66 Projects Selected for 21st Edition of CARTOON MOVIE

Family comedies remain the focus of CARTOON MOVIE projects, with 44 family-focused projects comprising 67 percent of the total projects to be presented at this year’s event.

Bordeaux, FRANCE — CARTOON MOVIE, the European pitching and co-production event for animated features, has announced that 66 projects have been selected for this year’s event. More than 900 producers, directors, authors, distributors, sales agents, broadcasters, video game companies and new media players from all of Europe and beyond will attend the 21st edition of CARTOON MOVIE, now underway in Bordeaux, France through March 7.

Family comedies remain the focus of CARTOON MOVIE projects, with 44 family-focused projects comprising 67 percent of the total 66 projects selected to be presented at this year’s event:

Terra Willy (TAT productions – France, producers of The Jungle Bunch), the upcoming adventure movie directed by Eric Tosti about the discovery of the planet, its fauna and flora, and its dangers. (Release date in France: April 3, 2019)

New projects of well-known film directors: Savages! (Prélude – France) by Claude Barras (My Life as a Courgette), a stop-motion movie about a friendship between a vivid indigenous girl and a baby orangutan in the jungle of Borneo; Séraphine(Little Big Story – France) by the journalist and author Marie Desplechin (France); Saba (Maybe Movies – France), the new movie of Alexis Ducord & Benjamin Massoubre (Zombillénium); Prendiluna (Studio Campedelli – Italy) by Christian de Vita (Yellowbird); Stitch Head (Gringo Films – Germany) by Toby Genkel (Richard the Stork) & Reza Memari; and Musketeer of the Tsar (Est-Ouest Films – France) by Paul & Gaëtan Brizzi.

Henrietta – The MOOvie (WunderWerk – Germany) is an adaptation from the book of Alexander Steffensmeier. Following the success of the book, the brand is already well-known in several countries. The TV series (CARTOON FORUM 2017) is currently in production.

Sidi Kaba and the Gateway Home (Special Touch Studios – France) produced by Sébastien Onomo (Allah is not Obliged and Funan).

Of Unwanted Things and People (MAUR film – Czech Republic) is a stop-motion project.

Dino Mite – The Movie (M.A.R.K.13 – Germany) also has a game and TV series in development with Studio Fizbin.

Chequered Ninja (A. Film Production – Denmark), is a 3D movie which will be presented in sneak preview. The movie is based on the book written by Anders Matthesen and it had the best opening week on record for a Danish film with 346,000 tickets sold. The release date in Denmark was December 25, 2018.

This year, 20 percent of the selected projects target an audience of young adults/adults and raise historical or political themes:

Based on the 1932 documentary Land without Bread, Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (Sygnatia – Spain) is directed by Salvador Simó. It was produced by one of the leading Spanish animation producers, Manuel Cristóbal (Wrinkles, The Missing Lynx, Dragonkeeper).

Book adaptations: the project I Lost my Body (Xilam Animation – France) by Jérémy Clapin (director of the acclaimed and award-winning short film Skhizein) is based on the book Happy Hand by Guillaume Laurant. The project is a non-photorealistic film mixing 2D & 3D techniques about an absurd and fantastic story. The project Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (Cinéma Defacto – France) by Pierre Földes, is based on the short story by Haruki Murakami.

Kiki (Lupus Films – U.K.) by Peter Dodd is a project about the life of Alice Prin, also known as the Queen of Montparnasse, who was a French artist in the 1920s. This historical film goes through the decade, ending with the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

No Dogs or Italians allowed (Les Films du Tambour de Soie – France) by Alain Ughetto is a story about Italians immigrants leaving their homeland to settle somewhere else. The project is a combination of 2D computer and stop-motion animation, puppets and live-action.

Director Alessandro Rak’s (The Art of Happiness and Cinderella the Cat) newest project is The Walking Liberty (MAD Entertainment – Italy), a film where the world has come to an end, letting nature regain possession of the planet. It is a story about a new world, a new society and the long, hard process of civilization.

The Crossing (Les Films de l’Arlequin – France) by Florence Miailhe (Florence is also co- author with Marie Desplechin) usesan original painting technique.

