Foto: Luce in the Lovely Land – Thuristar (Belgium), La Cabane Productions (France)
After three days of enthusiastic pitching sessions, we hope that you’ve had a full harvest of contacts and ideas for the year to come. We are very proud for that colourful, sensitive and powerful selection of projects. A Nordic wave has reached Cartoon Forum: with 2 projects each, Finland, Norway and Denmark, left a mark in this year edition. Central and Eastern Europe established their own presence with 9 projects in total (2 for Ukraine, 2 for Bulgaria, 2 for Czech Republic, 2 for Poland & 1 for Estonia). We also saw interesting French projects in crowded rooms: „Erica & Trevor vs Spooky Monsters“ (Cyber Group Studios), „Dungeons & Kittens“ (Watch Next Media), „Annette, Apprentice Witch“ (GO-N Productions), „Hold on Gaston!“ (Dandelooo), „What’s up Eesha?“ (TeamTO), „Filip & Fairy“ (Normaal) & „Gisele and her Little Monsters“ (Blue Spirit Productions).
We were delighted to welcome 270 buyers on site in Toulouse, including 10,5% new buyers such as LooLoo Kids (Mora TV, Romania), Light Lab (Latvia), Anime Digital Network (ADN, France), Ribka Publishing (Bulgaria), Carlsen Verlag (Germany), Kidstream (USA), Immersiva (USA), With Bells On Entertainment (Canada), TV Nova and Markiza Groups (Slovakia), Jungler (France), among others.
TOP 10 • PRESENCE FOR EUROPEAN COPRODUCTIONS
The order reflects the number of participants in the pitching room for projects co-produced in at least 2 European countries.
1. Luce in the Lovely Land – Thuristar (Belgium), La Cabane Productions (France)
2. Littlest Robot – Toon2Tango (Germany), V House Animation (North Macedonia)
3. Aquila – Zodiak Kids & Family (France), Tiger Aspect Kids & Family (United Kingdom)
4. Baby’s First Crime Spree – Cardel Entertainment (Ireland), Snafu Pictures (United Kingdom)
5. Moka Mera & Atlas – Anima Vitae (Finland), Moilo (Finland), Animoka Studios (Italy)
6. Stage Struck! – Lighthouse Studios (Ireland), Dog Ears (United Kingdom)
7. My Baby Crocodile – Take Five (Belgium), Sacrebleu Productions (France)
8. Happily Never After – Heliumfilm (Czech Republic), Reynard Films (Germany)
9. Nip & Lena. Fin Friends – Lynx Multimedia Factory (Italy), Telegael (Ireland)
10. The Princess and the Nightingale – La Boîte,… Productions (Belgium), Les Films du Nord (France)
OP 10 • PERCENTAGE OF BUYERS IN PITCHING SESSIONS
The order reflects the % of buyers present in the pitching room.
1. Baby’s First Crime Spree – Cardel Entertainment (Ireland), Snafu Pictures (UK) > 52%
2. Littlest Robot – Toon2Tango (Germany), V House Animation (North Macedonia) > 48%
3. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – bigchild Entertainment (Germany) > 47%
Annie Melting Heart Cake – Sacrebleu Productions (France) > 47%
4. Pig & Andersen – Fleng Entertainment (Denmark) > 46%
Delivery Dan – JAM Media (Ireland) > 46%
5. Ray & Ruby – Creative Conspiracy (Belgium) > 45%
Freddie – Little Chopin – Letko (Poland), The Fryderyk Chopin Institute (Poland) > 45%
20 Dance Street – Cottonwood Media (France) > 45%
6. SuperBikes – Beta Film (Germany), Carlsen Verlag (Germany), Ulysses Filmproduktion (Germany) > 44%
Mavka – Animagrad Studio – FILM.UA Group (Ukraine) > 44%
7. Pil’s Adventures – TAT productions (France) > 43%
Dougie Dolittle – Caligari Film- und Fernsehproduktion (Germany) > 43%
8. Boule & Bill – Elliott Studio (France) > 42%
9. Gisele and her Little Monsters – Blue Spirit Productions (France) > 41%
Crazy Inventions – Badi Badi (Poland), Beat Shop Sound Studio (Poland) > 41%
10. Stage Struck! – Lighthouse Studios (Ireland), Dog Ears (UK) > 40%
Monsterberry Jam – Yarki (Ukraine) > 40%
Space Aged – Studio Meala (Ireland) > 40%
Ursa – The Polar Bear – Fabelaktiv (Norway), Ulvenfilm (Norway) > 40%
Mortina – Cartobaleno (Italy) > 40%
LINK: Discover all the Projects!
https://www.cartoon-media.eu/forum/discover-the-projects
Young talents and new companies.
We are happy to see our young protégés from Cartoon Springboard accessing the audiovisual market: “9 Million Colors”, “Apocalypse Mojito”, “Exit Tales”, “Happily Never After” & “Toko Loko”. Britt Raes (director/illustrator), who pitched „Luce in the Lovely Land“, has participated in Cartoon Springboard in 2018 with „Petlovers“, and has had 2 successful short films shown in festivals.
Verena Fels, who pitched „Just One Day“ (DE), has been nominated for a Cartoon d’Or in 2011 with her first project „MOBILE“, based on a children book that she designed.
It has also been great to welcome companies that were pitching at Cartoon Forum for the first time, such as: Darjeeling (FR), Have a Nice Day Films (FR), Fleng Entertainment (DK), _Dept. (NO), Ahoifilm (DE), Scared Ghost (ES), among others.
Adult animation still on the rise.
With 14% (compared to 10% in 2022) of the selected projects being targeted at Young adults/Adults, we see that adult animation is definitely consolidating its position. We discovered: „B.A.D’s Agents“, „Iren the Siren“, „Pixie Pollux“ & „Starpets“, to name a few.
Multi-layers projects.
17 projects (23% of the selection) have shown a crossover approach. A few examples: „SuperBikes“, the TV series will become a game, and will be adapted into a book series. „Super Epic Tadpole Journey to the Surface of Croak Creek“ has been produced simultaneously for linear (horizontal format) and for mobile phone (vertical format). „Lingokids Adventures with Baby Bot“, the TV series is based on a award-winning learning app. „Moka Mera & Atlas“ is also adapted from learning apps (about languages & emotions). „The invisibles“ is planned to become also a book series.
Supporting role of the local territory.
In this year’s selection, two projects are supported by the Occitanie Region:
• “Pil’s Adventures” from TAT productions – adapted from the feature film “Pil”, and following the great success of „Jungle Bunch 2“ (740.000 sold tickets).
• “School Monitors” from Xbo films.
ANIMATED UK MEETS EUROPE: A GREAT KICKSTART
In the frame of „Animated UK Meets Europe“, 41 production companies from 12 countries participated at the one-to-one meetings discussing coproduction possibilities with producers from all 5 UK projects. Many of these discussions continued informally during the event.
SAVE THE DATE
Cartoon Forum 2024 will happen from 16 to 19 September in Toulouse.
Registration will open as soon as April 2024.