Press release:
The 16th edition of Cartoon Movie, the annual pitching and co-production event which took place in Lyon last week, showcased the growing success of European animation.
The event welcomed 750 producers, distributors and investors from 40 countries, representing a 50% increase since 2009, when Cartoon Movie settled in Lyon. The strong quality of the 60 projects presented has boosted the 2 days, leading to co-production and distribution deals.
Since Cartoon Movie’s creation in 1999, the number of animated feature films produced in Europe has been multiplied by 5 and the number of viewers for European animated features in Europe has increased tenfold. Cartoon Movie has played a fundamental role in fostering co-productions, circulating European audiovisual works and improving the quality of animated films within Europe.
MADE IN EUROPE
For two days, Cartoon Movie was the showcase for a new batch of European animated features from 23 countries, including finished films and works in development and production. The 60 projects from 23 countries presented at the event had a global budget of 352 million euros, with an average of 5.9 million per film.
Gathering up to 300 participants, the pitching sessions got a full house. The most attended projects were the following: TeamTO’s film in production “Yellowbird” (FR / BE); the comic book adaptation by Arthur de Pins “Zombillénium” (FR); one of Folimage’s 4 projects “The Dreadfuls’ Christmas” (FR); Germany’s “Richard The Stork” (DE / BE / LU / NO); Tomm Moore’s second film “Song of the Sea” (IE, LU, DK, BE, FR); Finland’s “The Gnome” (FI / FR / EE); the autobiographical film “Funan, the New People” (FR) by Denis Do; Sacrebleu productions’ “Longway North” (FR / DK) by Rémi Chayé; Finnish film “Hugo – The World’s Worst Comeback” (FI / DK); Germany’s film in production ”Ooops ! Noah is gone…” (DE / LU / BE / IE); “The Ghosts of Père Lachaise” (FR) and Studio 100 Media’s “Maya the Bee – Movie” (DE / AU).
Films for young adults and adults are on the rise in Europe, doubling their presence at Cartoon Movie since last year to represent 30% of the line-up. Highlights of these projects include animated films and documentaries about political and social topics such as the former Yugoslavian civil war (“Chris the Swiss”), the Khmer Rouge’s years in Cambodia (“Funan, the New People”) and the plight of refugees around the planet (“The Tower”, “Hot Heart Story”).
FRANCE AND NORDIC COUNTRIES LEAD
France, involved in 22 projects, remains the undisputed leader of European animation. The Nordic countries showed an impressive dynamism, representing a quarter of the line-up, in particular Norway with 6 projects, Finland with 4 and Sweden with 3 projects. Germany, Italy and Poland tied for third place with 4 projects each, followed by Hungary, Ireland, Spain and the UK with 2 each.
Among the French selection, there were 7 productions from the Rhône-Alpes Region, which has consistently increased its presence since Lyon was established as the capital of the event in 2009 and is the second largest region in France in terms of animated production.
CARTOON MOVIE TRIBUTES 2014
During the 16th Cartoon Movie, participants voted the winners of the Cartoon Movie Tributes 2014, the awards for outstanding contribution to the development of European animation film over the last year. The winners are:
– Directors of the Year: Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo (France), directors of the French animation hit “Minuscule” (1.2 million admissions in France)
– Distributor of the Year: Le Pacte (France), distributor of “Minuscule”
– Producer of the Year: Walking The Dog (Belgium) an independent animation studio that has recently co-produced “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart”
The Rhône-Alpes Personality of the Year went to Folimage’s founder Jacques-Rémy Girerd, director of films such as “Raining Cats and Dogs”, “Mia and the Migoo” and more recently “Aunt Hilda!”.
CARTOON GAMES: THE MEETING OF VIDEO GAMES AND ANIMATION
For the third consecutive year, CARTOON and Imaginove, the competitiveness cluster of digital content in Rhône-Alpes, organized CARTOON GAMES, an initiative aimed at fostering collaboration between animation producers and video-game developers. Some 80 companies in both sectors from seven countries participated in the event, holding 600 individual meetings.
For the first time, a feature film project presented at Cartoon Movie is coming from a video game: “DOFUS Book I – Julith” by Jean-Jacques Denis & Anthony Roux and produced by Ankama. Dofus is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) released in 2004 by Ankama. Following the success of the game (25 millions players), Dofus has been developed as a TV series, currently airing on France 3, and now as a feature film in development.
About CARTOON MOVIE
The 16th edition of Cartoon Movie was organised with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA, CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée), the Rhône-Alpes Region, Greater Lyon and in collaboration with Imaginove (Lyon). Since 1990, over 215 films, with a total budget of 1.5 billion Euros, have secured their financing and have been released thanks to this annual forum aimed at strengthening the production and distribution of animated feature films in Europe.
About CARTOON
CARTOON – European Association of Animation Film is an international non-profit association based in Brussels that organises Cartoon Movie, together with Cartoon Forum, a co-production forum for animated TV series, Cartoon Master training seminars and Cartoon Connection, a programme intended to explore ways of reinforcing cooperation between EU and non-EU animation professionals.
