Car­toon Movie 2026: Highlights

Cartoon Movie 2026 once more showcased the creative strength and diversity of European animation. This year's lineup featured 50 feature film projects from 20 countries, reflecting a rich mix of genres and storytelling themes.

We had the chance to discover 6 projects from outside Europe through the Québec-Canada Land in Europe intitiative.

At the same time, the event spotlighted emerging genres and recurring themes shaping contemporary European animation, further cementing Cartoon Movie's position as a leading hub for creative collaboration and co-production.

TOP 10 OF PROJECTS THAT RECEIVED THE MOST ATTENTION FROM THE BUYERS

Only projects in Development & in Production

  1. "Kindred Spirits" by Cartoon Saloon (IR) & Folivari (FR)
  2. "Dreamwalker" by Vivi Film (BE), Parmi les lucioles films (FR) & Lighthouse Studios (IR)
  3. "Once Upon an Egg" by Keplerfilm (NL), A Private View (BE) & Hausboot (CZ)
  4. "Akira's Flying Wheelchair" by TeamTO Films (FR)
  5. "The Heart of the Djembe" by Cottonwood Media (FR), Booya Studio (CI) & Umedia (BE)
  6. "Flick" by WIZZ (FR) & FOST (FR)
    "Hakim's Odyssey" by Folivari (FR) & Solab Films (FR)
  7. "Pangea" by Miyu Productions (FR)
  8. "Night Tram" by Negativ (CZ), Sacrebleu Productions (FR), BFilm (SK), ART SHOT (LT)
    "Starseed" by Aparte Film (RO), Special Touch Studios (FR), Wrong Men (BE), Quetzalcoatl (BE), Yzanakio (CA) & Known Associates Group (ZA)
  9. "Blaise" by KG Productions (FR)
  10. "Cosmo Pincess" by Sacrebleu Productions (FR)
    "Kokum" by Paul Thiltges Productions (LU) & Special Touch Studios (FR)

TOP 10 OF PROJECTS OF EUROPEAN COPRODUCTIONS

  1. "Kindred Spirits" by Cartoon Saloon (IR) & Folivari (FR)
  2. "Dreamwalker" by Vivi Film (BE), Parmi les lucioles films (FR) & Lighthouse Studios (IR)
  3. "The Heart of the Djembe" by Cottonwood Media (FR), Booya Studio (CI) & Umedia (BE)
  4. "Once Upon an Egg" by Keplerfilm (NL), A Private View (BE) & Hausboot (CZ)
  5. "Kokum" by Paul Thiltges Productions (LU) & Special Touch Studios (FR)
  6. "Night Tram" by Negativ (CZ), Sacrebleu Productions (FR), BFilm (SK), ART SHOT (LT)
  7. "Saima: Scenes from a Midlife Crisis" by Alexandra Film (EE), Adriatic Animation (HR) & Avec ou sans Vous (FR)
  8. "Starseed" by Aparte Film (RO), Special Touch Studios (FR), Wrong Men (BE), Quetzalcoatl (BE), Yzanakio (CA) & Known Associates Group (ZA)
  9. "Kigali Night" by Parmi les lucioles films (FR), Eklektik Productions (BE) & Melusine Productions (LU)
    "Monster Mia" by arx anima animation studio (AT), Peng! Boom! Tschak! - Films (DE), arx anima MD (DE) & Arxlight Pictures (ES)
  10. "Halloween vs. Day of the Dead" by Studio 100 International (DE) & 3Doubles Producciones (ES)

PARTICIPATION NUMBERS

©CAR­TOON

TOPICS & TRENDS FROM CARTOON MOVIE 2026

POW­ER­FUL THEMES TACK­LED BY THE LINE-UP. Beyond mar­ket-dri­ven projects, this year’s selec­tion reflects ani­ma­tion’s pow­er­ful engage­ment with press­ing glob­als real­i­ties. Migra­tion, war and exile emerge as recur­ring themes, demon­strat­ing the medi­um’s abil­i­ty to con­front com­plex social and polit­i­cal issues with nuance and emo­tion­al depth. ​“Ejo” by Jacek Rokosz (Ani­moon - PL), ​“Kigali Night” by Samuel Lajus (Par­mi les luci­oles films - FR) or ​“Tomi & Eri­ka” by Péter Palát­sik & Matthias Bruhn (Trick­stu­dio Lut­ter­beck & Banana Tree Film - DE), among oth­ers, are tack­ling these top­ics in their stories.

