Young talents from European animation jump on Cartoon Springboard

The selection includes four Spanish works of students graduated from schools in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia.

The new talents of European animation will present their projects in Cartoon Springboard, where they will be presented 22 series and feature projects created by students or graduates of animation schools throughout Europe.

The works will be presented to experts in the sector with the aim of enriching them and facilitating their access to the audiovisual market. The selection includes four Spanish works: the series Kubrick and Paramecium by Almudena Sancho (Barreira Art y Design, Valencia), The Mystery of Cucut City from Héctor Arnau (ESUPT, Catalonia) and Trip to Antarctic (Ecam, Madrid); and the feature film Pepino, the accordionist by Alfonso Casado Diez (U-Tad, Madrid).

Organized by Cartoon, the activity was originally scheduled to be held in the Spanish city of Valencia from October 27 to 29, but has passed to Online format as a consequence of the global health situation. Cartoon Springboard has the support of the Media Creative Program of the European Union and the Generalitat Valenciana, Institut Valencià de Cultura and the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

In addition to presenting their ideas, young filmmakers will have the opportunity to make contact with the animation industry and boost their projects through different activities in charge of recognized professionals in the sector. The program is open to participants around the world, which can access the pre -recorded presentations (pitches) and conferences through the digital platform of Cartoon Springboard, where they can also listen to the experts of experts on each of the projects and interact with the rest of the participants. The registration fee to participate in this modality is 50 euros and should be done before October 9 through this link.

Cartoon Springboard has become an unavoidable appointment for producers in search of new or interested projects in discovering new talents, consolidating itself as a previous step to Cartoon Forum and Cartoon Movie, co -production events for series and long animation, respectively. Since 2015, 19 projects have been presented at these events after their passage by Cartoon Springboard, confirming the value of this platform.

The selection of this sixth edition of Cartoon Springboard is marked by the Originality of concepts and the diversity of stories, with projects on topics such as friendship, love, hope, the search for identity and emotions. The projects come from Germany, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, France, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom and Serbia, and more than half were conceived for the youth/adult public, a growing trend in European animation. In the selection there are also projects for children, family, preschool and adolescents. In terms of format, TV series predominate against web series and feature films (17, 3 and 2, respectively).

France, Spain and Italy are the countries with the greatest representation, with projects of students or graduates of the Poudrière, L’Telier, Esat and Gobelins (France); Barreira, U-Tad, ESUPT and ECAM (Spain); and of the Innerzionale di Comics Scuola and the Sperimentale Di Cinematography Center (Italy).

There are also works of graduated students in the last five years, (or who are studying their last year of studies) of several European schools.

The panel of experts which will guide those responsible for the projects is made up of purchasing directors and development of TV channel content, and streaming platforms such as Sony Pictures Television, Adult Swim, Ketnet/VTR, France Télévisions Consultants and BBC Children, in addition to consultants specialized in animation and animation producers of companies such as Peekaboo Animation, Lightning Sprite Media, Blue Spirit Productions, Haruworks, Cartoon Saloon, Storygg, Miam! Animation, Dandelooo and Laïdak Films, among others.