Stop-motion Animation Talents Will Come Together at ANIMARKT 2024
Skwigly
21 innovative stop motion film ideas from around the world will compete for international recognition and production support for their projects at the 9th edition of ANIMARKT – Stop Motion Forum. Filmmakers will be assisted in their preparations by well-known industry experts Nancy Denney-Phelps, Nik Phelps, Christophe Erbes, Kike Ortega, Kerdi Oengo, Piotr Knabe. Prizes await the winners, including a £40,000 voucher, accreditations to international animation festivals, software and consultancy. The official award ceremony will start on the evening of 17th October. The event will take place from 13-17 October 2024 at Mediateka MeMo in Łódź. The programme is now available.
ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum, the world’s unique stop-motion animation industry event, has announced the list of 21 finalists for this year’s Pitching section. The selected filmmakers will have the chance to present their projects in front of international experts, producers and representatives of key production studios, opening the door to a global career in the world of animation, as well as securing partners and winning awards that will bring them closer to achieving their goal.
This year’s edition of the Animarkt Stop Motion Forum attracted a record 120 entries from 33 countries, demonstrating the growing interest in stop-motion animation around the world. We are impressed by the diversity and innovation of the projects we received from India, Europe, Chile and the United States, among others.
Paulina Zacharek, CEO of Momakin, the Forum’s organiser
The projects present a wide spectrum of genres, themes and techniques of stop-motion animation: from family drama and horror comedy to surrealism and ambitious documentaries. They address important contemporary themes such as migration, identity and environmental sustainability. The selected finalists will present ideas for films such as Alli from India, about the struggle against patriarchy in the 1940s, and the horror comedy 10,000 Steps from Spain. There are also ambitious documentaries such as the Brazilian-French-Spanish Se eu morrer, about survival during a military dictatorship, the French R6ST-Resist about Surrealist artists fighting the German occupation, and the Spanish-Dutch Only Rats, which invites viewers to see New York from an unusual perspective. Among the projects for younger audiences are the Ukrainian educational series Emi! and the American adventure series Weirdos.
The competition has selected projects with production costs valued at €33,000, but also those with budgets as high as €18,000,000. The projects are at various stages of development, some of which, for example, have already secured part of their budget. Creators are most often looking for additional funding, co-producers and distribution support. All these parameters will certainly influence the assessment of the experts who will see the final pitching presentations during ANIMARKT.
Marianna Piskorz, Director of the Forum
Projects pitched during ANIMARKT have a better chance of being completed, as exemplified by the film Hello Summer by Martin Smatana and Veronika Zacharova (Slovakia/Czech Republic/France, prod. Studio Bororo/Maur Film/Last Films/Vivement Lundi) – the studio won the main prize during the Forum in 2021 and the audience award at the most important festival for the animation industry in the world held in Annecy in 2024.
During ANIMARKT 2021, I had the opportunity to consult on the story and presentation with Nancy Denney-Phelps and other consultants, who gave me very valuable and useful feedback, and I also found the French co-producer Jean-Francois LeCorre of Vivement Lundi, who approached me immediately after the Pitching and offered support. This ended up in a very nice collaboration, which allowed us to make the entire Hello Summer soundtrack in France and also to buy the rights to the famous Douliou Douliou Saint Tropez soundtrack.
Martin Smatana, director of Hello Summer
Finalists will be competing for valuable prizes to help bring their projects to life. Among them are: a voucher for a contribution in kind to the equivalent of PLN 40 000 from the Wrocław Feature Film Studio; a package from APA LAB Awards containing: 5 nights’ accommodation at Unquillo, free accreditation to APA LAB – a special mentoring programme with B2B meetings; marketing consultations on audiences and funding from Animond Award; Dragonframe 5 software from the producer; accreditations for the Animator Pro festival and event from Animator International Animation Film Festival and accreditation for Young Horizons Industry and a place in the Project Pool section from the organiser.
Supporting Pitching at the ANIMARKT Stop Motion Forum allows us to work with exceptional projects from all over the world, and our animation studio actively supports their development by bringing in experience and creativity. Thanks to these partnerships, we not only expand our portfolio, but also help projects reach their full potential.
Robert Banasiak, Director of the Wrocław Feature Film Studio
Before the official presentations during the Forum, project creators will receive professional support to help them prepare for the final presentation at the Pitching. Each of them is already participating in mentoring sessions on pitching, presentation, script preparation techniques and green production led by stop motion industry experts: Christophe Erbes (former director of European Kids TV at Canal+, SuperRTL, Nickelodeon, Disney; international consultant on children’s, youth and family media), Kike Ortega (Chilean director and animation series creator, his research focuses on sustainable animation using biomaterials and clean energy), Nancy Denney-Phelps (journalist specialising in European animation and festivals and animation music producer), Kerdi Oengo (executive producer of Estonian studio Nukufilm since 2005, which has produced more than 40 animated shorts), Piotr Knabe (versatile freelance artist with extensive experience in sculpture, mould making, creative engineering, character design, illustration, 3D modelling and 3D printing). Training sessions take place online and on-site during the Forum. The official announcement of the winners will take place at the ANIMARKT final evening gala on 17th October at Mediateka MeMo in Lodz, Poland.
The Pitching section is divided into two categories, with 11 projects selected in each. Eligible for the first are short film projects in the development phase, with a running time of 25 minutes or less and with at least a first draft of the script completed. The second format focuses on feature film and TV series projects, at various stages of development. A mandatory qualification in both cases is that a minimum of 80% of the animation is to be done in stop-motion. This year, submissions once again had to be accompanied by a sustainable production plan for the film, which accounts for 10% of the evaluation of the overall project.
SELECTED PROJECTS: https://www.animarkt.pl/en/
In addition to the Pitching section, ANIMARKT’s programme includes masterclasses, workshops and panel discussions, meetings to facilitate industry networking, as well as recruitment sessions for international animation studios. The whole program is available online.