Sharjah [UAE], October 25: A free, eight-month animation programme in Morocco receives about 2,000 applications a year for just 30 places, and almost all of its graduates go straight into jobs, its founder told the Sharjah Animation and Comics Conference (SACC) 2026.
Speaking at a session titled "Are We Training Animators for the Real World?" moderated by Khaoula Zouine, Managing Editor of Mt7rk, Ali Rguigue, producer at Artcoustic and the Atlas Next Frame Festival, said: "That shows how strong the demand is for training built around what studios need now."
Rguigue said his generation grew up on imported cartoons such as Captain Majid. When he had children of his own, he began to wonder why Morocco had none of its own. "We have a lot of stories to tell, and we could not show them to our kids," he said, reflecting on his decision to develop animated content rooted in the country's history and culture.
One of the projects was a series Hikayat Wa Ibar centred on the Fez-born Touria Chaoui who made history in 1951, when she obtained her aviation license at just 15 years old, becoming one of the youngest females in aviation in Morocco and globally.
Her story presented children with a home-grown heroine whose achievements could inspire them. Another series, Tourat Al Maghrib, used traditional storytelling to explore Morocco's tangible and intangible heritage through an engaging visual style.
Both convinced broadcasters and the government that local animation had an audience. But it also exposed a shortage of skilled animators, he said.
Rguigue then spoke about how Artcoustic began as a motion design studio. During the Covid-19 pandemic it produced public awareness videos for Morocco's Ministry of Interior, and that work led to funding for a training programme. The Flow Motion School opened in 2021 under Morocco's National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) youth employability initiative. It is free for 18 to 35-year-olds, many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds, with full scholarships.
"Creative people come from everywhere, not only Casablanca. There are people in villages who draw very well," Rguigue said, explaining how the four stages of selection: an online test of basic tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator, a two-day storyboard or animation task, a trial at the school, and an interview with a panel of about 10 people.
"We can drop someone very good at drawing and take someone a little less skilled, but with good motivation. Motivation matters as much as skill," he said. "The programme is only eight months, so we need to be sure they can be trained."
Students work in small teams that simulate studios, on real projects with deadlines and project managers. The programme ends with a two-month studio internship. Rguigue said close to 100% of graduates find work, and the school tracks them to make sure they stay in animation.
"This is not an academic school. Talent is everywhere, but pipelines are not, and that is the big fight," he said. "We focus on what works in Morocco now, not tomorrow."
Teachers are working professionals. They include Mohamed Beyoud, artistic director of the FICAM animation festival in Meknes, stop-motion director Jihane Joypaul, comic author Yassine Hejjamy, and filmmaker and novelist Hicham Laari.
This year the school signed a partnership with Gobelins, the Paris animation school. Graduates of its first cohort have already gone on to study there. Rguigue said the two institutions share the same values despite their different models: Flow Motion offers fast, intensive training, and Gobelins a full academic programme.
Source: Emirates News Agency
