85 TV Projects Will Be Presented At Cartoon Forum

As the dust settles on Annecy Festival, Europe is looking ahead to another major event in its animation calendar: Cartoon Forum. The 30th edition of the co-production platform for tv animation will be held in Toulouse, France on September 16–19, and the organizers have released details of the works that will be presented.

This year will see 85 original projects, both series and specials, totalling more than 500 hours of animation. Each will be pitched to an audience of industry professionals — producers, distributors, investors, broadcasters — of whom around 1,000 will attend the forum. In total, 24 countries will be represented. These figures represent a modest growth from previous years, attesting to the health of Europe’s tv animation sector.

Half the projects are aimed at kids, and under 10% at adults (including young adults). As always, the line-up is dominated by France, the continent’s animation powerhouse, which is set to present 25 projects. Next comes Belgium (nine projects), Germany (seen), and Ireland (six). Denmark, Finland, and Spain have five projects apiece. This year, the spotlight is on Wallonia-Brussels — essentially Belgium’s French-speaking territory — which will be the subject of dedicated presentations, parties, and more. The full list of selected projects can be explored on Cartoon Forum’s website.

Cartoon Forum was launched in 1990, and it has since grown into a mainstay of Europe’s TV animation industry, attracting major SVOD platforms like Netflix as well as traditional broadcasters. It serves as a focused market for the sector — something which is lacking in, say, the US.

In contrast to other major markets like MIPTV, Cartoon Forum remains pretty accessible to small producers, who can secure major deals on the back of a standout presentation. Around a third of projects pitched at the event end up being produced; when a presentation isn’t a hit, the presenters can at least hope for valuable feedback from professionals in the audience.

(Photo at top: “We are Family” © TeamTO.)