The state of play and outlook for Skydance Animation Madrid was in focus on Thursday, the third day of the fifth edition of Iberseries & Platino Industria in Madrid, Spain.
The studio, now part of Paramount after its acquisition by David Ellison’s Skydance Media, was represented by Skydance Animation Madrid vp, finance and operations Carolina Borreguero Sanz on a panel entitled “Community of Madrid: Investment Scenario.” Skydance’s relationship with the Spanish capital started in 2016-2017 when it hired the animation unit of Madrid’s Ilion Studios to produce two movies.
“In 2020, it acquired that production unit and continued with those two projects,” she said, according to an English live translation of her Spanish comments, provided by Iberseries. “At that time, there were 250 employees. Right now, it’s 700 of us, including 30 percent who come from abroad, with more than 30 nationalities.”
Asked about recent work, the executive told the event: “We delivered one film this year that will premiere on Netflix next year. It is called Swapped. It used to be called Pookoo. Now it’s going to be called Swapped.” A synopsis for the movie, directed by Nathan Greno (Tangled), reads: “When two natural sworn enemies of The Valley, a small woodland creature and a majestic bird, magically trade places, they must set off on an adventure of a lifetime to save their home.”
There is much more in the Skydance Animation Madrid pipeline, Borreguero Sanz highlighted. “We have two films in production that will be delivered in 2026, and we have three additional ones” after that, with the goal of getting to “two per year,” she shared.
“One that has been developed partially in Spain and abroad, which will premiere next year — I don’t know the specific date — is a Brad Bird project,” the executive also mentioned. That was seen as a reference to Ray Gunn’s Netflix film that Canada’s Cinesite Animation has been working on. The movie follows the last human private detective in a futuristic world inhabited by humans and aliens.
John Lasseter, head of Skydance Animation, “is really demanding,” the executive emphasized in highlighting the studio’s high standards. “We want triple-A quality in animation. … He has said: ‘What I have in Spain is what I used to have at Pixar’.”
Continued Borreguero Sanz: “The quality of Spanish talent is very good. We’ve brought a lot of foreign talent that, of course, develops our local talent. That is working very well for us.”
Also appearing on Thursday’s panel were Adrián Núñez Saá, co-founder & Unreal Engine supervisor at Raised by Monsters, and Mauricio Van Hasselt, director of production and innovation at EFD Studios.
The moderator was Luis Socías Uribe, managing director of Invest in Madrid.