Car­toon Forum 2024: Highlights

After three days of engaging pitching sessions and a grand celebration for our 35th edition, we hope you've gathered a wealth of contacts and ideas for the coming year. We are proud of the diverse, compelling, and impactful selection of projects showcased.

This year, our Spotlight on Italy reunited close to 100 Italian participants, representing about 9.7% of the total attendees. And 5 Italian projects were pitched: “Guglielmo the Inventor” (POPCult), “Matita HB” (IBRIDO Studio), “Mindtoonness” (Vis­man­i­ma­tion), “Mission: Delta” (Eagle Original Content & MAD Entertainment), and “No Pets!” (Nuvole e Strisce).
We were also delighted to welcome three countries for the first time: Moldova with the project “Occupation: Witch” (Studio Metrafilms), Georgia with “The Hermit” (Lira Production Studios) and Armenia with “Alphabet Heroes” (ReAct production).

TOP 10 • PRESENCE FOR EUROPEAN COPRODUCTIONS

The order reflects the number of participants in the pitching room for projects co-produced in at least 2 European countries.

  1. A Lamb's Stew – La Cabane Productions (France), Thuristar (Belgium)
  2. Esther – Take Five (Belgium), Sacrebleu Productions (France), Rudo Company (Argentina)
  3. Ooops! The Ark is Stranded – Moetion Films (Ire­land), Ulysses Filmsproduktion (Ger­many)
  4. Bobby & the Bottle Brigade – Something Big (France), Kavaleer (Ireland)
  5. Mia Moké – Special Touch Studios & Creative Touch Studios (France), African Touch Studios (Cameroon), Paul Thiltges Distributions (Lux­em­bourg), Ozemnia Studios (Senegal)
  6. Harmony – Fabrique d'Images (Lux­em­bourg), Fantabulous (France), Freaks Factory (Bel­gium)
  7. Guglielmo the Inventor – POPCult (Italy), Animalps Productions (France), Krutart (Czech Repub­lic)
  8. The Forest Five – Fool Moon (Slo­va­kia), PFX (Czech Repub­lic)
  9. Once there was... – Bagan Films (France), B Film (Slo­va­kia), Momakin (Poland)
  10. Steel Hearts – EyeCandyFilm (Den­mark), Poster (Croa­t­ia), Invida (Slove­nia)

TOP 10 • PRESENCE OF BUYERS IN PITCHING SESSIONS

The order reflects the number of buyers present in the pitching room.

  1. Master of the Unicorns – Cyber Group Studios (France)
  2. The Wolf in Underpants – KMBO Production & Les Films de l'Arlequin (France)
  3. Lost in the Future – Ellipse Animation (France)
  4. A Lamb's Stew – La Cabane Productions (France), Thuristar (Belgium)
    My Great Great Great Family! – Dandelooo (France)
  5. The Tour de Fear – Samka Animation (France)
  6. Mary & Franky – Media Valley (France)
    My Life is a Manga – Brain Comet & Blue Spirit (France)
  7. The Shrimps – Autour de Minuit (France)
  8. Ooops! The Ark is Stranded – Moetion Films (Ireland), Ulysses Filmsproduktion (Germany)
  9. H.O.M.E – TeamTO (France)
  10. Bin Buddies – Millimages (France)
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THE TRENDS OF CARTOON FORUM 2024

New­com­ers and ris­ing tal­ents. Among the 65 select­ed projects this year, 19 are mak­ing their debut. We’re pleased to see our promis­ing Car­toon Spring­board par­tic­i­pants break­ing into the audio­vi­su­al sec­tor: ​“All Good” (Glow, Spain), ​“Bitch­es” (Caï­mans Pro­duc­tions, France), and ​“No Pets!” (Nuv­ole e Strisce, Italy). Addi­tion­al­ly, projects such as ​“The Broos” (Bob­by Prod, France) and ​“Titan Tofu” (UniKo Estu­dio Cre­ati­vo, Spain), to name a few, were also selected.

Crossover projects. An increas­ing num­ber of projects, par­tic­u­lar­ly those tar­get­ing younger audi­ences, are embrac­ing a trans­me­dia approach that inte­grates var­i­ous plat­forms and social net­works. ​“My Life is a Man­ga” (Brain Comet and Blue Spir­it, France) fea­tures a web series and mobile games, while ​“Mechoza­urs: The Voice From Afar” (Lani­akea Pic­tures, Poland) is a fan­ta­sy series based on an anthol­o­gy of 10 comics by acclaimed writ­ers and illus­tra­tors from around the globe.

Adult ani­ma­tion keeps gain­ing ground. Projects for Young Adults / Adults have surged to 24% of the selec­tion, tripling since 2019, while series for fam­i­ly audi­ences remain sta­ble at 8%. Key issues rel­e­vant to Mil­len­ni­als and Gen Z are high­light­ed in the pro­jets, such as work­place vio­lence and open dis­cus­sions on inti­ma­cy, like in ​“All Good” which fol­lows the main char­ac­ter’s emo­tion­al jour­ney through burnout, or ​“The Broos” and ​“Bitch­es”, which explore every­day sto­ries by delv­ing into the char­ac­ters’ inner thoughts, mak­ing them deeply relat­able to viewers. 

Sup­port to projects and young cre­atives from the local ter­ri­to­ry. This year’s selec­tion fea­tured three projects sup­port­ed by the Occ­i­tanie Region: ​“Our Lil’ Adven­tures” from Xbo films, ​“Ani­mals in a nut­shell” from Les Films d’Ici Méditer­ranée & Les Films d’Ici, and ​“Marie Curie’s Great War” from Tripode Productions.

A full day of mas­ter­class­es was held as part of the Coach­ing Pro­gramme, tai­lored for young tal­ents from 12 local French schools. On Thurs­day after­noon, CAR­TOON host­ed a mini-pitch work­shop where 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 the project ​“Kär et le mys­tère de Noël” from Le Cen­tre Uni­ver­si­taire de Tarn-et-Garonne - Insti­tut Supérieur Couleur, Image, Design (ISCID - Montauban).

A NEW & FRUITFUL PARTNERSHIP WITH BOLOGNA CHILDREN'S BOOK FAIR

A delegation of 35 publishers from 11 countries attended the event. Thanks to a new collaboration with Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF), we organised, for the first time, an afternoon dedicated to networking, with a focus on publishers and animation participants. 136 participants registered with approximately 250 meetings scheduled over a two-hour period. A total of 25 countries were represented. The most requested companies for meetings included: 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.

SAVE THE DATE

Cartoon Forum 2025 will happen from 15 to 18 September in Toulouse. Registration will open as soon as April 2025.

CARTOON FORUM'S ACCOMPLISHMENT OVER THE YEARS

Created in 1990 to boost the co-production and distribution of European animation for television and new media platforms, Cartoon Forum has, over its 35 year journey, helped 1,002 animation series obtain financing to the tune of 3.7 billion EUR. Discover more about the celebrations for its 35th anniversary edition.