Every year in October, since 2014, CINANIMA reaches 19 Portuguese academic partners across the entire national territory, presenting a selection of the finest auteur animation from around the world, comprising three programmes.

This initiative was first held at the University of Porto and gradually expanded, year after year, to numerous other higher education institutions in Portugal. Examples include Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), the Universities of Aveiro and Coimbra (2016), the Universities of Beira Interior and Algarve (2017), the School of Arts of the Universidade Católica and the University of Madeira (2018), and the Universities of Minho (Braga and Guimarães campuses) and the Azores (Ponta Delgada, Angra do Heroísmo, and Horta campuses) in 2019. In 2021, the Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (ULHT), the Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA), the Escola Superior de Artes e Design (ESAD), and the Escola Superior de Media Artes e Design (ESMAD) accepted our invitation to join. In 2022, the initiative included the Polytechnic Institutes of Portalegre, Guarda, and Bragança. In 2025, the Instituto de Artes Visuais, Design e Marketing (IADE) will join the initiative.