Best Animation Studios in Lisbon (2026)

Introduction

Greater Lisbon has nine animation studios worth a close look in 2026, covering 2D, 3D, stop-motion and motion design. They range from long-established film producers such as Animanostra and Sardinha em Lata to commercial motion studios working for international brands.

Portuguese animation had a strong year. Portugal took seven nominations at the 9th Quirino Awards in 2026, second only to Spain, and MONSTRA, the Lisbon animation festival, ran its 25th edition in March with 490 films, 47 of them Portuguese. Much of the country’s short film output comes from Porto, home to BAP Animation Studios and Animais AVPL, so this list is smaller than a Portuguese animation list would be. Lisbon’s studios tend to combine funded film work, often supported by the national film institute ICA and built on European co-production, with commissions for brands and institutions.

Every studio here shows a Lisbon or Greater Lisbon base on a page checked for this list, along with signs of activity in 2026. We kept the list to nine because other names could not be verified, and it runs in no fixed order of merit.

The best animation studios in Lisbon

1. Sardinha em Lata

Independent · Avenidas Novas · sardinhaemlata.com

Sardinha em Lata has produced animated films in Lisbon since 2007, with a focus on series and features for international audiences and short films as a place to try new techniques and authors. Director Nuno Beato is one of its best-known faces. His feature Os Demónios do Meu Avô, a stop-motion hybrid made with Spanish and French partners, reached Portuguese cinemas in 2023.

Recent features include Alberto Vázquez’s 2D film Decorado (2025), a co-production with Spanish partners that shared a 2026 Quirino nomination for sound and music, and Ana, en Passant, listed for 2026 and made with Apiário in Brazil and Midralgar in France. The studio also takes commissions, including a 2024 piece for Web Summit and work for Parques de Sintra. It rents out a stop-motion shooting space with six sets and a motion control robot, which is useful for productions that need the stage without the full studio service.

2. EASYLAB

Independent · Lisbon · easylabanimation.com

EASYLAB is a stop-motion and 2D digital studio founded in 2005 by the production company Take It Easy, and led by producers and directors João Miguel Real and Jerónimo Rocha. Its short Macabre won a Méliès d’Argent at Lund in 2017. The children’s science series À Boleia da Ciência (What’s It All About?) premiered on RTP2 in 2024, and its first season competed for Best Series at the 2026 Quirino Awards.

A second season of 16 episodes is listed as upcoming, alongside La Question, a co-production with France’s XBO Films. The commercial side of the studio lists work for Pingo Doce, Hermès Paris, Galp and the IOPC Funds. EASYLAB builds much of its 2D pipeline around Moho, which is worth knowing if your team plans to supply or reuse rigs.

3. COLA Animation

Cooperative · Prior Velho (Loures) · colaanimation.com

COLA Animation is an international production cooperative that specialises in handmade film. It produced João Gonzalez’s Ice Merchants, which won the top short film prize at Cannes Critics’ Week and became the first Portuguese film nominated for an Oscar, and it reports more than 150 international awards for the film. Later titles include Telsche, which premiered at Annecy.

The current slate includes Lúcido by Vier, an interactive VR short for Meta Quest 3 that was in post-production in spring 2026, supported by ICA and Ibermedia Next. COLA also takes commissions for music videos, advertising and institutions, including a Toonami piece. As a cooperative with an international membership, it is worth asking which team would make your project and where they are based.

4. Animanostra

Independent · Anjos and Seixal · animanostra.pt

Animanostra has produced animation for cinema and television since 1991, which makes it one of the longest-running studios in Portugal. Humberto Santana leads much of its current film work. Its catalogue is mostly short films and small-format series, and many Portuguese animators have passed through its studios over three decades.

Two films are dated 2026: O Esconderijo da Paulina, directed by Alain Corbel and set in Maputo, and O Traidor da Classe Operária, directed by Santana and set during Portugal’s revolutionary period after 25 April. Its portfolio also includes They Shot the Piano Player, the Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal feature. The site lists addresses in Lisbon and Seixal and names no commercial clients, so it suits film and series projects more clearly than advertising.

5. Olga Studio

Independent · Campo Pequeno · olgastudio.tv

Olga Studio is a boutique motion graphics and animation studio on Praça do Campo Pequeno. It offers motion graphics, 2D and 3D animation, and video mapping, handling projects from concept and design through technical production.

Live events are a large part of the work, and the studio keeps a separate events showreel, updated in 2026, next to its motion reel. Its range runs from video mapping and large-format displays to internet video and TV, which makes it a practical option for brand events and launches where the content has to fit an unusual screen.

6. Itsanashow

Independent · Lisbon · itsanashow.com

Itsanashow is an independent creative studio founded in 2020, working across motion, branding and web. Its motion work covers brand films, broadcast identities and motion systems, and its Clutch profile adds 2D and 3D animation, explainer videos, UI animation and title sequences.

Clients listed on that profile include EDP Group, RTP, Banco de Portugal, Novartis, Penguin Random House and the Aga Khan Foundation. The combination of branding and animation under one roof suits companies that want a visual identity and its motion language designed together. Clutch gives a minimum project size of $5,000.

