The Cartoon Movie Report
The sixth annual Cartoon Movie in Potsdam, Germany, recently brought together some 420 participants to focus on the fast-growing sector for European animated feature films.
The event was set up by Cartoon in partnership with the European Media program as a movie version of its successful Cartoon Forum meeting for animated series. Managing directors Marc Vandeweyer and Corinne Jenart claim it has had a significant impact on production, with an explosion in European features since it first began.
Only 11 animated feature films were produced in Europe during the five-year period from 1964 to 1968. This grew steadily to 27 titles in the five years from 1994 to 1998. But since 1999, there has been a massive increase in production volumes with a total of 68 animated movies and a combined budget of €415 million.
Of course, these have mostly been low-budget affairs and distribution remains a serious problem for many. For every Chicken Run or Les Triplettes de Belleville, there are many that have failed to make progress outside their own domestic markets. And time and again, the reason for this remains plain to see with high quality animation still being let down far too often by poor scripts.
Nonetheless, Vandeweyer believes the quality of projects being presented at Cartoon Movie is going up year by year.
“We had a stronger pre-selection committee this time and we refused more films than in previous years, with fewer films being pitched in concept and in development. I think we made the right decision because it meant that we had a much higher quality this year,” he says.
“Another goal for us was to build pan-European distribution network and that is now happening.”
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