It is not a coincidence that Cartoon Movie is being held in Lyon: a city with a world renown in gastronomy, it is also the birthplace of cinema and the capital of a highly creative European region, particularly in the fields of the moving image.
The Rhône-Alpes region has a strong and dynamic image industry, which includes 650 companies, 23 research laboratories and 28 training centres.
Annecy’s International Animation Film Festival and Market, Folimage, Project Images Films, Gebeka Films, La Poudrière, L’Équipée, the Emile Cohl school… are some of the many animation players established in this region that is decidedly very… animated!
The innovative Rhône-Alpes region has set up Clusters to encourage innovation and competitiveness of a sector’s important players. Within this framework and with the support of Greater Lyon, the Rhône-Alpes Imaginove Cluster was born. Related to the image industry, it combines the skills of the animation sector with those of video games, multimedia animation and the cinema/ audiovisual industry.
Based in the suburbs of Lyon in the heart of the new cinema and audiovisual site named PIXEL, the Rhône-Alpes Imaginove Cluster supports the commercial and international development of its companies, and promotes them during the most important events of the sector.
Imaginove’s cross-media method has facilitated links between the animation and video games sectors in a totally new way during the 2009 edition of Cartoon Movie. The video games industry is particularly notable in Lyon, which is the second European city of interactive entertainment. There are about 30 developers based in Lyon, as well as three international publishers: Atari, Electronic Arts and Namco Bandaï. The city is also host to a number of international events, such as Serious Games Sessions Europe (which will become Serious Game Expo in 2009) and Game Connection.
The international reputations of Annecy’s International Animation Film Festival and Market and of Valence’s Folimage studios make the Rhône-Alpes a region of creation and a meeting place between artists and the full production line of the animated image.
CITIA – City of the moving Image in Annecy gathers players working in the field of animation film, interactivity and multimedia around the International Animation Film Festival and Market, which is an international reference for all the animation professionals and one of CARTOON’s longstanding partners.
Near Valence, in beautiful surroundings, La Cartoucherie welcomes the renowned studio Folimage, the school La Poudrière and the association L’Equipée, as well as other companies working in the animation sector: Les Films du Nord, Toondra, Les Tanukis and a group from the studio TeamTO.
In the suburbs of Lyon, PIXEL is a regional audiovisual site, with a European dimension. Currently, Rhône-Alpes Studios manages three film sets for cinema, television and advertising. Intended for offering companies in the image and audiovisual industries with commercial premises and office space, PIXEL’s aim is to consolidate the attractiveness of the Rhône-Alpes’ audiovisual sector.
Finally, in the south of the Ardèche region, Lussas groups together, around the festival «Etats généraux du film documentaire», numerous organisations working in production, training and broadcasting of creative documentaries.
In 1895, Lyon proudly witnessed the new invention of the Lumière brothers, who offered to the world one of its greatest sources of entertainment: the motion picture projector. The first images were filmed in a street in the Monplaisir neighbourhood, which was from then on called «rue du Premier-film» («First Film Street»). Today, the Lumière Institute welcomes cinema lovers to the house of Louis and Auguste Lumière, which is now a museum, and to the Hangar of the First Film for high-quality cinema programming.
Lumière 2009 – Grand Lyon Film Festival is a large-scale international event, which will share its love of cinema with the general public in about 50 places around Lyon. It will project films from yesteryear presented by today’s cinema stars. Clint Eastwood is the guest of honour for the first edition.
The Rhône-Alpes region was the first French region to get involved in cinematic production, supporting creation in all its forms via two Film Funds.
Created in 1990, Rhône-Alpes Cinéma has already invested in the production of 170 feature-length films, including «Azur and Asmar» by Michel Ocelot, as well as «Raining Cats and Frogs» and «Mia and the Migoo» by Jacques-Rémy Girerd.
In addition, since 2001, the regional cinema and TV Film Fund supports the scriptwriting, development and production of short films, TV specials and animation series for television. A TV Film Fund for digital animation created in the Haute-Savoie area also contributes to the setting up of projects in the Annecy region.
The region is also a partner in Folimage’s Artists in Residency. The young author-directors invited to the Residency, such as Michael Dudok de Wit or Regina Pessoa, have since gained international recognition.
The training of future talents in animation is also a priority of the Rhône-Alpes region, where there are two schools of higher education: La Poudrière in Valence, which offers training in animation filmmaking; and the Emile Cohl school in Lyon, specialised in the plastic arts (drawing). The video games and multimedia sector also have higher-level training courses, such as Gobelins’s multimedia creation-production course and Gamagora, the video games’ school.
With its many attributes, the Rhône-Alpes region is the 2nd tourist destination in France offering activities all year round. Regional capital with 1.6 million inhabitants, Lyon is a major city with a human dimension that offers an exceptional standard of living and a particularly rich cultural life.
As the birthplace of cinema and home of the Lumière Institute, Lyon also has 30 outstanding museums, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Fine Arts and also the Textile Museum.
All year round, Lyon moves to the rhythm of events, notably the Festival of Lights on the 8th December, which illuminates the city and attracts nearly 4 million visitors. Then there are the biennials: «Biennale de la Danse» and «Biennale d’Art Contemporain», and also the «Nuits Sonores» Festival which was one of the first electronic music festivals in Europe. Lyon is also a city of football, with its club «Olympique Lyonnais», many times champion of France and who thrills the crowds.
With all these attributes, Lyon is a first-rate tourist destination in Europe. In 2008, it attracted more than 6 million tourists and a large number of trade shows.
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