Reports

Cartoon Movie was launched on 9 March at the Palais des Congrès Bordeaux. Virginie Calmels, Vice-President of Bordeaux Métropole and Deputy Mayor in charge of Economy, Employment and Sustainable Growth, was responsible for welcoming the 850 participants from 41 countries that set a new record of participation and an increase by 14% in the number of attendees compared to the previous year.

Francois Bonneau, president of Pôle Image Magelis Angoulême, stressed the importance of animation in the region and the work that this economic development centre for the image and digital audiovisual sector has been carrying out through the creation of the proper environment for the development of projects in the audiovisual industry and the training of professionals.

During their speeches, Harald Trettenbrein (Head of MEDIA Unit – EACEA Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency) emphasized the importance of animation for MEDIA, and Filip D'havé (General Delegate of the Government of Flanders in France) thanked CARTOON for having chosen Flanders to inaugurate the spotlight dedicated to animation in a specific region.

Buyers - including distributors, sales agents, aggregators and VoD platforms - accounted for a quarter of the participants, showing the interest European animation has and Cartoon Movie's convening power

CROISSANTS & COFFEE SHOWS

Divided into four programmes over two days, the 55 projects presented this year (17 in concept, 26 in development, 9 in production and 3 in sneak preview) reflected the good current situation of European animation production.

The future generation of films comes from 23 countries and maintains some of the main trends from previous years, such as the predominance of projects aimed at the family audience (63%), the impressive growth of animation for young adults (31%), co-production as a formula to finance films (54%) and the diversity of styles and budgets, ranging from 3 to 13 million euros.

With 17 projects (30%) France was at the top of this year’s selection followed by Belgium and Germany with five projects each, and the Nordic countries, which together had six projects. The collaboration between France and Belgium continues to bring good results, with 9 projects in co-production. Altogether, the projects represent an investment of more than 300 million euros, being 5.5 million the average cost of each of the films presented.

The adaptation of the graphic novel “Zombillenium” directed by Arthur de Pins and Alexis Durcord became the project that drew most interest among the participants, followed by “The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales” - Benjamin Renner's awaited return - “Miss Saturne” by Jérôme Combe & Barbara Israël and “Wolfwalkers” by Irish director Tomm Moore.

In the selection there were some well-known professionals presenting their new projects, such as Rémi Chayé (“Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary”), Jean-François Laguionie (“The Prince's Journey”), Bibo Bergeron “(“Charlotte”), Jan Bultheel (“Canaan”), Neil Boye and Kirk Hendry (“Kensuke's Kingdom”), Jesper Møller (“Crazy Island”), Toby Genkel and Sean McCormack (“Ooops! 2”) and Alessandro Rak (“Skeleton Story”).

In the line-up there were also filmmakers, animators and artists preparing their debut, such as Aurélien Froment (“JOSEP”), Johan Poher Rasmussen (“Flee”), Sepideh Farsi (“The Siren’), Gitanjali Rao (“Bombay Rose”), Carlo Vogele (“Icarus”), Remy Schaepman (“The Nazis, My Father and Me”), Anca Damian (“The Fantastic Voyage of Maroma”) and Roger Mainwood (“Ethel & Ernest”).

The new European talents also found their place in the event with projects presented by directors who had previously caught attention with their short films or debut features such as Stéphanie Lansaque and François Leroy (“Super Vinamotor”), Michaela Pavlatova (“My Sunny Maad”), Mascha Halberstad (“Fox and Hare Save the Forest”), Alberto Vázquez (“Unicorn Wars”) or Salvador Simó Buscon (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”), among others.

Bordeaux Metropole's animation was present with three projects: “Single Mom in Korea”, the new film by Jung Henin produced by Marmita films, “Charlotte” in coproduction with Les Films du Poisson Rouge and “Unicorn Wars” in coproduction with Schmuby Productions. In addition, the projects “Zombillenium”, “Miss Saturne”, “Canaan” and “The Prince's Journey” will also be made in studios in Pôle Image Magelis, confirming the commitment to the talents and the creative economy of the region.

FLANDRIENS OF ANIMATION

Starting this edition, Cartoon Movie will dedicate a spotlight to a region or country in order to highlight its work in animation. The Flanders region, which has 22 animation production companies, 25 animated features and 30 series in the pipeline for 2017-18, was the first guest of honour. The Flemish animation producers attended Cartoon Movie under the banner 'The Flandriens of Animation ', a reference to the racing cyclists.

Flemish animation continues to gain visibility within the European map and was present in Cartoon Movie with three projects (“Canaan”, produced by Tondo, “Crazy Island” produced by Grid Animation and “ZOOks” produced by Sancta / Potemkino), and five co-productions: three of them co-produced by Walking The Dog (“Fox & Hare Save the Forest”, “Hump” and “Charlotte”), “Ploey - You Never Fly Alone” co-produced by Cyborn and “The Siren” coproduced by Lunanime.

TRIBUTES, GAMES AND COACHING PROGRAMMES

The Swiss and French stop motion animated comedy-drama film “My Life as a Courgette” got two of the three Cartoon Tributes, recognitions that are annually given by Cartoon Movie's participants. The film directed by Claude Barras was awarded the 'Director of the Year' and 'Producer of the Year' prizes (Rita Productions, Blue Spirit Productions and Gebeka Films), and Danish Angel Films was voted as 'Distributor of the Year'.

As an introduction to Cartoon Movie, the Palais des Congres accent hosted on Wednesday 8 March, a new edition of Cartoon Games & Apps, an activity carried out in collaboration with Bordeaux Games, Pôle Image Magelis and CATS (Cluster Aquitain du Transmedia Storytelling) with the aim of promoting synergies between the animation sector and videogames and apps developers. Also, on the morning of 8 March, La Grande Jonction was celebrated, the B2B French Tech Bordeaux event that aims to create a direct link between professionals from the traditional economy and the digital economy through conferences and exhibition stands by local entrepreneurs.

The animation students had a place in Cartoon Movie through the Coaching Program, a training initiative that allowed students from France and Flanders to have an introduction to Cartoon Movie and the European association CARTOON's work. Participants also attended different conferences and master classes by renowned producers.

Cartoon Movie was organised by CARTOON with the support of Creative Europe - MEDIA, CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée), Bordeaux Metropole, the city of Bordeaux and Pôle Image Magelis. The next edition of the event will be held in Bordeaux from 7 to 9 March 2018.