Cartoon Forum kicks off in Toulouse with 65 projects seeking partnerships

Cartoon Forum in Toulouse last year

The 37th edition of Cartoon Forum has kicked off in Toulouse, with 65 projects seeking partners at the annual European pitching and coproduction event for animated series.

Production companies from 19 countries are participating in the event this year, with projects from Ireland, France and Germany leading the opening day of pitches.

Ireland- and UK-based Sixteen South is pitching Funny Feelings (52×5’), a non-dialogue 2D animated series that encourages preschoolers to explore their emotions. It is based on James O’Brien (aka the Potato Printer)’s children’s picture book Big Book of Feelings, which explores feelings through the eyes of potato-printed animals.

France’s Ad Astra and Laïdak Films are coproducing Ernestine, a 6×26’ 2D series for young adults and adults based on Salomé Lahoche’s book of the same name. The story follows a smartass, dark-humoured, chain-smoking nine-year-old with unstable parents, and her blunt, insightful take on Western civilisation.

The third opening pitch comes from Germany’s Wolkenlenker and is called Reinventing Herman. Aimed at a tween audience, the 26×7’ series follows a 3D animated crab as he navigates puberty, school, his parents and his first love.

As well as the remaining 62 pitches, this year’s Cartoon Forum will run an initiative designed to strengthen connections between Europe and Canada. Taking place on Wednesday, Québec-Canada Land in Europe: A Space for Creation will include an additional six pitches from Canadian prodcos.

Meanwhile, the Fill the Gap initiative will return on Thursday, in which former Cartoon Forum projects that are still missing part of their financing return to the event to seek the remaining funding needed to complete their budgets.

Also returning to Cartoon Forum this year is the European Broadcasting Union’s Animation Co-Development Initiative, in which a group of public-service broadcasters from across Europe team up to select one or two Cartoon Forum pitches to co-develop together.

Cartoon Forum runs from today up until the end of Thursday.