It is the largest European event dedicated to the animation sector and to television series in particular. The Cartoon Forum is held every year in September in Toulouse in the south of France. For three days, producers pitch their project there in front of a thousand broadcasters, investors and potential partners from 40 countries. The various players in the sector thus have the opportunity to meet and forge new collaborations.
Its 2022 edition ended on Thursday, September 22 with an observation: animation is today a mature market according to Annick Maes, general manager of Cartoon, the non-profit organization at the initiative of the CartoonForum.
“The animation industry is no longer just a form of cultural expression, it really is an industry, an economic prospect,” she believes. “A lot of people work in animation,” she adds. “Today people are not aware of all the types of animation that they see in their daily life and what is also very important is that animation is not just for children ,” she points out.
The nuggets of international co-productions
Guest of honor this year: Spain where the sector is flourishing.
Many European and South American co-productions have been presented as “Las Primera” (“The First” in French) by Paloma Mora & Bambú Orellana (TV ON Producciones / Typpo Creative Lab), a series dedicated to these exceptional women pioneers in their field.
“It is worth mentioning to the Cartoon Forum, the importance that our sector places on co-production,” says María Peña, CEO of Spanish investment agency ICEX. “Spain has concluded more than 30 international co-production contracts with different countries and around 70% of the series produced in 2022 in Spain, i.e. around 50 titles, are Spanish co-productions,” she congratulates herself.
Among the creations pitched this year, we also find Magic Mission in Mexico by Patricia Mortagne & Hefang Wei (Kazak Productions), a co-production between France, Belgium and Luxembourg. The pilot has already been sold to 17 countries. The objective of the producers is to finance a series of 10 episodes.
Diverse identities and quest for quality
Another original project presented at Cartoon Forum: “My Superhero Husband” by Alex Tagali & Mikaela K. Deligianni (Funny Tales / The Alphabet Initiative Agency). This series, which was rewarded by Disney at the Annecy Festival, humorously revisits the codes of superheroes and the genre.
Its co-producer Glen Beaudin introduces us to his Austrian, American and Greek team based in Berlin. “It’s an international effort to represent queer identity in animation and even here [au Cartoon Forum]on a commercial level, as far as we know, we are the only animation project representing the LGBTQI community,” he specifies.
“The Tern” by Slimane Aniss (Cyber Group Studios) is also among the very popular creations. This series was produced in France and competes with American or Japanese productions in terms of animation.
Since its creation in 1990, the Cartoon Forum has helped 922 series to find funding for a total budget of 3.95 billion euros.
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