Cartoon Forum, the pitching and co-production forum for animated TV projects, announced the line-up for its next edition, to be held in person in Toulouse, France from September 20-23. European animation emerges from the COVID-19 crisis with 84 new TV series, mini-series and TV specials projects involving independent studios from 21 countries. For the tenth year in a row, the capital of the French region of Occitanie will play host to the event, which since 1990 has been boosting the co-production and distribution of European animation for television and new media platforms.
Pitching and networking remain at the heart of this new edition of Cartoon Forum, which will adapt itself in order to comply with the necessary sanitary measures. Projects will be presented to international animation professionals from the TV and new media industries, including broadcasters, distributors, investors, streaming and new media platforms, as well as potential co-producers, among others.
Cartoon Forum’s statistics remain at similar levels to the previous year. Shortlisted from 141 submissions, the 84 selected projects have a total budget of 326.1M€ (~$369M USD) with an average cost per series of 3.9M€ ($4.65M), though the cost per minute of animation production has slightly decreased compared to 2020 (11,887€ vs. 12,250€ / $14,184 vs. $14,620). In total, the projects represent 457 hours of animation, while series formats continue to diversify in response to the new demands, both in terms of number of episodes and running time.
Twenty-one European countries are involved in the projects: 13 as main producers and eight as minority co-producers. Thirty-seven percent of the projects (31) are co-productions between two or more European countries, and only one non-European country, Canada, participates as co-producer.
France leads the selection with 33 projects, followed by Ireland with 11, Germany with eight, Spain with six and Belgium with five. Portugal, Czech Republic and Denmark participate with four projects each, and Italy and Poland with three, while Finland, Latvia and Ukraine are present with one project each. With nine projects, Central and Eastern European countries keep the animation production momentum going.
Accounting for almost half of the selection (41 projects), series aimed at children 6-11 years old continue to gain ground in Cartoon Forum. With 25 projects, preschool series represent almost a third of the selection, while Young Adults/Adults projects have increased to 17% vs 14% in the previous year.
In visual trends, 2D remains the most widely-used animation technique employed by European producers (56%), although 3D series grew from 20% to 28% in 2020.
Les Armateurs (Abyss Special Case Unit), Autour de Minuit (Freaked Out), Dandelooo (It’s Your Body!), Vivement Lundi! & Superprod (Me and My Compost), Xilam Animation (Piggy Builders), Cyber Group Studios (The McFire Family), Ellipsanime Productions (Under the School), Les films du poisson rouge (Voro), Magical Society (Mister Crocodile) and Studio 100 Animation (Rek & Nola) are among the French production companies presenting their new projects at Cartoon Forum.
Within the selection there are also series produced by renowned independent companies from other European countries such as Belgium’s Fabrique Fantastique (Gardener Gavin), Germany’s Ulysses Filmproduktion (Butterfly Academy), Italy’s Red Monk Studio (Nadia), Poland’s Animoon (Icky & Poo), Portugal’s Sardinha em Lata (Pete & Bern’s; in co-production for The Saskatoons), Spain’s Peekaboo Animation (My Little Heroes) and Ukraine’s Animagrad (Hrafn Academy).
The line-up also includes projects from young production companies and new talent presenting their first projects. Four of them already took their first steps at Cartoon Springboard, the pitching event for new talents, which will hold its next edition in October in Valencia, Spain: Anselmo Wannabe (Italy’s IBRIDO Studio), Hygge (Germany’s Dreamin’ Dolphin Film), What it Takes (France’s Les Astronautes) and Space Ham (Denmark’s MiniCosmos).
Meanwhile, five projects were selected directly through cooperation agreements. The Polish project Robot and the Martians (Badi Badi) entered the line-up after being selected by CEE Animation Forum, the German series Lambs (Studio FILM BILDER) and Bugs and Guns (Wolkenlenker) were selected from Animation Production Days (APD). And the Belgian fund Créanimation, with the help of FWB (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles) and RTBF, brought two more projects to the mix: Muscaria (Galmar Films) and Bookworms (Mad Cat Studio).
Toulouse and Occitanie / Pyrénées-Mediterranée Region animation will be presenting the TV special Sacha and the Christmas Creatures (Xbo films).
Close to 20 of the selected projects are adaptations of comic books or books, including My Dog, God and the Pokethings (TNZPV Productions), Freaked Out (Autour de Minuit), Living with Dad (Dupuis Edition et Audiovisuel), Blue Wolfie (Label Anim), Suzon (Mondo TV France) and Corgi, A Royal Family (Studio Redfrog) from France; Tales of Terror (Dream Logic) and Freddy Buttons Wacky Mysteries (Treehouse Republic) from Ireland; as well as Hello, Oscar! (Atom Art, Latvia), Welcome to Mamoko (Pigeon, Poland) and Fio Lina and the Maestro (Serienwerk, Germany), among others.
Discover all the selected Cartoon Forum 2021 projects at cartoon-media.eu/cartoon-forum.
