From September 18 to 21, this year it will be completely face-to-face cartoon forum The co-production pitch session will build on pre-pandemic attendance numbers and welcome 290 buyers, including nearly two dozen first-time entrants, while introducing unseen players into the mix.
In addition to the commissioners, producers and broadcasters who have formed the traditional base of Cartoon Forum, this year’s bustling edition will host a growing delegation of publishers eager for rich intellectual property and niche streamers to fill the gaps left by Amazon and Netflix, that they will not achieve success. trip to Toulouse in France.
“We are opening up to a new generation,” says Cartoon Media director Annick Maes. “We will have [more than] 20 companies that have never attended Cartoon before, which should make it a very interesting event. How will they launch? What will they produce? What will they bring? [to the mix]?”
Among those new to the mix is Ubisoft Film and Television, a subsidiary of the video game powerhouse, brings the original property “Starpets” to Toulouse. Described as an absurdist space comedy aimed at a youth audience, the 3D series comes courtesy of French comedian Eric Judor (“Wrong Cops”) and “Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart” director Stéphane Berla. In fact, the project’s oldest skewed demo and its past pedigree reflect themes that will resonate throughout Cartoon Forum this year.
Master counts Variety that several of the new forum participants are, in fact, new to the field of animation, pointing to documentary projects such as “Grandpa and Grandma Made the Revolution,” which comes from war journalist Sophie Nivelle-Cardinale, and the historical series “The Forgotten Women”. del Père Lachaise”, which comes from a popular Instagram account.
“We have a certain number of producers who come from fiction and documentary backgrounds,” says Maes. “And we see them moving towards animation to tell their stories more easily. [For us] That brings so much richness, so many new contributions and new collaborations, that it will be very interesting to follow them.”
As expected, of the 76 animated proposals presented at this year’s forum, the majority are aimed at children and come from French producers, but at the same time the project’s statistics reveal some subtle changes. Preschool content has decreased from previous years, while young adult pricing has increased. And although French studios participate in 32 of the selected projects, the program reveals the growing impact of the Irish, Belgian and Nordic industries, which contribute several projects.
This edition will even see a number of Ukrainian projects, including a spin-off series of the fantasy film “Mavka” and the children’s comedy “Monsterberry Jam.”
“[Expanding our scope] It is a continuous and very important process,” says Maes. “But Cartoon Forum will always remain the [leading] forum for co-production and, therefore, a kind of window to the future, showing what comes next.”
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