The 14th Edition of Cartoon Movie wrapped on Friday with special honors given to Spanish outfit Perro Verde as European Producer of the Year for the acclaimed feature Wrinkles. Manuel Cristobal’s studio, which is only five-years-old, beat Moonscoop and Blue Spirit Animation for the producing honor.
Cristobal told Variety that he is developing a second animated movie with Wrinkles director Ignacio Ferreras.
He added, “We aim to continue producing family features as well as films like Wrinkles that push the boundaries of animation by addressing moving issues with humor and endearing characters.”
French directors Remi Bezancon and Jean-Christophe Lie won the European Director Honor for their beautifully crafted 2D-animated movie, Zarafa, which tells the true story of the first giraffe imported from Africa to Paris. The two other nominees were French helmer Bibo Bergeron for A Monster in Paris and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Christoffersen, Philip Einstein Lipski and Kresten Vestbjerg for Ronal the Barbarian.
The European Distributor award went to Belgium’s Cineart over Romania’s Transilvania Film and Pathe, which releases films in both France and the U.K.
Marc Bonny, founder of leading Lyon-based arthouse company, Gebeka Films was given a special tribute from the Rhone-Alpes region. Among the studio’s films are Jean-Francois Laguionie’s award-winning The Painting (Le Tableau), which was just picked up by U.S. distributor GKids, and the live-action/animation hybrid project Couleur Miel, directed by Laurent Boileau and Jung Henin.
This year’s Cartoon Movie focused on 55 projects from 18 European countries, 25 of which were produced or conceived in CG animation, and 21 of which were in stereoscopic 3-D. About 27% of the movies were targeting teens or adults. France led the way with 22 titles, followed by Denmark with five, Belgium with 4, and Finland and Spain with three movies each. For more info, visit www.Cartoon-media.be/movie.
