Car­toon Movie 2025: Highlights

Projects from the ter­ri­to­ry. After the arrival of Car­toon Movie in Bor­deaux in 2017, region­al ani­ma­tion has reached new peaks as shown by the promi­nent role played by the Nou­velle-Aquitaine in the line­up, with 7 projects pro­duced or co-pro­duced by region­al stu­dios. 6 new projects sup­port­ed by the Nou­velle-Aquitaine Region will be pre­sent­ed in the event: ​“The Dreamed Jour­ney of Alpha Two” from Les Con­tes Mod­ernes, ​“If I Die” from MIDRAL­GAR, ​“All the Soft­ness in the World” from Les Valseurs, ​“Berg­eron­nette” from Miyu Pro­duc­tions, ​“Absolute Sur­ren­der” from Sun Crea­ture and ​“Trea­sure Island” from Je Suis Bien Con­tent. 4 are in pro­duc­tion (or co-pro­duc­tion) with stu­dios based in Bor­deaux: ​“The Twi­light World” (in co-pro­duc­tion with Sun Crea­ture), ​“Absolute Sur­ren­der” (Sun Crea­ture), ​“If I Die” (MIDRAL­GAR) and ​“All the Soft­ness in the World” (in co-pro­duc­tion with Les Valseurs Bor­deaux). 2 involve region­al authors or co-authors: ​“The Dreamed Jour­ney of Alpha Two” (co-writ­ten by Alpha Kaba and Christophe Erbes) and ​“Trea­sure Island” (writ­ten by Vin­cent Paron­naud aka Win­sh­luss). 1 project is sup­port­ed by the Départe­ment Char­ente: ​“The Dreamed Jour­ney of Alpha Two” (Les Con­tes Modernes).

Sea­soned direc­tors such as Reza Memari (“The Last Whale Singer”), Kajsa Næss (“How to Deal with Shat­ter­ing Geists”), Wern­er Her­zog (“The Twi­light World”), Will Sharpe (“Absolute Sur­ren­der”) or Antoine Lan­ci­aux (“Song­birds’ Secret”), among oth­ers, were pitch­ing their project at the event.

Adult ani­ma­tion keeps gain­ing ground. Regard­ing tar­get groups, films aimed at Young Adults/​Adults have risen from 18% to 31% year-on-year (16 projects), a first at Car­toon Movie! ​“Faya - Jour­ney to Free­dom” telling the sto­ry of an anti-colo­nial­ist writer impris­oned in Suri­name, ​“Pru­dence”, a sci-fi hor­ror movie or ​“Zako”, giv­ing life to the sto­ry of an artist in a war con­text, among others.

Upcom­ing tal­ent. The Coach­ing Pro­gramme stands as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for stu­dents to learn more about the sec­tor, its oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges and how to bet­ter set­tle in. This year, about 80 stu­dents and teach­ers attend­ed the Coach­ing Pro­gramme, from 14 schools. The par­tic­i­pants had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be part of a net­work­ing activ­i­ty, the Job Fair, that allows them to present their work to pro­fes­sion­als, get feed­back and pos­si­bly find an intern­ship or a first job in the indus­try. They also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to attend mas­ter­class­es from top-notch professionals!

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Bare­ly half of the select­ed projects (45%) such as ​“Short Sto­ries about Love and Space” by Anca Dami­an, ​“Mik­isoq” by Mette Rank Tange, ​“The Axolotls” by Fil­ip Poši­vač or ​“Pru­dence” by Jérémie Hoa­rau, have imple­ment­ed some elements/​procedures towards sus­tain­abil­i­ty, in line with CAR­TOON sus­tain­able com­mit­ment. After obtain­ing the ISO 20121 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, CAR­TOON remains com­mit­ted to strength­en­ing sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic growth, min­imis­ing its envi­ron­men­tal impact, pro­mot­ing inclu­siv­i­ty, and set­ting an exam­ple for the industry.