7. Dialogue

Independent · Costa de Caparica (Almada) · dialogue.pt

Dialogue is a creative studio founded by creative director César Furtado, south of the river in Almada. Its team of illustrators, 3D artists, animators and designers handles art direction, storyboarding, styleframes, and 2D and 3D animation, with cel animation a visible strength in the portfolio.

Named projects include Adobe Stock Awards, a mix of 2D animation and digital illustration, a campaign announcing MEO’s move into the energy market, and illustration, motion and branding for the music app ROVR. The portfolio also includes ROM-COM, an animated poem about desire.

8. Flying Eye

Independent · Lisbon and São Paulo · flyingeye.studio

Flying Eye is a motion creative studio for advertising, entertainment and sport. Marcello Amora founded it in São Paulo in 2014 and moved it to Lisbon in 2023, and it keeps a Brazilian operation through HUB Studios. Its services cover creative direction, design, film production, animation and CGI, including broadcast packages and title sequences.

The studio names Nike, IKEA and Coca-Cola among the brands it has worked with, cites a D&AD Silver, and has case studies for Visa, Enhanced Games and Bitpanda. The team is small and senior: some members are in Lisbon, and many are in Brazil. Ask how a project would be split across the two if local presence matters to you.

9. Blablabla Media

Independent · Benfica · blablablamedia.com

Blablabla Media is a Lisbon film and audiovisual company with a history of 17 years, and animation is its newer line. Its animated short The Girl with the Occupied Eyes, written and directed by André Carrilho, screened at Annecy in 2024 and won awards at Bogoshorts and Animayo, and was a triple finalist at the Quirino Awards.

An animated series, Nina, is in development. The company’s wider work covers documentaries, fiction and commissioned films for clients such as Gulbenkian, so it suits projects that need animation next to live-action or documentary material. Its animation record is shorter than that of most studios on this list.

What to look for in a Lisbon animation studio

Start with the technique, since it decides who can do the job. Stop-motion needs stages and puppets, and only a few studios here have those in-house, with Sardinha em Lata and EASYLAB the clearest examples. 3D and motion design rely more on the team’s pipeline, and hand-drawn or cel work depends heavily on individual animators.

Check how a studio balances film and commissions. Many Lisbon studios rely on funded films, with money from ICA and European co-productions, and take commercial work alongside. That can bring strong craft and a distinctive look, though a feature in production can affect availability. Ask what else will be on the floor during your schedule.

Ask where the team sits. Cooperatives and small senior studios often work with animators in other cities or countries, and several studios here work with partners abroad. Distributed teams can work well, but it helps to know who is directing, who is animating and which time zones are involved. Also agree who owns project files such as rigs, puppets and scene files once the job ends.

Look closely at how reviews run. Animation approvals move through script, storyboard, animatic, styleframes, blocking and final render, and changes get more expensive at each stage. A studio with a clear review process, and one place where clients can find the latest version, will lose less time to feedback spread across email threads.

How Fabric helps animation teams

Fabric gives an animation studio one workspace for production files, client feedback and project knowledge, and there is a page on how motion design agencies use it.

Renders and project files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and shared team folders hold the latest versions. That helps when animators work across more than one city. There is more on storing heavy output in your rendering files need a home. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, and colour search finds visual references by shade.

For client review, share a cut or a folder with commenter access; shared links work without sign-up. Clients can leave timestamped comments on an animatic or render, add a drawing on the video frame with a comment, and draw on styleframes and attach a comment to the drawing. The team then marks each comment completed, so feedback works like a checklist. The steps are set out in how to get client feedback on a video.

Finished work can be published as a web page, view-only with optional download, and useful for a showreel or a delivery page. Password protection and link analytics help when a film or pitch goes to named festival programmers, broadcasters or buyers. In pre-production, the canvas works for moodboards and storyboards, and a Kanban board turns a folder of shots into a pipeline whose cards are the files themselves.

Password protection and link analytics are included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best animation studio in Lisbon?

There is no single answer, as it depends on the technique and format. For recognition, COLA Animation produced the Oscar-nominated Ice Merchants, and Sardinha em Lata has the widest feature slate. For brand motion work, Itsanashow, Olga Studio, Dialogue and Flying Eye are the places to start.

Which Lisbon studios work in stop-motion?

Sardinha em Lata and EASYLAB both work in stop-motion. Sardinha em Lata also rents a stop-motion shooting space with six sets, a support workshop and a motion control robot.

Is BAP Animation Studios in Lisbon?

No. BAP is a Porto cooperative, and Animais AVPL also lists its address in Porto. Both have strong recent records, so Portuguese productions that are not tied to Lisbon may want to look north too.

Should I hire an animation studio or a video production company?

It depends on how much of the film is animated. A fully animated piece usually goes straight to an animation studio. If animation is one part of a live-action shoot, a production company may lead and bring animators in, and our list of video production companies in Lisbon covers that side.

How do Lisbon studios fund their own films?

Many use public support and co-production. Credits on the studios’ own pages show funding from ICA, Portugal’s national film institute, and Ibermedia Next, with partners in Spain, France and Brazil on several titles. Commissioned work for brands and institutions usually runs alongside this.

Related lists

Animation studios in other cities: New York · London · Paris · Barcelona · Berlin

More in Lisbon: Creative agencies · Design agencies · Advertising agencies · Video production · Content studios · Social media agencies

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for creative teams · Best video review software for creative teams · How to mark client feedback as done