Car­toon Spring­board 2024: Highlights

After three days of impressive pitching sessions, we hope you've gained enriching feedback, helpful connexions and inspiring ideas for the coming year. Congratulations to this new generation who brought their unique voices to the stage with powerful stories and captivating designs. Here’s a look back at the highlights that made this milestone edition unforgettable.

Pho­to 1/1
Pho­to 1/1

KEY FACTS & FRUITFUL INSIGHTS

New this year

For this 10th edition, we had the pleasure to introduce a few new initiatives:

Job Fair

In order to offer young tal­ents a chance to con­nect with local indus­try pro­fes­sion­als and explore career oppor­tu­ni­ties, we held the very first Job Fair. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Diboos, Pink Par­rot Media, Capitán Araña, Mr. Miya­gi Films, Peek­a­boo Ani­ma­tion, and Dig­i­toonz pre­sent­ed their com­pa­nies fol­lowed by meet­ings with the young talents.

Meet the Young Talents

Before div­ing into the pitch­ing ses­sions, each Young Tal­ent took to the stage to briefly intro­duce them­selves and their select­ed project. This gave us a quick pre­view of what was to come and offered the select­ed tal­ents a chance to warm up for their big day.

Pan­el of young talents

The pan­el ​“10 Years of Car­toon Spring­board: Voic­es of the Young Gen­er­a­tion” was a delight­ful reunion of for­mer young tal­ents. We were pleased to wel­come back Sif Sav­ery (“Tales of Zale”), Irene Chi­ca (“WAW Resort”), and Jan Gader­mann (“Laï­ka & Nemo”). They all shared their expe­ri­ences, the lessons drawn from their jour­neys, and their aspi­ra­tions for the future, spark­ing inspi­ra­tion in the next gen­er­a­tion of creators.

Learning from top professionals' experiences

Through an inspir­ing mas­ter­class and sev­er­al keynotes, indus­try pro­fes­sion­als shared their career jour­neys and top tips with young tal­ents. Reflect­ing on the twists and turns of their careers in ani­ma­tion, Rodri­go Blaas (El Guiri Stu­dios), Per­rine Gau­thi­er (La Cabane & Thuris­tar), Nick Dor­ra (Haru­works), and Valérie Magis offered valu­able insights on reignit­ing cre­ative pas­sion along the way, the chal­lenges and rewards of cre­at­ing orig­i­nal IPs, A.I. inte­gra­tion, and nav­i­gat­ing cre­ative jour­neys and partnerships.

The power of personal storytelling

This year’s projects delve into emo­tions and per­son­al expe­ri­ences, address­ing heart­felt themes like men­tal and phys­i­cal health, grief, friend­ship, and envi­ron­men­tal issues blend­ing hope and joy with deeply mov­ing sto­ry­telling. These emerg­ing talents—the voic­es of tomorrow—presented deeply mov­ing sto­ries filled with authen­tic­i­ty, cap­tur­ing the audience’s hearts. Experts were espe­cial­ly impressed by the matu­ri­ty and insight on dis­play, cel­e­brat­ing the courage and sen­si­tiv­i­ty these young cre­ators brought to the stage.

Time to celebrate!

The 10th anniver­sary edi­tion of Car­toon Spring­board marked a mile­stone in sup­port­ing young tal­ent in ani­ma­tion! To cel­e­brate, we shared a spe­cial video reflect­ing on Car­toon Springboard’s growth over the past decade. Fea­tur­ing voic­es from alum­ni, it cap­tures how the event has evolved into a launch­ing pad for new cre­ators, pro­vid­ing essen­tial feed­back and indus­try insights. This cel­e­bra­tion fuels our com­mit­ment to empow­er­ing emerg­ing voic­es and paving the way for the next gen­er­a­tion of storytellers.

CARTOON SPRINBOARD'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS OVER THE YEARS

Created in 2015, Cartoon Sprinboard is designed as a training initiative for students and recent graduates of animation schools. The event combines pitching sessions with a program of lectures by renowned industry professionals. Among the 236 animation works submitted to Cartoon Springboard since its first edition, 14 have been completed and more than 80 are currently in development.