Report 2024

TAKING YOUNG EUROPEAN TALENTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Cartoon Springboard has a mission: to support the young generation by providing a safe place for them to train, by offering high-quality mentorships from top-notch animation experts, and delivering workshops and unique networking opportunities.

The Springboard training event landed for the third time in the capital of Spain, after being previously held in the cities of Halle (Germany), Valenciennes (France), and Valencia (Spain). Cartoon Springboard held its 10th special edition on October 29th- 31st in Madrid.

A FIRST DAY FULL OF NOVELTIES

For the first time this year, on the morning of Tuesday 29 October, a Job Fair featuring 6 regional companies was held at the Ateneo de Madrid, offering young talents a chance to connect with local industry professionals and explore career opportunities. The presentations were followed by networking session between young talents and company representatives.

Cartoon Springboard was officially launched at 2pm, with Welcome Words by Gonzalo Cabrera, Managing Director of Culture and Creative Industries at Comunidad de Madrid; Ana de Miguel Cabrera, General Director of Institutional Relations and Strategic Projects representing Ayuntamiento de Madrid; Diana Bueno Animation & Videogames Area Manager of ICEX and Agnès Bizzaro Head of Content Cartoon Springboard. After presenting the history of Cartoon Springboard and explaining the project selection process, Agnès Bizzaro warmly thanked all partners who were actively supporting the event.

The Welcome Words were followed by a Masterclass of the famous Spanish director Rodrigo Blaas (El Guiri Studios): Back to the Garage Days, where Rodrigo Blaas shared insights on how embracing the uncertainty of the bank canvas and shared his passion for animation.

To end this first day, we organized a new session introducing the Young Talents to the participants. This session was moderated by Christophe Erbes and allowed the young talents with a project to present themselves on stage in front of everyone by answering a few questions. It was highly appreciated by both professionals and young talents and eased the networking for the entire event.

THE SESSIONS & PROJECTS

This year, Cartoon Springboard featured high-quality content again: 1 Masterclass, 3 Keynotes and 1 Panel by international professionals who introduced Young Talents with varied issues in our industry. But also 22 Pitching sessions, each 13 minutes in duration, followed by a 13-minute Q&A session with the panel of experts, and with participants in the room, hosted by the chairpersons assigned to the projects.

Key topics included in the programme:

• “Back to the Garage Days” by Rodrigo Blaas, Co-founder and Creative Director at El Guiri Studios (Spain)
• “Developing original IPs in the franchise era” by Perrine Gauthier, Co-founder and Producer at La Cabane (France) & Thuristar (Belgium)
• “The A.I. tsunami is coming: can we surf it or will we get crushed?” by Nick Dorra, Producer at Haruworks (Finland)
• “The Writing Odyssey: from a brilliant idea to distribution!” by Valérie Magis (Belgium)
• A special panel celebrating the 10th anniversary of Cartoon Springboard: Sif Savery, Animation Supervisor & Director at Nørlum (DK) pitched as young talent ”Tales of Zale” in 2019; Irene Chica, Creative Development at Wackamola (Spain) pitching in 2019 the project “WAW Resort” and Jan Gadermann, Writer, Director and Animator (Germany) pitched in 2016 the project “Laika & Nemo” were all invited and shared not only their experiences, lessons learned but gave also some insights into their future plans.

This year’s selection counted 22 projects – mostly in concept stage, developed by European animation schools’ recently graduated screenwriters, directors or producers. The projects included TV series, web series, feature films and TV special.

Here is a quick recap of the 22 selected projects:

• Format-wise, TV series led the selection with 14 works (64%), followed by five web series (23%), two feature films (9%) and one TV special (4%)
• Topics: this year again, the 22 projects selected showed how much the young generation is involved in the present moment. They were eager to talk about contemporary challenges, as they believe that you can use animation not only to entertain, but also to educate, awake consciousness, and make a difference. Personal and emotional topics were particularly showcase in this year’s selection with subjects such as endometriosis, grief, mental health, sexuality or sustainable awareness.

A SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY: 10 YEARS OF TALENTS!

For this edition, Cartoon Springboard celebrated its 10th anniversary! This milestone marked a decade of nurturing creativity, where young talents’ projects have been pitched, many of which have gone on to be featured in major co-production events like Cartoon Forum and Cartoon Movie.

The event continues to serve as a vital platform for emerging creators to receive valuable feedback and guidance from industry experts, helping them take the next steps in their careers.

THE PARTICIPANTS OF CARTOON SPRINGBOARD 2024

The number of participants shows a constant interest in the event. 171 participants registered at Cartoon Springboard Madrid in 2024. This year’s participants came from 21 different countries. This shows the importance of the event worldwide for European talents and professionals.

In total, 39% of participants came from Madrid Region.

This reflects a large diversity of profiles who attended the event.

A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH

Regarding our sustainable policy, CARTOON is trying to make Cartoon Springboard greener than ever! On the one hand, 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 to reduce our carbon footprint. We have encouraged participants to travel to Cartoon Springboard 2024 by train wherever possible. We chose the event venues according to their location, to ensure that they were easily accessible by public transport and on foot.

FEEDBACK FROM THE PARTICIPANTS

Cartoon Springboard will come back in Madrid next year from 28 to 30 October 2025!