What is Bitbang Academy?

Bitbang Academy is Bitbang’s training space. It emerged from the workshops, labs, and training experiences that Bitbang has developed over the years, both in person and online, and from the need to give them a common framework.

It is not conceived as a traditional academic institution, but rather as a space for research, experimentation, and collective practice. We are interested in learning through processes, mistakes, shared reflection, and critical thinking.

Bitbang Academy launches its first advanced training program: the annual Program in Direction and Narrative for Animation.

The Program

The program focuses on developing a unique voice, exploring creative processes, experimentation, and learning through mistakes.

Animation is not a technique; it is a language. A language that organizes time, movement, rhythm, perspective, and experience. A language capable of constructing worlds, emotions, stories, and questions. While animation is always expressed through a technique, its expressive principles transcend any specific tool.

This program doesn’t simply aim to teach “how to animate,” but rather how to direct animation. How to make decisions, how to maintain a personal vision throughout the process, how to connect image, sound, movement, and narrative in a work that is authentic and unique.

It is a space for research, practice, and collective reflection. A place to experiment, make mistakes, try again, question, and rethink creative processes. A space where doing is inseparable from thinking. We propose studying animation as a system of thought: how movement communicates, how time constructs meaning, how a formal decision becomes narrative.

Artistic training, in this approach, is not limited to technical tools; it arises from analysis, observation, experience, and critical exchange with other creators.

Throughout the program, animated works from different traditions and aesthetics will be analyzed, practical exercises will be carried out, and an individual project will be developed. Each project is built by exploring its own paths, questioning conventions, and consolidating a unique voice within an environment of collaboration and shared reflection.

Methodology and Course Structure

The program is designed as a training space that integrates practice, analysis, and experimentation, focusing on creative processes and the development of personal projects.

The course is organized into two weekly sessions:

• One session dedicated to the core subject: Direction and Narrative, geared towards the development of an individual project. This session involves analyzing existing works, writing, decision-making, trial and error, and continuous monitoring of each process. Directing and Narrative serves as the central axis of the program, where the work is conceived and developed throughout the year.

• A second session dedicated to specific modules, focused on different aspects of animated language (storyboarding, mise-en-scène, animation as a language, editing as the construction of meaning, sound and dialogue, production, and distribution). These modules offer practical exercises, analyses, and specific explorations that serve as tools to enrich and critically examine the work developed in Direction and Narrative.

The two areas are in constant dialogue. The modules don’t function as independent subjects, but rather as opportunities that support, challenge, and enrich the development of individual projects.

In addition, the program includes a monthly online discussion with leading international and national figures in animation, who have already participated in Bitbang or are about to. These sessions allow participants to broaden their perspectives, learn about different professional paths, and engage with contemporary practices in the field.

Course Load and Format

• Duration: 8 months
  Start: week of March 23, 2026
  End: week of November 23, 2026
• Frequency: two sessions per week
• Days: Mondays and Wednesdays
• Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (Argentina time, GMT -3)
• Total number of sessions: 70
• Total workload: 140 hours
• Format: online
• Language: Spanish
• Break: weeks of July 20 and 27
• Includes:
  • one monthly online talk with national and international artists invited by Bitbang
    (dates and times to be confirmed based on availability)
• Certificate: awarded upon completion of a minimum of 75% attendance, submission of the final project, and receipt of all payments.

Who is it for? / Requirements

The program is aimed at animators with verifiable prior experience who wish to deepen their understanding of directing and storytelling in their projects.

Applicants must:

Have a tertiary or university degree in animation or related audiovisual disciplines with a specialization in animation, or
Demonstrate a minimum of 3 years of experience in animation.

Registration requires completing an online application form and submitting materials, a portfolio, or a reel that showcases the applicant’s background and interests.

Core Course: Direction and Narrative

The core course of the program is Direction and Narrative. It serves as the central focus of the course and as a sustained space for developing personal projects, as well as a study group focused on animation understood as an artistic and communicative language.

Directing animation involves adopting a perspective: choosing what to tell, how to tell it, and from what point of view. It involves constructing meaning through movement, time, rhythm, sound, editing, and mise-en-scène. In this space, animation is approached not as a technique or a set of tools, but as a system of thought and a form of writing in motion.