TER­RI­TO­RY IN MOTION. The Region Nou­velle-Aquitaine was rep­re­sent­ed by 9 projects in total: ​“Blaise” by KG Pro­duc­tions, ​“Detec­tive Kib­bles” by La Sta­tion Ani­ma­tion, ​“Fire­bird” co-pro­duced by Novan­i­ma Pro­duc­tions, ​“Hap­py Hunt­ing vs the Apoc­a­lypse” by Kawan­i­ma­tion, ​“Jim Queen” by Bob­byp­ills, ​“Night Tram” co-pro­duced by Sacre­bleu Pro­duc­tions, ​“Pangea” by Miyu Pro­duc­tions, ​“Saima: Scenes from a Midlife Cri­sis” co-direct­ed and co-writ­ten by Chin­tis Lund­gren & Draško Ivez­ić & ​“Smecheria or the Con­fi­dences of a Cheat” co-pro­duced by Hutong Productions.

ESTAB­LISHED & EMERG­ING VOIC­ES. This year’s line-up show­cased a vibrant mix of emerg­ing voic­es, inde­pen­dent stu­dios and sea­soned film­mak­ers backed by inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies. Renowned direc­tors took cen­tre stage with projects such as ​“Kin­dred Spir­its” by Tomm Moore (Car­toon Saloon - IE), ​“Starseed” by Anca Dami­an (Aparte Film - RO) and ​“Hakim’s Odyssey” by Patrick Imbert (Folivari/​Solab Films - FR). ​“Aya in the Desert” by Julia Horil­lo Pla (Alhena Pro­duc­tion - ES) and ​“Silence Some­times” by Álvaro Rob­les (Fil­mak­ers Mon­keys - ES) direct­ly came from Car­toon Spring­board as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the new generation.

FEMALE MAIN CHAR­AC­TERS ARE STRONG­LY REP­RE­SENT­ED. Women con­tin­ue to gain ground at the event, with 39% of projects direct­ed or co-direct­ed by women, 34% pro­duced by women, and more than half (62%) fea­tur­ing at least one main female char­ac­ter. Their per­spec­tives brings new themes and sto­ries to the spec­trum of the ani­ma­tion indus­try. ​“Igi” by Natia Niko­lashvili (20 Steps Ani­ma­tion - GE) & ​“Onno & Ont­je - Friends are the Best Gift” by Eliza Plocieni­ak-Alvarez (Blaue Pam­pel­muse - DE), among oth­ers, are prime exemples.

COUP DE COEUR

Les Femmes s'Animent are thrilled with this years Cartoon Movie which choose to highlight so many strong female film makers exploring important universal themes with diverse unique voices and visual universes. Celebrating these trail blazing artists is exhilerating. Choosing one project was very challenging. Thus, We want to give a special mention to The heart of the Djembe an African project that was developed in our talent lab Parcours des Femmes saluting this strong female heroine’s destiny and courage. And We are proud to discern our label this year to "Night Tram" by Michaela Pavlatova. Her exploration of aging and invisibility via her unique sense of humor is inspiring. We want to celebrate her incredible talent and vision.

SAVE THE DATE

Cartoon Movie 2027 will take place from 2 to 4 March in Bordeaux.

CARTOON MOVIE'S ACCOMPLISHMENT OVER THE YEARS

The aim of Cartoon Movie is to help producers to speed up financing, meet potential co-producers and attract the interest of distributors from around the world. Since its creation in 1999, 513 films found financing, representing a total budget of 3.42 billion EUR.

A heartfelt thank you for joining us at this year's edition of Cartoon Movie! 10 years' adventure, and many more to come, of Cartoon Movie in the region: thanks to our partners Bordeaux Métropole, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine & Magelis, Creative industries hub in Angoulême. We were thrilled to have you among our participants and to witness your creativity in action.

Wishing you great success with your projects and we can't wait to welcome you to another of our events later this year for more inspiration, networking and animation magic!