Nigeria’s animation industry is set for a global spotlight at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s market, Mifa, with five diverse projects selected for the Hidden Gems: Global Stories from Nigeria showcase.
Supported by the French Embassy and Animation Nigeria, the initiative highlights a wide range of genres—fantasy, sci-fi, drama, adventure, musical, and educational—celebrating “the cultural richness, vibrant themes, bold storytelling, and the rising global impact of Nigerian animation.”
The selected projects to be pitched at the showcase are:
- Demi-Cel (Directed by Tito Olawole): New school, new friends, new powers, ancient menace. Asocial Abidemi must lead a bunch of half-celestial misfits to save humanity from a monster invasion. (Adventure, fantasy)
- UDIA (Directed by Racheal Afor): Jite, an aspiring healer, is torn between her passion for healing and her family’s tradition of becoming the next chief masquerade—a prestigious role passed down through generations. When a fierce argument causes her mother to fall into the community’s sacred masquerade lake, Jite ventures in to save her, only to discover her mother has been possessed by an ancient masquerade spirit. Jite journeys through the mysterious lake to save her mother. (Drama, fantasy, adventure)
- The Sky Bound Hunters (Directed by John Zino and Segun Samson): In a world where magic powers machines and myths roam the stars, the sky bound hunters once stood as legendary guardians – protectors of a realm ruled by a guild of sovereigns. But an ancient terror returns from the shadows. The hunters fall, and their stronghold is reduced to ash. (Fantasy, sci-fi)
- The Travails of Ajadi (Directed by Adetunji Adeoye): Ajadi, a weathered man shaped by years of toil, is caught in a storm while out fishing and thrown into the ocean. He drifts unconscious to awaken in an in-between state in a strange metaphysical space where the sea is calm, the sky unnatural, and a mysterious voice calls his name. (Adventure, drama, fantasy)
- Ugo & Sim Sim: The Animated Series (Created by Tonye Faloughi-Ekezie): We follow the rambunctious duo of Ugo, a curious and imaginative brother to Sim Sim, his outgoing sister with Down syndrome. Set in Lagos city, Nigeria, each episode takes viewers on a journey filled with laughter, valuable life lessons and heartwarming moments. (Musical, educational)
Annecy, which runs from June 8–14, is widely regarded as the world’s foremost animation festival, with the Mifa market taking place June 10–13.
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