The Island (Aparte Film – Romania) is a new project from Anca Damian (Marona’s Fantastic Tale, The Magic Mountain and Crulic: The Path to Beyond) about an upside-down Robinson Crusoe story. The project mixes 2D and 3D animation with painting and cut-outs.

Four projects are supported by the region:

Comrades (Blick Productions – France), a project mixing painting and live action.

Linda wants Chicken (Dolce Vita Films – France) by Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach (Girl without Hands),.

Bonobo Joe (Magpie 6 Media – Ireland, in co-production with Malil’Art Productions – France).

Marona’s Fantastic Tale (Aparte Films – Romania, Sacrebleu Productions – France, and Minds Meet – Belgium. A part of this film is produced in the studio of Marmitafilms – Bordeaux/Angoulême) by Anca Damian.

For the fourth consecutive year, one CARTOON CONNECTION project will be presented at CARTOON MOVIE in order to expand the collaboration established at CARTOON CONNECTION CANADA: The Odd Ones (Bardel – Canada) selected at last CARTOON CONNECTION CANADA by European broadcasters (from the BBC, Canal+ and France Télévisions).

In addition, one project that was pitched at CARTOON SPRINGBOARD 2017, event dedicated to the emergence of young talents, was selected for the Cartoon Movie 2019: Sisterhood of the Glade (Studio Pupil – Netherlands) by Marlyn Spaaij.

Spotlight on The Netherlands

For the third time, Cartoon Movie will direct its spotlight at a country. This year, the Netherlands, a country which has a vibrant animation industry and open attitude towards international production, has been chosen for being the spotlight country.

The Spotlight on the Netherlands is supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, Creative Industries Funds NL, Animation Producers Netherlands, CFAP and AVROTROS. On the strength of its six selected projects (and 3 co-productions) this year, Dutch animation will appear as a constant thread throughout Cartoon Movie:

Benjamin Bat (The Storytellers Film & TV) – in development

Miss Moxy (Bosbros) – in development

Pat & Mat: The Film (Lemming Film) – in development

In the Forest (Submarine) – in concept

Sisterhood of the Meadow (Studio Pupil) – in concept

The King and the Thief (il Luster) – in concept

And also, Dutch co-productions:

Where is Anne Frank (Submarine) – in production

My Grandfather Used to Say He Saw Demons (Submarine) – in development

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (Submarine) – sneak preview

To date, a record of 66 projects from 25 countries have been selected to be pitched at CARTOON MOVIE 2019: 28 of them are in concept, 24 in development, seven in production and seven in sneak preview.

France will be represented by 22 projects, followed by Germany with eight projects, the Netherlands with six projects, Ireland and Spain with four projects each, Belgium, Italy and the U.K. with three projects each, and Denmark, Latvia and Romania with two projects each.

CARTOON GAMES: a deeper insight into the video game industry for the Cartoon Movie audience

CARTOON organizes the “CARTOON GAMES,” consisting of a complete afternoon with two keynotes on the video game industry (case-studies to show successful examples of transforming a comic book into a video game or business and technical opportunities between animation and video games) and a session of one-2-one meetings between participants. This special event will start at 2:00pm on March 5 at Palais des Congrès in order to establish a new synergy between the sector of Animation and Video Games and in the long term, to encourage producers to bring Game and Transmedia partner at the same early stage as the co-producer and the distributor in the process of a feature film.

Since 1999, more than 325 films pitched at Cartoon Movie, with a total budget of 2.1 billion Euros, have secured their financing and have been released thanks to this annual forum aimed at strengthening the production and distribution of animated feature films in Europe.

Cartoon Movie is organised by CARTOON with the support of Creative Europe – MEDIA, CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée), Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Bordeaux Metropole, Invest Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the City of Bordeaux and le Pôle Image Magelis.

CARTOON – European Association of Animation Film is an international non-profit association based in Brussels that organises Cartoon Movie, together with Cartoon Forum, a co-production forum for animated TV series, Cartoon Master training seminars and Cartoon connection, a program intended to explore ways of reinforcing cooperation between EU and non-EU animation professionals.

Source: CARTOON – European Association of Animation Film