Our 10 Favourite Pitches From Cartoon Movie

15 March 2024 // Reviews (Event)

The 2024 edition of Cartoon Movie has come and gone. The event gives directors and producers a chance to pitch their in-progress feature film projects to an audience of potential distributors, co-producers, broadcasters and financiers in the hopes that their movies can be made.

This year, 56 projects went up to bat. Among them was a strong bank of female lead characters and a heavy dose of pro-environmental stories. What stood out were projects fronted by people of colour, a too-scarce aspect to many pitches. We decided to give a rundown of what caught our eye the most in this indicator towards the future of European animation.

The Little Run

Country: France
Proposed Runtime: 75 mins
Target Audience: Families

At the centre of The Little Run is a found family story between a penguin and a baby echidna. Set in New Zealand at a time where the forces of nature are looking to reclaim the landscape built upon by humans, this unlikely parent-child pair are tasked with navigating the island to safety from an erupting volcano.

Director Julien Bisaro helms a project with a disarming visual style. The images are soft, the animals are cute, and the way that 2D effects are planted on top of CG models makes the world of The Little Run mesmerising. The Little Run is one of many projects at Cartoon MOVIE that played into the younger generation’s eco-anxiety, but achieves this through depicting nature with serenity. Bisaro and Picolo Pictures are looking for funding in order to start production in 2025.

Summer In The Hood

Country: France
Proposed Runtime: 90 mins
Target Audience: Families

Conceptualised by French superstar comedian Jean-Pascal Zadi and directed by Louis Clichy, Summer In The Hood has one of the most striking visual identities out of all the projects at Cartoon MOVIE. It’s colourful and geometric, carrying a 90s sensibility in its costume design, soundtrack and dialogue. Producers Silex Films and Douze Dogits Productions have breathed a surrealist bent into Zadi’s personal experience.

Summer In The Hood is based on a time where Zadi spent a summer in a housing project outside of Paris when he was 13. This experience of another way of life, another sense of humour, another taste in music, another set of rules, was essential to Zadi’s coming of age and helped shape his relationship to his friends and his country. As the grandchild of a Sudanese soldier who fought for France, Zadi wants to use Summer In The Hood to show the links between Africa and France. Silex and Douze Dogits are looking for broadcasters, public subsidies, equities and European co-producers in order to deliver the film in 2027.

The Polar Bear Prince

Countries: Norway, Belgium
Proposed Runtime: 85 mins
Target Audience: Families

Also standing out from the crowd is The Polar Bear Prince, one of the few musicals selected at this year’s event. Director Mikkel B. Sandermose wants to make a classic animated fairy tale, with 2D animation and gut-busting ballads. The basis of the story comes from Norwegian myth, celebrating the culture of Sandermose’s home country in the process. The Polar Bear Prince is a buddy movie between a girl of a small village, Liv, and a Prince cursed to live as a polar bear by day.

Primary producers Maipo Film have already found co-producers in the Belgian studios Vivi Film and Beside Production, who are helping to bring that warm familiarity to a classic story. Aiming for a budget of €9m, they are set to deliver the project in 2025 in France and Belgium, but are looking for international distribution.

Rose and the Marlots

Countries: France, Italy, Portugal
Proposed Runtime: 80 mins
Target Audience: Families

The next film from Alain Ughetto, the director of No Dogs or Italians Allowed, is another stop-mo story with a similar look and feel. Ughetto spoke about wanting the film to have a comedic streak while keeping political messaging at its forefront. Just like his previous effort, Rose and the Marlots sees Ughetto use animation to tell a true story.

Here we follow Rose, a 12-year-old girl living in the mountains with her increasingly ailing grandpa. In order to provide for the pair, she trains marmots to act as compliments to her accordion-based musical act, performing in the big city. This brush with a larger world is disorienting and alienating, but Rose must work to find her feet. Principally produced by Les Films du Tambour de Soie with additional help coming from WeJustKids, Graffiti Film and Ocidental Filmes, Rose and the Marlots has a proposed budget of €7m and is looking to release in 2027.

Dr. Howl

Countries: France, Poland
Proposed Runtime: 86 mins
Target Audience: Adults

The first film on this list aimed at older audiences and the second to feature an anthropomorphic animal is Dr. Howl. This 2D surrealist noir pastiche has the feel of a buddy cop comedy that weaves in themes of how humans connect with animals. Dr. Howl himself is a talking dog animated by the spirit of a war vet who, alongside his roommate Bernadette, is tasked with uncovering a local dog-kidnapping mystery. Little footage was shown, but the film seems to have a dedicated atmosphere and a charming dead-pan sense of humour. The studios behind it, Likaon, Foliascope and WJTeam are seeking to reach their budget goal of €4m for a 2028 release. They are looking for co-producers, distributors and financers.

