Project Greenlight & Tongal Launch Animation Incubator

Project Greenlight Digital Studios (PGLDS), a digital content initiative from Adaptive Studios (HBO’s Project Greenlight), and Tongal, an award-winning creative company, have joined forces to launch an incubator to find and create the next breakout animated series. The partnership was announced Wednesday with a call for original pitches, which the two companies will help sift through for a winning concept to receive mentorship and funding to produce and market a pilot.

“The animation world is full of originality and imagination, two qualities we encourage in filmmaking and in our Project Greenlight Digital Studios video contests,” said Brittany Turner, VP of Digital at Adaptive Studios. “Working with Tongal on this project is the perfect fit as we share a goal of providing opportunities for filmmakers to showcase their creative ideas and bring them to life.”

The two companies have already helped launch the careers of many emerging filmmakers. With this new initiative, they will jointly select five finalists and award them $5,000 each to create a proof of concept based on their original idea. The public will then have a chance to vote for the winning concept on tongal.com, along with a panel of industry judges. The winner will receive $70,000 to produce an 11-minute pilot episode for their original property.

Now through December 14, 2016, one- to three-minute pitch videos can be submitted to tongal.com/nextgreatanimatedseries. These entry videos must include a concept and treatment, and can include character animations, concept art and scripts. Series can be aimed at adults, kids, or both, and a wide range of techniques are accepted (2D, 3D, CGI, stop-motion, claymation, papercraft, mixed media). PGLDS and Tongal are looking for “unforgettable characters, fun conflict, compelling storylines, strong formats, engaging worlds and clever points of view” — and out-of-the-box thinking is encouraged.