This is a list of South African animated films. It includes theatrical films, some important short films, and international films in which South Africa's production houses and studios were involved.
| Title | Year | Director(s) | Studio | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Bang | 2006 | Diek Grobler | Fopspeen Moving Pictures | Stop-motion object and puppet animation. SAFTA Nomination for best animated short. Ekhuruleni Art Merit Award for new media. | |
| Agenda | 2007 | Diek Grobler | Fopspeen Moving Pictures | Stop-motion object and puppet animation. SAFTA award for best animation in a short film. Best Shorrt film award, Arficala African Film festival, Mexico, 2009 | |
| The Rise and Fall of Tony the Frog | 2008 | Ambient Animation | CG animation | ||
| Het vogeltjes ABC | 2008 | Diek Grobler | Fopspeen Moving Pictures | Best film for Children at Teheran International animation festival, Iran. Best film for Children at Tindirindis International animation Festival, Lithuania. Best film for Children at KROK International Animation festival, Ukraine. | |
| n Gewone Blou Maandagoggend | 2014 | Naomi van Niekerk | Dryfsand Films | Poetry-film of a poem by Ronelda S.Kamfer. Awarded the Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for Best First Film at Annecy Animation Festival 2016. | |
| What about de law | 2014 | Charles Badenhorst | Bittervrug | Poetry-film of a poem by Adam Small. Winner of the Weimar Poetry-film prize, Germany (2016), and the first animated film to be included in the art collection of the South African Constitutional Court. | |
| Please Frog, just one sip | 2018 | Diek Grobler | Fopspeen Moving Pictures | An African retelling of the Australian Tidalik legend, the film is based on a book by international illustrator Piet Grobler. Special Award at Hiroshima International Animation Festival 2018. | |
| Ruby & Roach | 2019 | Erentia Bedeker | Abyss Productions | Best South African Short Film 2020 (Durban International Film Festival) Best African Short Film 2020 (Durban International Film Festival) Best Children Film (Tbilisi International Animation Festival (TIAF) 2020) Best Music Video/Music Films award (Blu-Hill Film Festival Season 3, 2021) Best Animation Short Film (Onyko Films Awards – May 2021 selection) Gold medallist Best Sound Design Category (1st Film Olympiad Grand Prix 2021) Bronze medallist, Best Animation Category (1st Film Olympiad Grand Prix 2021) Best Original Score (New York Indie Shorts Awards, April – August 2021 season) Best Animation (Cannes Indie Cinema Awards 4th Edition, 2021) |
| Year | Title International Title | Director(s) | Studio | Technique | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Tengers | Michael J. Fix | Mirror Mountain Pictures Ster Kinekor Pictures | Clay animation | |
| 2011 | The Lion of Judah | Deryck Broom Roger Hawkins | Animated Family Films Character Matters Sunrise Productions Rocky Mountain Pictures | CG Animation | [1] |
| 2011 | Jock the Hero Dog | Duncan McNeillie | Jock Animation ARC Entertainment | CG Animation | [2] |
| 2012 | Zambezia | Wayne Thornley | Triggerfish Animation Studios Sony Pictures Cinema Management Group | CG Animation | Africa Movie Academy Award for best animation Nominated for Annie award for Music in an Animated Feature Production and Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production [3] |
| 2013 | Khumba | Anthony Silverston | Triggerfish Animation Studios Millennium Entertainment Cinema Management Group | CG Animation | Zanzibar International Film Festival for best animation [4] Africa Movie Academy Award for best animation [5] Nominated for best feature; Annecy Animation Festival . |
| 2019 | Bru & Boegie: The Movie | Mike Scott | Mike Scott Animation | 2D Animation | South Africa's first feature-length 2D animated film. [6] |
| 2020 | Jungle Beat: The Movie | Brent Dawes | Sandcastle Studios Sunrise Productions Timeless Films | CG Animation | |
| 2021 | Seal Team | Greig Cameron Kane Croudace | Triggerfish Animation Studios Cinema Management Group | CG Animation | |
| 2023 | Headspace | Paul Meyer Gerhard Painter | Luma Animation The Ergo Company | CG Animation |
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Killarney Film Studios was a South African film studio established in Johannesburg by New York native and business tycoon Isidore W. Schlesinger in 1915 and is regarded as "the first motion picture studio in Africa". Schlesinger moved to South Africa in 1894, against his family's wishes, when he read about the discovery of gold in Witwatersrand. In 1913, having accumulated wealth throughout various ventures, he ventured in to the entertainment industry in 1913 when he purchased the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg for £60,000 and converted what was an "insolvent" business into a flourishing one named African Consolidated Theatres, which worked on the national distribution of content like variety shows and films from the Cape of Good Hope to the Zambezi River.
