networks and face-to-face relationships needed to sustain projects that can take years to reach the market.
He cited Pino Shinobi, an Italian-Japanese collaboration that emerged after Studio Bozzetto representatives met Japanese broadcasting professionals at Expo 2025 Osaka. The project moved into production within six months of their initial discussions, compared with the two to three years typically required to develop animation projects.
In another panel titled The IP Struggle and Building Regional Models, Arab animation industry executives examined the barriers facing regional studios seeking to develop original intellectual property (IP), attract investment and reach wider audiences.
Abdulrahman Khedr, co-founder of Egyptian animation company Giraffics Studio, identified distribution as a major obstacle to securing investment in original productions.
“The issue for me was not financing; it was distribution. If distribution were in place, financing would follow,” he said.
Khedr recalled developing an Egyptian animated feature inspired by the country's cultural heritage, which attracted international interest at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2019. Despite encouraging feedback, the studio remained concerned about recovering production costs, prompting it to limit upfront spending and seek firm financial commitments before proceeding with original projects.
Building on that point, Nathalie Habib, co-owner and executive producer of Blink Studios, said the commercial viability of original intellectual property depends on thinking beyond production costs alone. Studios, she said, need to identify their target audiences early and build potential revenue streams into the project from the outset through licensing, merchandising and other commercial opportunities.
“When you build a character, a story and a world around it, they become assets you own. Those assets can go beyond distribution into licensing, merchandising and everything else that allows you to generate revenue from the characters you've created,” she said.
Citing the Emirati animated series Freej, Habib explained that while the show attracted family audiences during Ramadan, its storytelling appealed more to adults than children. This created challenges when its creators sought to expand into merchandise such as toys, as children were not its primary viewers. She stressed that understanding the target audience from the outset is essential to developing intellectual property that can generate revenue beyond broadcasting.
Organised by the Sharjah Book Authority, the fourth edition of SACC runs from October 22 to 25 at Aljada, featuring more than 150 activities and over 75 speakers from more than 30 countries.