The workshop addresses direction and narrative from an authorial and holistic perspective. It combines analysis, theoretical and historical reflection, writing, and practice, always in dialogue with the development of individual projects. Different forms of narration are explored—linear and non-linear, poetic, fragmented, essayistic, or hybrid—and dominant narrative models are challenged, encouraging each project to find its own form and internal logic.

The focus is not on applying formulas or predefined structures, but on cultivating authorial voices and unique perspectives. The workshop explores how a formal decision becomes narrative, how movement can function as a form of writing, and how directing organizes the creative process without stifling its power, ambiguity, or transformative capacity.

Throughout the year, each participant will develop a personal project, which can take various forms: a short film, a teaser for a short, feature, or series accompanied by a project bible, an experimental piece, or an art installation, among other possibilities. The project is built progressively, through analysis, testing, writing, revision, and collective feedback.

The process is central. Doubt, error, deviation, and rewriting are considered constitutive parts of learning. The goal is not to quickly arrive at a “finished product,” but rather to delve deeper into the search, refine one’s perspective, and sustain decisions over time.

The course is structured as a space for collective thought. The group functions as a critical and supportive community, where processes, references, questions, and discoveries are shared. Observing one’s own work and that of others, dialogue, and collective reflection are fundamental tools for developing a conscious practice.

The work developed in the core course will be presented toward the end of the program at the Bitbang International Animation Festival, as a platform for circulation, exchange, and encounter, connecting the academic space with the festival’s professional and cultural ecosystem.

Modules and Areas of Focus

In addition to the core course, Direction and Narrative, the program is organized into a series of modules or areas of focus that address various fundamental aspects of contemporary animation practice.

These modules do not function as isolated subjects or compartmentalized areas, but rather as zones of exploration that interact with each other and with the development of individual projects. The content and tools covered in each area are conceived as transversal resources, applicable to any technique, format, or approach within the field of animation.

Throughout the course, the following topics, among others, will be covered:

• Animation as a language
• Storytelling and narrative structures
• Editing as meaning-making
• Sound and dialogue creation
• Character design for animation
• Background design, world building, atmospheres, and moods
• Production and distribution strategies

The modules will primarily utilize practical exercises, analysis of existing works, case studies, and formal explorations, allowing students to apply specific concepts and tools within each area. These exercises are designed as opportunities for experimentation, testing, and learning, and not necessarily as finished, complete pieces.

While the core course, Direction and Narrative, focuses on developing a sustained, year-long personal project, the modules serve as spaces for experimentation and specific training, where exercises related to each area of ​​work are carried out. These exercises do not aim to directly advance the main project, but rather to refine perspective, expand the repertoire of resources, and deepen the understanding of animation language.

The learning and tools that emerge from the modules can then be freely and non-prescriptively applied to the project that each participant develops in the core course.

Showcase at the Bitbang International Animation Festival

The projects developed during the year in the core course, Direction and Narrative, will be presented at the Bitbang International Animation Festival, as an opportunity for circulation, encounter, and exchange.

The works can take various forms, depending on the nature of each project:
mini-shorts, short film teasers, series, video games, feature films (accompanied by a bible and pitch), experimental pieces, art installations, among other possibilities.

The presentation within the festival offers a space to share processes and projects in development, and to engage in dialogue with other filmmakers, professionals, and audiences connected to contemporary animation.

Application Process and Dates

Registration for the Program is through an open call and application process.

Key Dates:

• Call for Applications Opens: December 23, 2025
• Call for Applications Closes: February 10, 2026
• Results Announced: February 18, 2026

Applications are reviewed continuously as they are received.
Those who meet the requirements may be contacted before the application deadline for brief interviews or to confirm their acceptance.

Once your place is confirmed, you must reserve your spot to ensure final enrollment.

FEES AND RESERVATION

🇦🇷 For Argentina

Reservation fee / registration: ARS 100,000
(payable in March 2026)
Monthly fee: ARS 245,000
(8 monthly installments from March to October 2026 / November payment not required)

🌎 For International Students

Reservation fee / registration: USD 100
Monthly fee: USD 200
(8 monthly installments from March to October 2026 / November payment not required)

Important Information

• Payment of the reservation fee confirms your place in the Program.
• The final certificate is awarded upon completion of:
  • 75% attendance
  • submission of the final project
  • payment status

👉 APPLY / REGISTER

Contact

For inquiries:

• info@bitbangfest.com
• Instagram: @bitbangclub