Black Sands Studios
- Open roles
- 0
- Founded
- 2020
- Employees
- 1-10
- Offices
- 1
About Black Sands Studios
Black Sands Studios is the internal animation production arm of Black Sands Entertainment Inc., established in 2020 to bring the company's original stories to the screen. Its work centers on African mythology, pre-colonial African history and Afrofuturism, with an emphasis on Black representation in fantasy and animated entertainment.
The studio develops animated adaptations within a broader storytelling business built around comics, graphic novels and children's literature. Its creative focus includes ancient African empires and historical fantasy, extending characters and worlds from illustrated publications into moving-image productions. The animation division grew out of the founders' longer-term ambition to develop screen versions of their independently published properties.
Animation and original properties
The studio's capabilities include 2D and CGI animation, character and concept design, visual storytelling and storyboarding. Its reported animation work includes the Black Sands: The Seven Kingdoms pilot, Black Sands Anime, the CGI short Legend of the Mamba and the children's animated property Kofi & the Magic Drum. These animation activities sit within the wider Black Sands entertainment business; its publishing catalogue encompasses additional properties beyond the studio's screen work.
Black Sands Studios uses a distributed production model, coordinating animation work remotely across North America. Its development of Black Sands: The Seven Kingdoms also involves an external co-production partnership: in June 2023, Black Sands Entertainment entered an animation agreement with Composition Media to develop an anime adaptation. This collaboration connects the company's original intellectual property with a separate animation production partner.
More about Black Sands Studios
Leadership and production experience
- Teunis de Raat is Partner and Head of Studio. The report describes more than 25 years of prior industry experience at Disney, Pixar Canada, Bron Animation and ImageMovers Digital.
- At the legal operator, Manuel Godoy is Founder and Chief Executive Officer; Geiszel Godoy is Co-Founder, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary.
Distributed production practice
De Raat directs production remotely from the Greater Vancouver area, coordinating animators across North America. The report describes a lean team supported by contract visual artists and production partners; it does not establish a physical Vancouver studio.
Financing and creative independence
Manuel and Geiszel Godoy and de Raat appeared on Shark Tank in January 2022. Although the presentation resulted in an on-air investment agreement with Kevin Hart and Mark Cuban, the founders subsequently declined to finalize it. Follow-up interviews cited restrictions that would have interfered with community-backed crowdfunding and creative independence.
Notable credits
4 creditsOffices
Current and former locations of Black Sands Studios
- 298 East Main St, Suite 944, Middletown, DE 19709Middletown, Delaware, United States
Middletown office
HeadquartersAbout this office
Corporate headquarters and principal executive office of the legal operator. The internal animation division operates through a distributed production model.
- 87 35th Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11232Brooklyn, New York, United States
Brooklyn office
Former officeAbout this office
Former principal facility and initial studio headquarters at Industry City. Operations relocated to Delaware and animation production transitioned to a remote model.
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