European animation celebrated its latest achievements at Cartoon Movie, the must-attend pitching and co-production forum for European animated features which concludes today in Bordeaux. Voted by industry professionals attending this 28th edition of the event, the Cartoon Tribute Awards again recognized the companies and individuals whose work has made a significant impact on the European animation industry over the past year.
This year, the Producer of the Yearprize was jointly awarded to the team behind “Allah Is Not Obliged”, a co-production between Special Touch Studios (France), Creative Touch Studios (France), Paul Thiltges Distributions (Luxembourg), Yzanakio (Canada), Need Productions (Belgium) and Lunanime (Belgium). Marking the directorial debut of Zaven Najjar, art director on Sepideh Farsi’s “The Siren”, the film has just received three awards at the Brussels-based Anima Intl. Animation Film.
The Distributor of the Year award went to Paris-based Les Films du Préau, an independent film distribution company focused on high-quality films for young audiences.
Founded in 2000 by Emmanuelle Chevalier and Marie-Agnès Bourillon, the company boasts a diverse catalogue of more than 200 titles and has distributed films such as “The Gruffalo” and most of the subsequent Magic Light Pictures specials, along with arthouse animation projects from all over the world, including “The Boy and the World,” “Choum’s Odyssey“ and “Living Large.” As of today, Les Films du Préau’s main upcoming animated title is French-Belgian co-production “Petite Casbah,” set to release Oct. 14 in France.
Parallel to the Tributes, Cartoon Movie hosted the Eurimages Co-production Development Award (CPDA) once again this year, a cash prize of €20,000 ($23,200) created to promote the Fund’s role in encouraging international co-productions from the initial stages of a project. This year, a jury of professionals honored the Czech-German coproduction “Acorn’s Adventure” by Pure Shore (Czech Republic) and Fabian & Fred (Denmark), a project it “really appreciated for its original storytelling, inspired by the director’s experience working with children and their curiosity for the natural world.”
The jury also underlined the joyful humor and fantasy of this project as well as its innovative animation production technique which brings their unique hand-made characters to life. The project, already pitched at MIFA last year and at the EFM Animation Days a few weeks ago, is already gathering attention from international sales and European partners ahead of its Cartoon Movie this afternoon.
The Director of the Year award went to Reza Memari for “The Last Whale Singer.” His second feature after “Richard the Stork,” which he co-directed with Toby Genkel, “The Last Whale Singer” is an animated musical fantasy for family audiences, made with cutting-edge technology through a unique German-Czech-Canadian co-production scheme.
The film follows Vincent, the orphaned son of the last Whale Singer, who must overcome his fears and discover his own voice to help save the oceans. Presented at Cartoon Movie at different stages from concept (2018) to development (2020) and production (2025), Memari’s new work has already been sold to more than 30 international territories and made a strong debut in Czech Republic when it came out on Feb. 19. Plans for a sequel are already underway, along with further collaborations including global ocean trusts, bridging the gap between meaningful topics and down-to-earth eco-conscious actions.
The Cartoon Tribute award ceremony took place Thursday at the Palais des Congrès in Bordeaux, where 50 new animated projects from 21 countries were presented over two days, with the aim of finding new partners and investors to help accelerate their production.
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