Car­toon Busi­ness 2025: Highlights

The last three days have been filled with inspiring panels, keynotes and case studies designed to help you tackle the challenges facing the animation industry today. We hope you also made the most of your time at Cartoon Business by connecting and exchanging ideas with your fellow participants.

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©CARTOON

INSIGHTS INTO CARTOON BUSINESS 2025

FOCUS ON EURO­PEAN KEY PLAY­ERS. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives of mul­ti­ple coun­tries were pre­sent­ing their ani­ma­tion indus­try. Nicky Coyle, Emma Kane, Kevin Davoren & Ronan McCabe spoke about the Island of Ire­land, the growth of the indus­try and the oppor­tu­ni­ties of co-pro­duc­tions com­ing from Europe. The Ambas­sador of the Repub­lic of Ire­land hon­oured us with his pres­ence dur­ing the pan­el.
Sev­er­al Euro­pean com­pa­nies such as Medi­awan Kids & Fam­i­ly (FR), VRT-Ket­net (BE), & Sub­ma­rine Ani­ma­tion (NL) seized the oppor­tu­ni­ty to explain their newest strate­gies to cre­ate new IPs, attract new audi­ences and expand their reach.

BEL­GIAN ANI­MA­TION AS THE GOLD­EN THREAD. The coun­try’s cul­tur­al and eco­nom­ic funds have joined forces to cre­ate a pro­gramme ded­i­cat­ed to the Bel­gian ani­ma­tion indus­try, with a spe­cial focus on stu­dios and tal­ent.
The pro­gramme fea­tured an overview on the key busi­ness mile­stones cur­rent­ly shap­ing ani­ma­tion in Bel­gium, with Jan Hameeuw (The Pack), Ava Dobry­nine & Sébastien Dehogne (Waooh!) shar­ing insights that the ani­ma­tion indus­try can take­away from these local com­mer­cial ini­tia­tives.
Par­tic­i­pants also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to watch the screen­ing of two projects from Bel­gian direc­tors: ​“Beau­ti­ful Men” by Nico­las Kep­pens & ​“In Thou­sand Petals” by Louise Bon­gartz.

WHERE CON­NEC­TIONS SPARK & COL­LAB­O­RA­TIONS BEGIN. Dur­ing the event, the first after­noon was entire­ly ded­i­cat­ed to net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. The Busi­ness Clin­ic returned for a sec­ond edi­tion, giv­ing par­tic­i­pants the chance to meet con­sul­tants and dis­cuss ani­ma­tion-relat­ed busi­ness issues. At the same time, the Job Day was under­way. Young tal­ents attend­ing the event had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­cov­er local com­pa­nies, explore car­reer oppor­tu­ni­ties and net­work with indus­try pro­fes­sion­als. To close the day, the well-known One-to-one meet­ings were held, allow­ing par­tic­i­pants to con­nect direct­ly with their peers. More than 130 meet­ings were organised.

HOT TOPICS DISCUSSED DURING THE EVENT

IN THE FOOT­STEPS OF WOMEN IN ANI­MA­TION. The pan­el was a tremen­dous suc­cess! Filled with laugh­ter, heart­felt sto­ries and valu­able insights, the dis­cus­sion offered a refresh­ing and inspir­ing look at the jour­neys of women who are shap­ing the world of ani­ma­tion. Kris­tine Knud­sen (DE & NO), Mar­ta Alon­so Lis­bona (ES) & Per­rine Gau­thi­er (FR & BE) shared their per­son­al expe­ri­ences with hon­esty and humour, offer­ing thought­ful advice to any­one aspir­ing to enter the field.
Through­out the event, women such as Olga Cherepano­va (UA), Jiel­la Esmat (UK) & Ellen Ram­stad (NO) stood out through their speech­es and their excit­ing stories.

Dur­ing the Q&A ses­sions, many of the ques­tions high­light­ed just how inspir­ing these pro­fes­sion­als are for the next gen­er­a­tion of women eager to break into ani­ma­tion. Their pas­sion, resilience, and cre­ativ­i­ty clear­ly res­onat­ed with the audi­ence, leav­ing every­one ener­gised and motivated.

NEW MOD­ELS RESHAP­ING THE INDUS­TRY. Chal­lenges are noth­ing new in ani­ma­tion. What’s remark­able is how its cre­ators con­tin­ue to rein­vent them­selves, time and time again, and this has nev­er been truer than in 2025. By reshap­ing dis­tri­b­u­tion mod­els (through new plat­forms such as gam­ing, mobile apps, social media and UGC con­tent), rethink­ing cre­ative meth­ods, and deep­en­ing their under­stand­ing of audi­ences, pro­fes­sion­als are paving the way for the next glob­al ani­mat­ed hits. Experts such as Samy Therain (FR), Cecil­ia Pers­son (UK), David Klee­man (US) and Lucia Dubravay Traut­en­berg­er (SK), among many oth­ers, shared their insights on these trans­for­ma­tions and how to imple­ment them. These new mod­els aim to dri­ve mean­ing­ful change and ensure that the ani­ma­tion indus­try endures over time while remain­ing authen­tic and cre­ative. To quote Alis­sa Aubenque (FR): ​“We are sto­ry­tellers and the way we tell our sto­ries also tells a sto­ry”.

We hope your stay in Brussels was fruitful and inspiring. It was a pleasure to close this year of CARTOON's events with Cartoon Business. We'll see you next year in Brussels!