CARTOON FORUM 35TH ANNIVERSARY: CELEBRATING THE PAST, LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Cartoon Forum has proudly celebrated its 35th anniversary in an edition built on European animation production momentum. Besides the pitching sessions and networking activities that were held during the three days of work, there was also time to look back at some fond memories of this event that, throughout its thirty-five years of history, has helped 1,002 animated series become a reality and meet their audience. As every year, Cartoon Forum was also an opportunity to reflect on the future of a rapidly changing industry that is facing new financial and technological challenges. Italian animation was the guest of honor of this edition that included, for the first time, one-to-one meetings between animation producers and publishers, among other highlights.
On September 16, the near 1,000 participants were warmly welcomed in the French city of Toulouse, host to Cartoon Forum since 2012, with a tasting of local products at the quaint Marché Victor Hugo. The day after, Cartoon Forum's new edition was officially launched at the Centre des Congrès with opening words by Pierre Esplugas-Labatut, Deputy Mayor in charge of Image of Mairie Toulouse; Serge Regourd, President of the Culture Commission of Région Occitanie; Maria Carolina Terzi, President of Cartoon Italia – Association of the Italian Animation Producers (Spotlight on Italy); and Pierre Siracusa, Director of Young Audiences and Animation at France Télévisions presenting the second edition of the EBU co-development Initiative.
Then Annick Maes, CARTOON General Director, presented a clip featuring some of the milestones of this event, which, throughout the years, has been instrumental in developing and promoting European animation.
Cartoon Forum’s line-up 2024 included 75 projects of series and TV specials, 19 of which were developed by companies and studios participating for the first time in the event. Hailing from 20 countries, the selected projects amounted to 388 hours of new content and a total budget of 350.7 million EUR.
France led the line-up with 36 projects, followed by Ireland with eight, and Germany and Italy with five. The CEE countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia) were also present with five, one project per country. Denmark and Spain featured three projects each, while Portugal participated with two. Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Poland were represented with one each. Participating for the first time at Cartoon Forum, three non-EU countries in the Creative Europe Programme – Armenia, Georgia and Moldova – rounded up the selection with one project each.
Regarding animation techniques, 2D continues to be the most widely used in European series, reaching 60% of the projects selected, while 3D amounts for 22%. Finally, 15% of the projects resort to a combination of both techniques.
Series targeting pre-school to 11-year-old children remain the focus of European animation production, amounting to 68% of the roster. Projects aimed at Young Adults / Adults have considerably increased to 24% of the selection – amounting to a three-fold surge compared to 2019 –, while series for family audiences have stayed stable at 8%.
Emerging trends
Cartoon Forum's line-up shows some of the prevailing trends in European animation, including the topics that are currently catching the creators and producers’ interest. A significant number of projects tell stories from a female perspective featuring strong female characters in the leading roles. Also noteworthy is the number of women in key production or creative roles.
A further noticeable trend is the growing interest in addressing hot topics, from political and environmental issues to other widespread concerns such as diversity and inclusion in our society.
The EBU Co-Development Initiative
European public broadcasters' key role in the financing and broadcasting of animated content was evident at the event. In addition to supporting various projects, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), together with France Télévisions and CARTOON, lead an initiative to collectively fund new animated content aimed at young audiences. For the second year in a row, up to two projects will be selected by 15 EBU member pubcasters to receive financial support for the development of a pilot episode. Last year’s winners, “Pig & Andersen” (Fleng Entertainment - Denmark) and “Ray & Ruby” (Creative Conspiracy - Belgium), presented their projects developments at the event
Top projects
The three projects co-produced by at least two European countries that raised the most interest among the participants were “A Lamb's Stew” from La Cabane Productions (France) and Thuristar (Belgium); “Esther” from Take Five (Belgium), Sacrebleu Productions (France), and Rudo Company (Argentina); and “Ooops! The Ark is Stranded” by Moetion Films (Ireland), and Ulysses Filmproduktion (Germany).
The top-10 of European co-coproductions was rounded off by “Bobby & the Bottle Brigade” from Something Big (France) and Kavaleer (Ireland); “Mia Moké” from Special Touch Studios & Creative Touch Studios (France), African Touch Studios (Cameroon), Paul Thiltges Distributions (Luxembourg), and Ozemnia Studios (Senegal); “Harmony” from Fabrique d'Images (Luxembourg), Fantabulous (France), and Freaks Factory (Belgium); “Guglielmo the Inventor” from POPCult (Italy), Animalps Productions (France), and Krutart (Czech Republic); “The Forest Five” from Fool Moon (Slovakia), and PFX (Czech Republic); “Once there was...” from Bagan Films (France), B Film (Slovakia), and Momakin (Poland); and “Steel Hearts” from EyeCandyFilm (Denmark), Poster (Croatia), and Invida (Slovenia).
Out of the 256 buyers participating at the event – including broadcasters, distributors, investors, and streaming platforms –, a 20% were first-timers. The list of projects whose presentation aroused the most interest among buyers was topped by “Master of the Unicorns” from Cyber Group Studios (France) followed by “The Wolf in Underpants” from KMBO Production & Les Films de l'Arlequin (France), “Lost in the Future” from Ellipse Animation (France), “A Lamb's Stew” from La Cabane Productions (France) and Thuristar (Belgium), “My Great Great Great Family!” from Dandelooo (France), “The Tour de Fear” from Samka Animation (France), “Mary & Franky” from Media Valley (France),“My Life is a Manga” from Brain Comet & Blue Spirit (France), “The Shrimps” from Autour de Minuit (France), “Ooops! TheArk is Stranded” from Moetion Films (Ireland) and Ulysses Filmproduktion (Germany), “H.O.M.E” from TeamTO (France), and “Bin Buddies” from Millimages (France).