Dream of Grape Gardens

Countries: France, Philippines
Proposed Runtime: 90 mins
Target Audience: Adults

One of the most politically minded projects shown off at Cartoon Movie was Dream of Grape Gardens, the first animated film from live action director Sahra Mani. The film is composed of 50% animation and 50% archival photography which tracks her own family history. Of the two million Afghani who fled the country, Mani’s family was amongst them. While many were fleeing the war, Mani and her family went in search of her missing older brother. The animation and images come together as if to fill each other’s gaps, a memory being formed from fact and feeling. The film is currently backed by Urban Factory and Philippines-based Daluyong Studios. They are looking to meet with animation studios, TV channels, investors and distributors.

Lucy Lost

Country: France
Proposed Runtime: 80 mins
Target Audience: Families

The most anime-influenced project shown off at Cartoon Movie was Lucy Lost, a 2D fantasy adventure. We follow Lucy, an adopted child looking to fit in amongst a fishing town of the Isles of Scilly. In order to get to the root of her origins, she leaves home, sparking an adventure with huge scope. The colours are bold and the animation is wonderfully fluid, wearing its Miyazaki-influenced visuals on its sleeve. Helming the project is Oliver Clert, making his feature film directorial debut after animation work on such films as Klaus and The Lorax. Animation studio Xilam Films also carry pedigree to the project, being behind 2019’s I Lost My Body. They’re aiming for a budget of €11m and are looking to deliver the film in 2026.

Picasso In Royan

Countries: France, Spain
Proposed Runtime: 65 mins
Target Audience: Adults

Yet another Cartoon Movie project looking to uncover a little-discussed corner of history comes in the form of Picasso In Royan. During the second world war, Picasso took refuge in Royan where he lived out a falsehood – a peaceful life while the rest of the world was at war. The story comes from details shared by his daughter, Maya, with whom he was isolated, along with his partner. The 2D visuals of the film make an attempt to capture the dissonance of Picasso’s existence of the time by leaning into his asymmetrical tendencies as an artist. Animation house Les Films du Poisson Rouge, another contributor to Klaus, are producing the film alongside Imagic TV. The aim is for the film to have a documentary feel with animation emphasising archival footage.

The Wild Inside

Country: France
Proposed Runtime: 90 mins
Target Audience: Adults

In some ways, The Wild Inside is emblematic of the overriding themes of Cartoon Movie. We have a 2D animated film with a female protagonist with themes of connecting to nature. Except, The Wild Inside finds its edge by framing its story through an adult lens. This allows for a more paranoid tone and the spilling of blood. We follow Tracy, a 17 year-old girl living in the remote Alaskan wilderness. When her mother disappears and Tracy’s ability to commune with animals rises, her life spins out of control. The Wild Inside is an examination of whether humanity rules over nature or is subjected by it, and is also one of the few Cartoon Movie projects with a queer protagonist.

Helming this project is Patrick Imbert, who previously worked with producers Folivari on Ernest and Celestine and The Summit of the Gods. Folivari are aiming for a budget of €9m and are looking for distributors, broadcasters and international co-producers.

Pesta

Countries: Norway, France, Germany
Proposed Runtime: 80 mins
Target Audience: Teens

Pesta, similarly to The Polar Bear Prince, is a film steeped in Norwegian myth. But rather than a charming family musical, Pesta is a gothic teen horror. Set during the Black Death, Pesta follows a cursed love story between Astrid and Eilev. The stronger their bond becomes, the closer Astrid is to embodying Pesta, an evil force which is the plague incarnate.

Pesta is a 2D animated feature aimed at the generation that grew up with a combination of western and eastern media. There are touches of anime in its characters and colours, as well as some of the more surrealist imagery. There are also shades of YA hit novels like Twilight. But most significantly, the film is looking to tap into the existential dread of the younger generation, the feeling that environmental disaster is around the corner. Setting the film during the Black Death is a reminder that humanity has faced apocalyptic events before, and still survived.

Pesta is being produced by Norway’s Mikrofilm, known for last year’s Titina, and is being co-produced with the aforementioned Xilam Films and Knudsen Pictures. Their proposed budget is €7m and they are on the lookout for sales agents, distributors and financing with a potential release in 2027.