Car­toon Busi­ness 2023: Highlights

The lineup of speakers of this edition has covered so many different topics, we hope that everyone will come home with the head full of new ideas and useful learnings. These 2 days of deep diving into the business of animation have also brought us together during relaxed and friendly networking moments.

PAR­TIC­I­PA­TION NUMBERS

We were hap­py to wel­come 121 par­tic­i­pants from 25 coun­tries. Among them, 33 speakers and experts were attend­ing. During the one-to-one meetings, 120 meetings of speed dating happened in two and half hours with 65 participants

TOPICS & TRENDS FROM CARTOON BUSINESS 2023

The pandemic feels now behind us: box office numbers are getting better again, and the animation industry is investing in R&D again, allowing new budgets to technological et editorial development. The region of Gran Canaria in that regard has a great ambition, and the means to make it real. They’re building a very attractive animation hub on their island.

A.I., angel or demon? The debates were nour­ished with enthu­si­asm, skep­ti­cism and fear. We went through the pros and cons, and even beyond with the legal aspect. The pos­si­bil­i­ties to enhance the work­flow, opti­mize the bud­get are seen as progress, but con­tent gen­er­a­tion con­tin­ues to raise a lot of issues regard­ing stan­dard­iza­tion and copy­right. – Clara Benyamin (CBLF Avocats/​FR), Olivi­er Lelar­doux (Blue Spir­it Productions/​FR), Col­in Williams (Six­teen South/​IE).
At the same time, tech­no­log­i­cal evo­lu­tion might also be bring­ing inspi­ra­tion and busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties by open­ing doors into relat­ed indus­tries, like robot­ics – Cyril Le Pesant (Gau­mont Animation/​FR).

The rise of sus­tain­abil­i­ty cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. A few talks explored good busi­ness prac­tices to grow pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies into envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly organ­i­sa­tions, on a wide scope (social, process, tech­niques). An era of cer­ti­fi­ca­tions has emerged, with its pos­i­tive aspects (it’s a con­stant work in progress), and less pos­i­tive as cer­ti­fi­ca­tion con­sul­tan­cy has become a lucra­tive mar­ket. Nev­er­the­less, a sus­tain­abil­i­ty cer­ti­fi­ca­tion has now also become a way to attract and retain tal­ents. – Amit Gicel­ter (The Hive Studio/​IL), Daniel Isman (Blue Zoo/​UK), Ilan Urroz (Foliascope/​FR), Bert Van Brande (Stel­lar Cre­ative Lab/​CA).

Ani­ma­tion & video game as spe­cial friends. The bridge between ani­ma­tion and video game is get­ting stronger and stronger. There are dif­fer­ent ways to con­sid­er col­lab­o­ra­tion and adap­ta­tion between the two indus­tries, but the ques­tion of the con­tent remains cen­tral. Some would devel­op both lin­ear and inter­ac­tive at the same time, some would use video game as the entry point to ani­ma­tion. – Guiller­mo Andrades (Crema/​ES), Marie-Béné­dicte Antoni­ni (Amuse Animation/​ES), Juan Martín Bar­tomi­oli (Red Wolve Studios/​AR), Jean-Julien Baron­net (Mar­la Studios/​US), Arthur Col­ignon (Some­where Animation/​FR), Anna Shchur (ZeptoLab/​ES).

Snippets

  • A future for broadcasting. The crisis has affected European public broadcasters in many ways. They’ve lost significant market shares to OTT and streamers, but they’ve also learned from that complicated period of time. To survive they had to adapt, and find new strategies to meet their audience where they are now. Most of them have now created their own platform, started publishing on YouTube and TikTok, or opened a digital channel. Alessia di Giacomo (RTVE/ES), Andrea Basílio (RTP/PT), Sebastian Debertin (KiKA/DE)
  • Tweens, a fleeting audience. Capturing the tweens is a remaining issue for producers, broadcasters and distributors alike. With animation opening up to adults and young adults, and starting to be considered as a medium more than a genre, many doors are opening.
    It seems possible to create content targeting the tweens as long as the content is specifically crafted for them, and the format and pace match the tweens’ online consumption. Juha Fiilin (Fiilin Good Films/FI), Simon Österhof (Soja/SW), Corinne Kouper (TeamTO/FR).

MANY THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS

The main partners of Cartoon Business are Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme, Cabildo de Gran Canaria – SPEGC, and the Gran Canaria Film Commission.