European animation is capturing increasing public interest thanks to its creative vigour, international competitiveness and the emergence of new companies with an eye to renovation. Its strength was evident at the latest edition of Cartoon Forum, which ended on 17th September in Sopron, Hungary after bringing together 62 projects for animated series with the aim of facilitating their financing and distribution. This was the first time that the event was held in a new EU country since its creation in 1990.
Over the three-day event gathering about 700 participants from 33 countries, including 230 buyers, producers from across Europe presented their new projects to broadcasters and investors interested in animated content. A third of the series came from young companies attending the forum for the first time with their own projects.
New generation producers have energized Cartoon Forum with creative projects such as "Babioles" (Autour de Minuit Productions [FR] - Valk Producties [NL]); "Jungle Report" (TAT Productions [FR]); "The Deglingos" (La Station Animation [FR]); "Moutcho & Pitrouille" (Intervalists [FR] - LuxAnimation [LU] - Frakas Productions [BE]); "Sarah and Duck" (Karrot Entertainment [UK]); "Leo & Maya" (Tryllefilm - BUG - Phantom Film [NO]); "Marco Macaco" (Nice Ninja [DK] - Sola Media [DE]); "Up North" (Panache Animation [FR]); "Shammies" (Atom Art [LV]); and "Girls Know How & Boys Do Stuff" (Anima Boutique [FI].
From bigger studios, titles that have caught participants' eyes include "High 5" (Tele Images Kids [FR] - I Can Fly [UK]); "Bao Battle" (Gaumont-Alphanim [FR]); "Crazy about Sports!" (Futurikon [FR]); "Nerdy Cross Worlds" (Enanimation [IT]); "Call for Chi-Chi" (Millimages [FR]); "Tilly and Friends" (Jam Media [IE] - Walker Books [UK]); and "Hector's Haunts" (Les Armateurs - Les Films de la Perrine [FR]).
Once again, French animation stood out at Cartoon Forum with a third of the projects, while new EU countries led by Hungary presented 10 series, revealing the animation industry's rapid growth in this region.
Co-productions continued to gain force in European animation and proved to be an efficient formula for increasingly ambitious projects that can be attractive in various territories. This edition of the forum had 18 joint projects from two or more countries.
All together the projects had a total budget of 153 million EUR and 350 hours of animated content. Comedy was the predominant genre for the proposals, nearly half of which were targeted to 6 - 9 years olds.
During the event, the Cartoon Tribute awards and the Cartoon d'Or prize for best European animated short were also announced. Cartoon Forum's participants cast their vote for Moonscoop and TeamTO, both from France, as Best Investor and Best Producer of the Year, while Finnish national broadcaster YLE won Best Broadcaster of the Year. Meanwhile, Estonian director Kaspar Jancis took the Cartoon d'Or 2010, the pan-European award for new talent in animation, for his short "Crocodile".
The next edition of Cartoon Forum will be held from 13-16 September in Sopot, a seaside town on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland.
Cartoon Forum Organisation
Annick Maes: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Tel: (32) (2) 242 93 43
International Press
Gerardo Michelin: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - Tel: (34) (630) 57 22 68
Pictures of the event in high resolution available for downloading at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35940214@N05/sets/72157624878004739/detail/
(to download, click on the picture, then right-click and select the original size)
All pictures © CARTOON/Valerie de Halleux. Any request, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
All pictures of the event: http://www.cartoon-media.eu/FORUM/gallery.php
Poster of the event and high-resolution stills of the projects available for downloading at
http://www.cartoon-media.eu/FORUM/press.php (password: fertoe1417)
About CARTOON FORUM
Created in 1990 to boost the co-production and distribution of European animation for television and new media platforms, Cartoon Forum has helped over 430 animation series obtain financing to the tune of over 1.5 billion EUR. The event takes place annually in September and has no fixed location. The main partners of Magyar Cartoon Forum are MEDIA - a programme of the European Union, Motion Picture Public Foundation of Hungary, National Media and Digital Communications Authority, Ministry of National Resources, National Cultural Fund, City of Sopron and Moholy-Nagy University of Art & Design of Budapest. The Cartoon Forum is organised by CARTOON in collaboration with Studio Baestarts.
About CARTOON
CARTOON is an international non-profit association based in Brussels that organises Cartoon Forum, together with Cartoon Movie, a co-production forum for feature-length animation, Cartoon Master training seminars and Cartoon Connection, a new programme intended to explore ways of reinforcing cooperation between EU and non EU animation professionals.
