Car­toon Spring­board 2025: Highlights

After three days of stunning pitching sessions, inspiring keynotes, a masterclass & panels and plenty of networking moments, Cartoon Springboard closes its doors!

We hope you had some constructive feedbacks on your projects, forward opportunities to network with your peers and discovered the next generation of talents.

Pho­to 1/1

INSIGHTS OF THIS EDITION

WHERE LIFE INSPIRES STO­RY­TELLING. The projects in this edi­tion were led by young cre­ators dar­ing to tell sto­ries that tru­ly reflect who they are and the soci­ety we live in. Their work revealed a pow­er­ful inner voice, expressed through their engage­ment with mean­ing­ful sub­jects such as men­tal health, rela­tion­ships, whether with fam­i­ly, part­ners, friends or across gen­er­a­tions, and many oth­er themes that play a major role in shap­ing this new gen­er­a­tion of talent.

NET­WORK­ING OPPOR­TU­NI­TIES AT THE HEART OF THE EVENT. For the first time at Car­toon Spring­board, One-to-one meet­ings ses­sions were held with 134 meet­ings orga­nized involv­ing 70 par­tic­i­pants. These indi­vid­ual ses­sions were appre­ci­at­ed by both young tal­ents and professionals. 

This edi­tion also mark the return of the Job Fair dur­ing which 35 meet­ings were scheduld­ed and 7 local com­pa­nies were intro­duced to the young talents.

HOT TOP­ICS OF THE INDUS­TRY were explored through keynotes, pan­els, and case stud­ies, all con­nect­ed by a com­mon thread: how to keep cre­at­ing and thriv­ing in today’s shift­ing indus­try? Ser­gio Pab­los did us the hon­our of giv­ing an exclu­sive sneak pre­view of his upcom­ing project Ember, which cap­ti­vat­ed the audi­ence with its out­stand­ing qual­i­ty and left every­one eager to dis­cov­er the final film. Joanne Allen shared valu­able advice on nav­i­gat­ing a career amid change, while dis­cus­sions around A.I. high­light­ed both its chal­lenges and its oppor­tu­ni­ties for cre­ators. Final­ly, Meï Cham­peil (known as Meyuu) remind­ed us that social media has become a pow­er­ful space to grow vis­i­bil­i­ty and bring projects to life beyond tra­di­tion­al paths.

Every gen­er­a­tion faces new chal­lenges. Its goal is to rein­vent itself and make the most of the tools at its dis­pos­al to cre­ate. Hope is still there, and will always remain!

A SPE­CIAL END FOR THE EVENT: a unique sneak pre­view of The Last Whale Singer, direct­ed by Reza Memari, who joined us dur­ing the event to deliv­er his keynote on how to write and devel­op orig­i­nal trans­me­dia IPs and engage with young tal­ents. This film, pitched at Car­toon Movie through­out every stage of its devel­op­ment, pro­vid­ed the per­fect way to close the event, with its glob­al release planned for ear­ly 2026.

CARTOON SPRINBOARD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS OVER THE YEARS

Created in 2015, Cartoon Sprinboard is designed as a training initiative for students and recent graduates of animation schools. The event combines pitching sessions with a program of lectures by renowned industry professionals. Among the 258 animation works submitted to Cartoon Springboard since its first edition, 19 have been completed and more than 90 are currently in development.

SAVE THE DATE!

Cartoon Springboard 2026 will take place from 27 to 29 October! Project submission and registration will open on the beginning of May 2026