CARTOON, the Creative Europe-funded association which supports the animation industry through several annual events for international professionals, is launching a new initiative aimed at emerging talent.

Cartoon Springboard will take place from 17 to 19 November 2015 in Halle, Germany. Aiming to act as a link between school and the market, students in their final year and recent graduates will have an opportunity to pitch their animation projects to a panel of distributors, broadcasters, producers and digital experts. They will provide practical advice and guidance on improving their projects, accelerating their access to professional audiovisual and digital markets.

Certain projects will also be chosen to be presented at CARTOON’s existing pitching events for TV series (Cartoon Forum), features (Cartoon Movie) or cross-media projects (Cartoon 360).

The list of speakers and experts so far includes MotionWork’s Tony Loeser, Indie Sales’ Eleanor Coleman, Joseph Jacquet from France Télévisions and representatives from Sun Creature Studio.

The 3 day-event will focus on 2 parts:

• Presentations given by experts on market trends, buyers’ expectations, etc.
• Pitching sessions of young talents projects, including an interactive discussion with a panel of experts

Submissions are open until 7 September 2015 via the CARTOON website.