Being welcomed in the historical building of the Ateneo in the heart of Madrid has been a delight for this new edition of Cartoon Springboard!
Together we have experienced a lot of emotions, we've been surprised and touched, and we have learned so much from everyone, from the young talents pitching their projects to the professionals sharing their achievements and learnings along the way.
Congratulations to this upcoming generation that showed up on stage with very personal stories, and beautiful designs.
TOPICS & TRENDS FROM CARTOON SPRINGBOARD 2023
Friends are all we need. What will we be without friends to support us? That is certainly a lesson well learned by the new generation: we need to care for each other, we need to be connected. We saw what friendship means with: BeinBuddies, Freshstyle, Illogical Adult World, New Wave, and The Foreign Brother.
Childhood as a backbone. The kid we were is the one we need to meet again, understand and nurture. A great number of projects were directly inspired by a personal journey taking its roots in childhood, like in The Giant Bombardone, Chestnut Kid, Shaman Therapy, and When Monsters Wither.
Not everything makes sense. The world can be a strange place. Offbeat humor, absurd environment, unexpected twists, sometimes weirdness is all what’s left to explore contemporary challenges. We saw this in: All Good, Digiman (WT), Inspector, Your Pants!, and The Fast Way.
Women behind the camera. As for the creative teams supporting the projects presented on stage, we see that the feminine share for Directors is 42%, and for Project Pitching 44%. The evolution is constant, and shows how young women make their way up into animation industry.
Supporting the talents. Institutional funds have the talents’ interests at heart, and are active to support their creativity.
The SACD (Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques in France) has chosen to support: Camille Hummel and Lucie Pradeau (“Freshstyle”), and Manon Taccioni (“Bitches”).
While FWB (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles in Belgium), WBImages / WB supports Link Dapoigny (“Labinocle”), Thérèse Blanckaert, and George Plassaras-Vokos – the two latter without projects.
Madrid’s Community Government and Madrid City Council – through the General Coordination of the Mayor’s Office of Madrid. Madrid City Council – support the participation of four projects led by filmmakers from Madrid: Silence Sometimes, in development feature film by Álvaro Robles (Instituto de Cine de Madrid); The Fast Way, TV series by Javier Moratilla Heras & Isabella Hernández Vignola (U-tad); All Good, in development series by Diego Porral written by Joaquín Garralda; and When Monsters Wither, in development feature film by Adrián Monferrer and Pablo Alcázar.
Snippets
- Learning from peers – You're not always ready to pitch, but nothing helps better than seeing others presenting, and feeling safe on stage. 30 young talents were curious enough to join us without pitching!
- Being brave and telling the truth – The courage to be bold and true to who you are was at the heart of many very different projects: Labinocle, Maestitia, Moon Wars, Mong / My Grandmother is a Skydiver, Bitches, and Zinnia, the Moonlight & Starfish.
- Being lonely and overcoming it – Experiencing loneliness has been the common denominator as well as a positive outcome in: Silence Sometimes, and Soul for a Hot Dog.
- Being hopeful and reconnecting with nature – Even when confronted with disappointment, tough decisions or unexpected difficulties, it is important to remain hopeful, and the connection with nature is often part of the solution. A few projects showed us the way: Azul's Journey, No Pets!, and SkateBugs.
MANY THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS
The main partners of Cartoon Springboard are Creative Europe — MEDIA Programme, Region of Madrid, City of Madrid, Madrid Film Office & ICEX - Spain Trade & Investments.
SAVE THE DATE
Cartoon Springboard will return next year in Madrid: 29-31 October 2024