Projects from the region
With three projects in the line-up, the Occitanie has established itself as one of the most dynamic and creative regions in the French animation sector; these are “Marie Curie’s Great War” (Tripode Productions, Montpellier), “Our Lil’ Adventures” (Xbo films, Toulouse), and “Animals in a Nutshell” (Les Films d’Ici Méditerranée & Les Films d’Ici, Montpellier) along with “The Broos” (Bobby Prod), which was presented in last year’s mini-pitch workshop for students from animation schools in the region.
Animation with an Italian touch
Cartoon Forum's history is closely related to Italy. It was in Rome, in November 1989, where the foundational meeting of Cartoon Forum took place with the participation of 50 producers and broadcasters from all over Europe.
Thirty-five years later, Cartoon Forum dedicated its spotlight to Italian animation, which, with a delegation of nearly 100 participants, displayed its creativity and production capacity in a number of presentations throughout the event. Supported by Marche Film Commission in collaboration with the Sardegna, Roma-Lazio, Toscana and Torino Piemonte Film Commission – and coordinated by Cartoon Italia –, this year’s Spotlight included five projects in development: “Guglielmo the Inventor” (POPCult / Animalps Productions & Krutart), “Matita HB” (IBRIDO Studio), “Mindtoonness” (Vismanimation), “Mission: Delta” (Eagle Original Content & MAD Entertainment), and “No Pets!”(Nuvole e Strisce).
But Cartoon Forum relationship with Italy not only involves animation. This year, for the first time and in collaboration with Bologna Children's Book Fair, the event organized one-to-one meetings between publishers and producers with the participation of 136 delegates from 11 countries. This initiative was developed in response to the growing relationship between the animation and the publishing industries: 31% of this year’s selected projects were adaptations of comics, books or other media.
A total of 240 meetings were organised, with the participation of companies such as Netflix, Andarta Pictures, DeAPlaneta Entertainment, Banijay Kids & Family, Studio 100 International, Mediatoon Distribution, Miam! Distribution, Toei Animation Europe, Xilam Animation, Gaumont Global Animation & Family, and ORF Austrian Broadcasting, among others.
Protagonists of the year
Companies from France, Germany and Ireland were recognised with the Cartoon Forum Tributes, the peer-to-peer awards which honour the work of companies and personalities in the development and promotion of European animation. The Broadcaster of the Year prize went to Franco-German public broadcaster ARTE, while Germany’s ZDF Studios and Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon were recognised as Investor/Distributor and Producer of the Year, respectively. This year’s nominees also included companies from Finland, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.
Cartoon Forum also presented Luca Milano with a Cartoon Tribute of Honor for his contribution to European animation. From his position as Executive Director of RAI Kids – the children's unit of the Italian public channel RAI – and throughout his extensive professional career, Milano has been responsible for programming, acquiring, producing and co-producing animated content for children with a clear European vocation.
Building a link to the industry
Cartoon Forum has served once again as a link between emerging talents and the animation industry. Three of this year's projects were previously presented at Cartoon Springboard, another training initiative organized by CARTOON, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary: “All Good” (GLOW - Spain), “Bitches” (Caïmans Productions - France) and “No Pets!” (Nuvole e Strisce - Italy).
Cartoon Forum's Coaching Programme has proved to be a starting point for students from local animation schools to gain access to the industry. About 100 students have seized the opportunity to get in touch with industry professionals and advance in their careers through master classes and case studies. As part of this, a mini-pitch workshop was held in which six selected projects were presented to regional experts. At the conclusion of the session, the Occitanie Region awarded a participation in Cartoon Springboard 2024 to “Kär et le mystère de Noël” from Le Centre Universitaire de Tarn-et-Garonne - Institut Supérieur Couleur, Image, Design (ISCID - Montauban).
Together with this activity, 20 talents from six Italian schools took part in a special Coaching Programme as part of the Spotlight on Italy.
As in previous editions, Cartoon Forum has reached all of Toulouse and the Occitanie region with activities such as "Les Toons d’Ici”, thanks to which Toulouse’s elementary school pupils had the chance to explore the different techniques of animation through series, feature-length films and shorts born and bred in Toulouse and the Occitanie region. The activity was organised by APIFA (Association of Independent Producers of Occitanie) in partnership with the Mairie and the Metropole of Toulouse.
Ending the party on a high note
Cartoon Forum's successful anniversary was crowned with a “surprise pitching” in which producers paid tribute to the event through a fun gag scripted by British producer Robin Lyons. With the participation of Emmanuele Pétry, Christophe Erbes, Christian Davin, Telidja Klai, Benjamin Manns, Anttu Harlin, Robin Lyons, Pierre Siracusa, Manuela Schöbel-Lumb, Karen Mitrega, Nuria G. Blanco and David Matamoros, the gag was followed by a musical parody that was joined by several participants in the event. The activities wrapped up on September 19 with the traditional Farewell Dinner at the Manoir du Prince estate.
A sustainable event
Regarding our sustainable policy, CARTOON is trying to make Cartoon Forum greener than ever! On the one hand, in collaboration with Carbulator we aimed at showing the professionals of the industry that a path to more sustainable productions is possible. On the other hand, a 100% vegetarian lunch was organised on Thursday to reduce our carbon footprint. Finally, we also relocated the Region Networking Evening in the city center so it could be accessible by public transports or by walking.
Feedbacks from the participants
Following its sustainable development policy, CARTOON has created a mobile app which, among other features, includes the event’s catalogue. Regarding parity and inclusion, to which CARTOON is actively committed, this year’s gender breakdown was men (49,9%), women (49,6%), and non-binary (0,4%).
Cartoon Forum 2025 will take place from 15 to 18 September 2025.
