The main protagonists of European animation nominated for Cartoon Tributes 2014
– Directors of “Beyond Beyond”, “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart”, “Minuscule” and “The Art of Happiness” among the nominees.
– Over 730 sector professionals will select the winners in the French city of Lyon on 7th March.
– Swedish-Danish coproduction “Beyond Beyond” chosen to open CARTOON MOVIE 2014.
CARTOON MOVIE, the pitching and co-production event for animated features, has announced the finalists for Cartoon Tributes 2014, the awards for outstanding contribution to the development of European animation over the last year. Divided into three categories – Director, Distributor and Producer of the Year – this year’s Cartoon Tributes bring together the best of the latest European animated features as well as some of the continent’s most active companies within the industry. Over 730 professionals participating in Cartoon Movie will be in charge of selecting the winners who will be announced in Lyon, France on 7th March.
French animation leads the category for Director of the Year with two films. “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart”, first feature film of French singer Mathias Malzieu and co-directed by Stéphane Berla, is adapted from his best-selling novel and the gold-selling album by his band Dionysos. The second film, “Minuscule” by Thomas Szabo and Hélène Giraud, is the latest French animation hit that has drawn over 850,000 spectators to theatres since its release on 29th January.
The two films will compete with Swedish-Danish coproduction “Beyond Beyond”, the second feature film by Esben Toft Jacobsen (“The Great Bear”) produced by Copenhagen Bombay. Inspired by Greek mythology and Nordic fables, this stereoscopic 3D family adventure has recently competed in the Generation Kplus section of the Berlinale and is this year’s choice to open Cartoon Movie 2014 on 5th March.
Rounding up the category is “The Art of Happiness”, an Italian animation drama about the search for spirituality by debut filmmaker Alessandro Rak. The film was awarded at the latest Venice Film Festival and at London’s Raindance festival.
Three companies will compete for European Distributor of the Year, whose shortlist includes a non-European independent distributor, GKIDS from the United States, for the first time this year. GKIDS has played a significant role in promoting European animated films, with which it has scored four Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations (“The Secret of Kells”, “A Cat in Paris”, “Chico & Rita” and “Ernest & Celestine”). The company will compete with Le Pacte, an independent distributor, producer and international sales agent based in Paris and responsible for the launch of Ari Folman’s “Waltz with Bashir” in France and more recently, “Minuscule”. The third nominee is the Luxembourg-based company Paul Thiltges Distributions (PTD), which has played an active role as co-producer, distributor and sales agent of animated films such as “Kirikou and the Sorceress”, “Ernest & Celestine” and “The Congress”, among others.
The shortlist for Producer of the Year includes France’s Label Anim, the company behind the Cesar-nominated film “My Mommy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill”; Luxembourg’s Mélusine Productions, one of Europe’s most active co-producers with participation in films such as “Aunt Hilda”, “Ernest & Célestine”, “Song of the Sea”, “The Day of the Crows” and “A Town Called Panic!”; and Belgium’s Walking The Dog, an independent animation studio that has co-produced films such as “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart”, “The Congress”, “The Day of the Crows” and Enzo d’Alò’s “Pinocchio”.
Along with these prizes, the Rhône-Alpes Region will award a special Tribute to highlight regional animation talents.
The 16th edition of CARTOON MOVIE (5-7 March, Lyon) will showcase 60 animated film projects from 23 European countries. Led by France with 22 projects, the event line-up reveals the strength of Nordic and new European countries as well as a rise in the number of films for young adults and adults. The projects selected for this new edition have a global budget of 357 million Euros and include some 85 hours of new quality animation.
About CARTOON MOVIE
The 16th edition of CARTOON MOVIE is 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 pitched at Cartoon Movie, 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.
