Resounding Success for Cartoon Forum 2018
Skwigly
For the 7th consecutive year, the French city of Toulouse hosted the 29th edition of Cartoon Forum, the co-production platform for European animation series that has fast-tracked European animation to the front row.
Following 28 editions now, 758 projects have been funded for a total amount of 2.5 billion euros. During this edition, many professionals were present to cheer the promising animation projects.
According to buyers, this edition was surprising in terms of projects’ quality with a great diversity of genres, content, graphics and audience. The overall level of quality is increasing continuously. The new generation is well present and showed us its energy and strong personality.
83 projects from 22 countries have been presented to participants from 38 countries which included a record of 1000 producers, investors, broadcasters, buyers, SVoD/VoD platformssuch as Netflix, Amazon, Hopster TV, Playkids, Azoomee, among others.
France was once again very present in the top 10 presentations that have aroused keen interest:
“The Borrowers” (Blue Spirit Productions), “Splat & Seymour” (Just Kids), “Woolly Woolly” (Normaal), “Country Kids” (La Station Animation), “Droners” (Cyber Group Studios), “Billy – The Cowboy Hamster” (Dandelooo), “Zouk, The Little Witch with a Big Personality” (Bayard Jeunesse Animation), “Tiny Bad Wolf” (Xilam Animation), “Pompon Little Bear” (Supamonks), “Looking for Santa” (Folimage). France stays the European leader, especially with fast financial packages and also thanks to the important role of France Televisions.
Other highlights were:
The Irish project “Silly Sundays” (Cartoon Saloon), the Polish “Odo” (Letko), the Germans “Luis and the Aliens – The Series” (Ulysses Filmproduktion) and “Rabbit Akademy – The Series” (Akkord Film Produktion), the English “Flix” (Eye Present) and “Milo” (Fourth Wall Creative), the Belgian “The Fluffy Four” (Lunanime), the German “Tom’s Taxi” (Zooper Film), the Icelandic “Paradise Valley” (GunHil), the Luxembourgish “Deep in the Bowl” (ZEILT Productions) and the Belgian “Maëlys Mysteries” (Panique!).
As part of the Cartoon Connection Awards, two Canadian (“Jax – Merlin’s Lineage” by Squeeze and “The Galactic Postman” by Urbania) and one Korean projects (“Wonderful ThumThum” by Electural) were presented at Cartoon Forum 2018 as an extension of our collaboration with Canada and South Korea during our Cartoon Connection events.
For the first time, adults projects attracted numerus buyers, and carved out a nice audience for themselves:
“GloboZone” (Umanimation), “Selfish” (Kazak Productions), “In your Face” (Doncvoilà Productions), “Deep in the Bowl” (ZEILT Productions), “Notfunny” (Nichtlustig). The success of these projects demonstrates that adults projects are on a roll, linear broadcasters will surely reorganize their programmes to make space for the adults target.
The young generation is destined for a brilliant future! They are present and take a stance:
“Silly Sundays” with Nuria Blanco (Cartoon Saloon), “Mum is Pouring Rain” (a Cartoon Springboard project by Laïdak Films), “Tufo” (a Cartoon Springboard project by Les Contes Modernes), “Selfish” by Kazak Productions, “In your Face” (the author came at a previous edition of the Coaching Programme) by Doncvoilà Productions and “Odo” by Letko.
It is worth noting that the successful pitches are made like a real performance, they are well prepared and look like a stand-up comedy.
As every year, leading studios were present and successful:
Xilam Animation, Cyber Group Studios, Calon, The Illuminated Film Company, Dandelooo, La Station Animation, Ànima Kitchent Media, Folimage, Vivement Lundi !, Blue Spirit Productions, Ulysses Filmproduktion, Panique!, Cartoon Saloon, Folivari, Normaal, Silex Films, among others.
And of course, all the major buyers attended the Cartoon Forum – including France Télévisions, CNC, The Walt Disney Company, DreamWorks Animation Television, Amazon Studios, CANAL+, Super RTL, RAI, Netflix, BBC Children, TF1, Lagardère Active, Playkids, Sony, Turner, Mediatoon, NRK, M6, TVC, ZDF, Nickelodeon, SVT, Spin Master, DHX Media, Epic Story Media…