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The Africa Movie Academy Awards, popularly known as AMAA and The AMA Awards, are presented annually to recognize excellence among professionals working in, or non-African professionals who have contributed to, the African film industry. It was founded by Peace Anyiam-Osigwe and is run through the Africa Film Academy. The awards are aimed at honouring and promoting excellence in the African movie industry as well as uniting the African continent through arts and culture. The award presentation is attended by numerous media representatives, celebrities, politicians, journalists, actresses and actors from all across the world. The AMA Awards are widely considered to be Africa's most important film event and the most prestigious film award in Africa. A variety of international observers have fondly called the African Movie Academy Awards the "African Oscars".
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Teen Titans Go! is an American animated television series developed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic for Cartoon Network. It premiered on April 23, 2013, and is based on the DC Comics fictional superhero team. The series was announced following the popularity of DC Nation's New Teen Titans shorts. The production companies of the series are DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation, with the animation outsourced to Canada at Copernicus Studios and Bardel Entertainment.
Triggerfish is a computer animation film studio based in Cape Town, South Africa and Galway, Ireland. The studio is best known for its animated feature films Adventures in Zambezia (2012), Khumba (2013), and Seal Team (2021), as well as the work they have done on television specials created for UK producers Magic Light Pictures. In 2016, Stick Man was awarded the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy International Animation Festival. In 2017, Revolting Rhymes again won the Cristal for best TV production at the Annecy Festival, and was nominated for the Best Short Film (Animated) Oscar at the 2018 Academy Awards. In 2019, Netflix announced that Triggerfish would produce its first African animated TV series. In 2020, Zog won the International Emmy for Best Kids Animation. In 2021, The Snail and The Whale won Best Special Production at The Annie Awards, while Triggerfish received the Mifa Animation Industry Award at Annecy for "the pioneering role that the company has played in animation in South Africa, and Africa most widely.” In 2022, their third film, Seal Team, made the Netflix Top 10 Films global list for its launch week.
The Loud House is an American animated television series created by Chris Savino that premiered on Nickelodeon on May 2, 2016. The series revolves around the chaotic everyday life of a boy named Lincoln Loud, who is the middle child and only son in a large family of 11 children. It is set in a fictional town in southeastern Michigan called Royal Woods, based on Savino's hometown of Royal Oak. The series was pitched to the network in 2013 as a two-minute short film entered in the annual Animated Shorts Program. It entered production the following year. The series is based on Savino's own childhood growing up in a large family, and its animation is largely influenced by newspaper comic strips.
Aryanto Yuniawan is Chief Executive Officer of PT Mataram Surya Visi Sinema, a multimedia and animation movie company located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Ary is best known as a director of Battle of Surabaya, the first 2D animation movie in Indonesia which got some awards i.e. Gold Remi Award USA 2016, GrandPrize Winner of SICAF 2016 in South Korea, Winner of Nice International Filmmaker Festival 2017 in France, Winner of Nioda International Film Festival in India and others. He is also acclaimed as a writer, a producer, and currently working on several articles and books related to his job and hobby. He started his career from directing and producing independent animation films including music videos. He was trusted to be one of the juries of several film festivals such as Festival Film Indonesia, Noida International Film Festival, and Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival.
The Animation Industry in South Africa encompasses traditional 2D animation, 3D animation and visual effects for feature films.
Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe is a 2020 American animated musical science fiction comedy film which takes place in the animated television series Phineas and Ferb, created by Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. Directed by Bob Bowen, who co-wrote it with Povenmire, Marsh, and several other writers, it is the second film based on the series following Across the 2nd Dimension (2011). Set at some point during the summer depicted in the series and before the fourth season finale, "Last Day of Summer", the film follows Phineas and Ferb as they rescue their sister Candace and Dr. Doofenshmirtz's daughter Vanessa from the planet Feebla-Oot. However, Candace becomes tempted to stay on the planet when she is treated with respect by its people, not knowing that they harbor a dark secret which involves her presence.
AnimaxFYB Studios is an animation multimedia company founded by Francis Yushua Brown. The company tells African stories in an animated format. They specialize in visual effects as well as 2D and 3D Animation. They have produced award winning animations.
