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Sixty projects at Cartoon Movie

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- The European co-production forum will kick off tomorrow in Lyon with over 700 professionals and 60 projects present

Sixty projects at Cartoon Movie

Dynamic and very often garnering awards at an international level, the European animation sector is increasingly setting its sights on an adult audience. This is one of the defining features that can be found among the selection of 60 projects on the menu at the 16th edition of Cartoon Movie, which kicks off tomorrow in Lyon. Over three days, the meeting will bring together over 700 animation professionals (producers, distributors and investors) from 40 countries.

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Set to be showcased are seven finished films, 11 in production, 17 in development and 25 still at the concept stage. And although France is occupying a strong position in the world of European animation (with one-third of the selection), the Nordic countries are also booming (with 24% of the projects), as are the Eastern European territories, particularly Poland and Hungary.

Political and historical subjects, hybrid concepts that merge documentaries and animation, and psychological-based plots are all covered. The trend is towards expanding the target market, with 30% of this year’s selected projects (compared with 20% in 2013) being aimed at a wider market than the traditional family comedies and adventure films intended for a young audience always hungry for animation.

Featuring among the most prominent titles in development are the spy thriller Last Round in Istanbul by Serge Avédikian (who won the Short Film Palme d’Or in 2010); I Lost My Body by Jérémy Clapin (an adaptation of the book by Guillaume Laurant, one of the scriptwriters for Amélie); Dofus, the Return of Julith [+see also:
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]
by Jean-Jacques Denis and Anthony Roux (a big-screen version of the online multiplayer role-playing game); the Swiss-Croat project Chris the Swiss [+see also:
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interview: Anja Kofmel
film profile
]
 by Anja Kofmel, which is about the war in the former Yugoslavia; The Ghosts of Père Lachaise by Antoine Collomb and Guillaume Rio; the Franco-Luxembourgian-Belgian project Miles by Rebecca Dautremer; and Arthur de Pins Zombillenium [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Standing out among the titles at the concept stage is Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Pierre Földes (an adaptation of the collection of short stories by Japanese author Haruki Murakami).

The variety and quality of the projects at Cartoon Movie 2014 have encouraged a great many European buyers to sign up, including British firms eOne and WestEnd Films; German companies Beta Film, ARRI, Film Boutique and ARD/ZDF; Italian organisation Fandango; Spanish outfit 6 Sales; Swedish firm Folkets Bio; Norway-based Nordisk Film; Danish companies TrustNordisk and SF Film; Polish organisations GutekTVP and New Europe Film Sales; Hungarian outfit Mozinet; Belgium-based CinéartLumièreO'BrotheruMedia and Imagine Film; Dutch firm Just Film Distribution; Luxembourg-based Paul Thiltges Distribution; Austrian company EastWest Filmdistribution; and finally Portuguese organisations Lusomundo and Outsider Films. French outfits will also have a major presence, including such firms as GaumontCanal+Wild Bunch DistributionSNDBac FilmsOrange Cinéma SériesDoc & FilmUrban Distribution InternationalRezo FilmsCelluloid DreamsDiaphanaCarlottaFuturikonGebekaHaut et Court and Jour2Fête, among others. Lastly, The Weinstein Company and DreamWorks will be there representing other parts of the world.

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(Translated from French)

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