Cartoon Movie: 9 years, 108 films financed for a total cost of 660 million Euros
Cartoon Movie 2007 was held in Potsdam from 7 to 9 March in the famous Babelsberg Studio and reaffirmed its continuing success. The 500 professionals who attended the event witnessed the increased growth of European animation feature films. Ten completed films and 32 projects at different stages of development and production were presented. France, Germany and Spain are indisputably the major producers in this sector, but Scandinavia, and particularly Denmark, are now also very strong players.
Mainly CGI projects
New technology continues to dominate, especially with the relentless development of 3D, and is used particularly in adventure or family comedy flms such as The Ugly Duckling and Me!, Happily N’ever After or Dragon Hunters. But 2D is still strongly represented with The Princess of the Sun, the enchanting production of U by Serge Elissalde and Grégoire Solotareff, and A Cat Day’s Night, the new project from Jacques-Rémy Girerd (Folimage), all of which bear witness to the energy and artistic strength of traditional animation techniques. Even puppets are making a come back with Zombie Western, a Spanish-Danish coproduction which is a type of animated Chainsaw Massacre.
At the moment 2D and 3D work happily side by side and will often come together on productions such as Citeria or Prince of the Hood. Digitisation offers infinite possibilities, including the development of living skeletons – it you can put it that way – against real life backgrounds as in the project Bones Story from Antoine Simkine, Jacques Bled and Pierre Coffin which will certainly amuse both children and adults.
A wide diversity of projects
Today, most of the budgets presented by producers range from seven to eight million Euros. Very few cost more than ten million. (Thor, a 3D project from Iceland is budgeted at 14 million Euros). On the other hand, several producers, particularly those from Spain and Denmark have much lower budgets at around 3 million. For example A.Film, which produced the marvellous Terkel for less than 2 million Euros, has a new 3D project Journey to Saturn which will be made in the same way as Terkel and have the same dark humour.
The technical and artistic range of projects on offer, and the fact that they are also financially viable, means that European animation feature films are appealling to a wider and larger audience. In France, for example, Arthur and the Minimoys from Luc Besson attracted an audience of 6 million, and Azur and Asmar by Michel Ocelot brought in an audience of nearly 2 million. These are great successes of which there will certainly be more.
On the eve of its tenth anniversary, Cartoon Movie seems to have achieved the right formula. Its structure has been successfully tried and tested with two full days of pitching and screenings. The key is to identify the right projects – in concept, in development, and in production – in consultation with industry professionals. Cartoon Movie and the sector that has developed over the last nine years is now sailing with a full wind behind it.
The presence of new Platforms at Movie
This year’s novelty was the interest that Cartoon Movie spurred among the new media (internet, mobile phones, video game consoles, amongst others), who came to Potsdam to witness the latest in European animation.
As in previous years, Cartoon Movie was an excellent opportunity to spot the most recent sector trends. With budgets of around 6.8 million Euros, 3D adventure films with human characters for a family audience made up the majority of films presented at this year’s event.
Since its creation in 1999, Cartoon Movie has had a remarkable impact on European animation. In the following years, 108 of all the projects presented have obtained full financing to the tune of a total 660 million Euros.
Denmark’s success at the Cartoon Tributes
For the seventh consecutive year, Cartoon Movie presented the Cartoon Movie Tributes - one of the most prestigious prizes in the animation industry. Voted by sector professionals at the fx.Center Babelsberg, this year’s winners were:
Best European Director of the Year:
Michael Hegner and Karsten Kiilerich (Denmark) for “The Ugly Duckling and Me!”
Best European Distributor of the Year:
Scanbox Denmark
Best European Producer of the Year:
Alphanim / Europool / Nelvana Int / Studio Canal for “Franklin & the Turtle Lake Treasure” (international coproduction with France, Germany, Canada)
This year, 25 students from some of the major animation schools in Germany and the School of Animation at the University of West England (Bristol/UK) took part in the Cartoon Movie Coaching Programme, which takes place alongside the three day Cartoon Movie event. The programme is an initiative of the European Association of Animation Film with the support of the German Federal Film Board (FFA) (UK talents supported by South West Screen & Aardman) and aims to achieve the consistent integration of young talent into the financing market, and give students the opportunity to experience the industry first hand.
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