Cartoon Movie 2024 Opens Today

Cartoon Movie, the annual co-production and pitching event for European animated feature films, kicks off today in Bordeaux, France. Producers of 55 films from 16 countries seeking production and distribution partners will get a chance to present to the 850+ professionals expected to attend. This year’s event, which runs March 5-7, spotlights creating new synergies with the publishing sector and animation film industry.

34 in-development projects from France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Norway lead the event’s line-up. Pitching sessions at the Bordeaux Congress Centre will also feature 13 in-concept projects, four films in production, and four sneak-previews of yet-to-be-released films, including Elli by Jesper Møller, Piet de Rycker and Jens Møller; Kensuke’s Kingdom by Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry; Living Large by Kristina Dufková; and SuperKlaus by Steven Majaury and Andrea Sebastiá.

Selections feature both celebrated and up-and-coming directors, including Alain Gagnol (Dog My Cats!); Toby Genkel (Out of Frame); Patrick Imbert (The Wild Inside); Kari Juusonen and Jørgen Lerdam (Niko - Beyond the Northern Lights); Alessandro Rak (The Little Prince of Shangri- La); and Alain Ughetto (Rose and the Marmots) are among those who will be pitching their new works at the event.

The complete list of projects is available here.

With France at the forefront, the event’s roster adds up to 76.5 hours of animation and overall investments of 397.6 MIO EUR, with an average cost per film of 7.2 MIO EUR.

French animation leads Cartoon Movie selection with 15 projects, including four from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region supports three: Into the Wonderwoods by Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord, Living Large by Kristina Dufkovà, and Picasso in Royan by Benoît Laure, also supported by the Département Charente along with The Line by Philippe Rolland.

Belgium, Germany, and Spain participate with five projects each. The Nordic countries have doubled their participation year-on-year with nine projects. Also noteworthy is the sustained participation of the CEE countries, with six projects. Luxembourg is a majority producer with three projects.

• 37 projects (65%) are already co-productions between two or more partners, including 13 works involving non-creative MEDIA countries.
• 31 films (56%), target family audiences: 10 young adults/adults, 10 target children, two teens, and two preschoolers.
• 3D animation is the most common technique, featured in 24 projects, with 2D animation employed in 16. 14 projects combine 2D/3D, and one uses hand-drawing.

Delegates from 20 European publishing companies will network with animation producers, presenting books with an eye toward screen adaptation.

• 15 projects (28%) are based on books or graphic novels.

Cartoon Movie’s Coaching Program:

• 90 young talents and teachers from 12 local specialized schools will participate and learn about the animation industry. 10 additional students from Belgium schools will also participate in the program.

Award Presentations will include:  

• Eurimages Co-production Development Award, an initiative by The Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund to encourage international co-production from the initial stages of an animation project.
• Cartoon Movie Tributes, which, voted by the participants at Cartoon Movie, recognize the Director, Distributor, and Producer of the Year.
• Euroregional Audiovisual Award, a joint initiative by the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Euskadi Navarre Euroregion to promote the film industry in the three territories, with its first edition dedicated to animation.

Animation & Transmedia:

• An opening day event focused on creating synergy between the animation, video games, and transmedia industries will feature two roundtables and one-to-one meetings for animation professionals who wish to meet with video game companies and publishers.

Additional information is available here.

Source: Cartoon Movie

Debbie Diamond Sarto is news editor at Animation World Network.