Cartoon Tours
Iintrepid publisher reports on activity at top French animation studios on the way to Cartoon Movie in Lyon. By Jean Thoren.
can report that France is brimming with promise thanks to the 20 percent to 30 percent increase in the TRIP international tax rebate, which took effect Jan. 1.
The first stop was at the new home of Go-N Productions, where Eric Garnet, Anne de Galard and their team are gearing up production for their newest show, Zip Zip, which has sold to date in more than 100 markets around the world. The dynamic pair is busy filling up the bright new studio in what was once the old garment district with French talent who will produce the show solely in the Paris Studio.
Next it was off to Folivari, which is Didier Brunner’s latest digs. The talented group of artists there are busy working on TV specials adapted from the hit comic books by Benjamin Renner: The Big Bad Fox, A Baby to Deliver and A Perfect Christmas. Superights in the U.K. is briskly closing pre-sales for this trio of beautiful shows.
Brunner says efforts to launch the European Animation Pride Awards — see our online news story from Nov. 15, 2015 — are underway and a board meeting was held in Lyon before Cartoon Movie to further plan for the first edition. These honors are meant to fill the gaps left by existing nation-specific film awards such as the Cesars, Goyas and BAFTAs, and expand on the multi-
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The Long Long Holiday, Uno (Mexico), Under The Milky Way (Spain) and three Korean distributors. House of Cool presented Amoeba, picked by EU broadcasters to expand a collaboration set at Cartoon Connection Canada.
The Cartoon Movie Tributes winners for 2016 were: Rémi Chayé (Director of the Year, The Long Way North); Denmark’s SF Film (Distributor of the Year); Germany’s Ulysses Filmproduktion, Luxembourg’s Fabrique d’Images, Belgium’s Grid Animation and Ireland’s Moetion Films (Producers of the Year, Ooops! Noah is Gone).
For projects in development or production, the best attended pitching sessions were: Tulip ( Folimage, Lunanime), directed by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli; Moustique, Cigale & Cambriole (Dandeloo), by Cédric Babouche; The Journey of the Elephant Soliman (Studio88, Film-und Fernseh-Labor Ludwigsburg), by Sandor Jesse; The Boy in the Bubble (Iglood Films), by Kealan O’Rourke; Louise in the Winter (JPL Films, Unité Centrale), by Jean-François Laguionie; Tistou of the Green Thumbs (Finalement, Walking the Dog), by David Berthier; Even Mice Belong in Heaven ( Fresh Films, Les Films du Cygne), by Jan Bubeni ek and Denisa Grimmová; Next Door Spy ( Copenhagen Bombay), by Karla von Bengtson; Loving Vincent ( Breakthru Films, Trademark Films), by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman; Second Generation, ( Stephan Films, PMMP), by Xavier Picard and Vera Belmont; and Heart of Darkness (Films d’Ici).
The next Cartoon Movie and Cartoon Games will take place March 8-10, 2017. [