Artificial intelligence has dominated most conversations about animation over the past several years, but at this year’s Next Lab Generation workshop in Madrid, it was compelling.
Over eight weeks, teams participating in the event’s pitching program had to integrate two technologies into their production processes: Meta’s VR animation software, Quill, and AI image platform, Magnific. Working with mentors fluent in the technologies, they create proof-of-concept material for projects ranging from shorts and series to a feature film and video game.
During their pitches, each had to state how many hours they invested in their project, and how many of those hours were spent using the two technologies. Almost every team praised Quill as an intuitive way to paint, animate, block, and quickly prototype ideas in three-dimensional space, although there were complaints about its learning curve. Magnific received a very mixed reception. Most participants found it useful for early concept development, lighting experiments, or mood research, and said it was great for producing a visual image, but abandoned it as a production tool after encountering problems with consistency, control, aesthetic personality, and credit structure.
The six finalists were selected from over 70 submissions and spent eight weeks developing their projects before launching them in Madrid at an event with their support. Community of Madrid through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports and Funded by Madrid City Council. At the conclusion of the event, the jury presented the top awards newsa deeply personal Mexican-Spanish short film about unresolved grief; Sorry mahanA video game debut inspired by the Canary Islands’ housing and tourism crisis; And TarasAn ambitious fantasy feature rooted in the folklore and landscapes of Mexico’s Michoacán region. The three winning teams received professional recognition at Annecy’s Mifa market in 2027.
Sharp assessment came from Shower Club Director Miguel Medrano Malo said he felt the team was “doing the boring part” by producing the artwork for the AI, while the AI was doing the fun part of creating the film. It’s a sentiment that resonates throughout many presentations.
Here’s a breakdown of the six next-lap pitches for this year.
Don Kuoskar-Man
Directors: Ariel Munoz, Chin Ai, Anna Escudero, Angel Sanchez
Country: Spain
One of the event’s funniest presentations also delivered one of its strongest emotional hooks. Leaning on the importance of family, Don Kuoskar-Man Don Quixote is recast as Quixote, an elderly kiosk owner whose grief and financial difficulties convince him that he has become a superhero. His Sancho Panza becomes his practical granddaughter, Sansa, who gently admires her grandfather’s imagination while helping him fight against an entity that is destroying their neighborhood.
“If Miguel de Cervantes had been born in our time, he would not have written about knights. We like to think that he would have written about superheroes,” the filmmakers said. By combining CG animation with comic-book-inspired 2D visuals, creating a visual language that shifts with the character’s inauthentic mood, the short distinguishes Kike’s reality from fantasy. The team found that Quill was more creatively rewarding than AI, eventually leaving two AI-rendered scenes for more ambitious workflows.
Rewind
Directors: Lida Fernandez Umbria and Maria Martinez
Country: Spain
Rewind Revisits some of history’s greatest mysteries through the eyes of two profoundly inept alien scientists. Each episode of this preschool series sends Bass and Panano to a different point in human history, where their efforts to quietly observe events accidentally spark milestones like the discovery of fire or the construction of the pyramids.
What begins as a historical comedy gradually reveals itself as a story about friendship between two complete opposites. As the creators said, “Sometimes mistakes don’t end the story, instead, they start it.”
The group used the workshop to experiment with quilt-constructed VR dioramas set in locations including ancient Egypt, Mount Everest and Atlantis. The AI ultimately proved less successful, with the filmmakers concluding that while it excelled at creating individual images, maintaining consistency throughout the animation sequence remained a significant challenge.
Sorry mahan
Director: Angel Ars (Sangaliprato)
Country: Spain
Inspired by growing up in Spain’s Canary Islands, Sorry mahan Channels frustration over overtourism and the ongoing housing crisis into a stylized video game adventure. Its melancholic canary protagonist battles armored invaders representing island-changing forces in a handcrafted paper-cutout aesthetic inspired by classic video games and stop-motion animation.
Arce admits that the metaphor is not particularly subtle. “It’s not subtle. It’s just me,” he laughs after explaining that the hero’s fight against the villains reflects his own feelings about the islands’ changing identity.
Unlike most participants, Ars embraced AI throughout the workshop, creating a pipeline that integrated quill animation, puppetry when used as a marionette, and AI-assisted rendering, he said. However, he stressed, “You have to be in control every time. You can’t let AI control you.” The project was one of three selected by the jury for the top awards.
Taras
Director: Juan Luis Hernandez
Country: Mexico
Showcase’s most ambitious world-building exercise, Taras A fictional feature rooted in the landscapes, folklore, and history of Hernández’s native Michoacán. Set in a volcanic valley and an ancient castle ruled by an immortal tyrant, the story follows Lucio, a blind boy trapped in a brutal ritual before embarking on a journey that could rewrite the world’s mythology.
Hernández drew inspiration from indigenous traditions, the Barricutin volcano, and the historic. Michogan relationshipCreating an imaginary universe that feels deeply connected to Mexican culture.
Throughout the presentation, he returned to a question that drives the project: “Is fiction inspired by reality? Or is reality beginning to be inspired by fiction?” While using AI primarily as a finishing tool for lighting and atmosphere, he hailed the quilt as the workshop’s greatest invention, saying he “totally fell in love with the quilt.” Taras One of the three winning projects this year.
news
Director: Daniela Belmonte Valencia
Country: Mexico / Spain
A very personal pitch of the event, news Growing out of a story written by Belmonte’s mother (who traveled to Madrid for the pitch), she enacts her own complicated relationship with her late father. The resulting short film follows a young woman attending her estranged father’s funeral.
Instead of exploring reconciliation, the short’s team is interested in a more difficult question: How do you grieve for someone you don’t truly love?
Belmonte explained that the story ultimately argues that “perhaps she is the only person who can give her the love and reassurance she’s always wanted.”
After deciding that AI couldn’t recreate the intimate, handmade feel they wanted, the team produced its proof of concept almost entirely in quilts. Instead, they kept the AI to visual experiments and lighting cues while wrapping up the final teaser inside Quill. The film is another of the workshop’s three award winners.
Shower Club
Director: Carmen Alvarez Munoz, Miguel Medrano Malo
Country: Spain
Some pitches generated many laughs Shower ClubThe comedy begins when a group of older women discover that the men’s locker room at their local swimming pool has better shower controls than theirs. What begins as a complaint quickly snowballs into protests, media attention, and eventually a nationwide movement.
Beneath the ridiculous premise lies a surprisingly endearing portrait of aging, dynamism and friendship. “Usually older people are represented as a single group, full of stereotypes,” Medrano Malo said. “We want to give them their own voices and their own humor.”
Visually, the project combines hand-drawn 2D characters with glossy, ceramic-inspired 3D environments. Although the filmmakers used AI to create the backgrounds and quills as needed, they concluded that only hand-drawn 2D animation would work for their aesthetic. Just as important as the quality of the results, Medrano Malo delivered a memorable line from the workshop: “We felt like we were doing the boring part, and the AI was doing the fun part.” It’s safe to say they won’t be motivated to get their results if this plan moves forward.
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