This year’s Cartoon Movie once again showed that the number of riskier, small budget animated feature film projects aimed at adult audiences continues to increase.
Martin Dr. Toon Goodman continues his behind the scenes look at Atomic Cartoons to see how much work and time goes into getting a show off the ground.
Heikki Jokinen gives us the real facts from the 2001 Cartoon Forum, where Europe meets to make deals and find the financing for tomorrow's television and Web productions.
The Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary. Join us for a special photo gallery of twenty years.
The 20th Brussels Cartoon and Animated Film Festival - Festival du dessin animé et du film d'animation handed out its top European awards. There were prizes only for national films, because the international official selection is non-competitive. Because Brussels is the capital of Belgium, a country with two separate language-based communities, there are, of course, two national Grand Prixs.
On February 13, 2001, the European Union organized in Stockholm for an expert seminar on Children and Young People in the New Media Landscape. One of the main topics in the discussions was Sweden's European initiative for banning television commercials aimed at children. The European Union has a rotating presidency system, where every member country controls the administration for a half-year term. As current leader, Sweden has placed the matter of TV ads on the top of the EU agenda for this term.
* Tuesday, May 15 Sunday, May 20, 2001. Turku, Finland.
Entry Deadline: February 9, 2001.
The Havana Film Festival, Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, is traditionally the major cinema event in Latin America, and is still one of the major events in the region in spite of the growing problems to organize it. The number of films, audience members and guests is very impressive. The latest 22nd edition was held from December 5 - 15, 2000. The ten-day event focused on feature films, but also included a separate competition for Latin American animation. The selection is comprehensive, but not too big, however the films are not always new.
The annual European animation co-financing event, Cartoon Forum, will take place on the Baltic Sea Island of Gotland in Sweden. Gotland and its capital Visby will without a doubt survive the animation industry's invasion, as the city has a long history going back to the Vikings and medieval times. The nearby island of Fårö is known by many, too, as director Ingmar Bergman shot many of his films there. The 79 projects to be presented for funding have already been selected, and can be found at Cartoon's Web site www.cartoon-media.be.
The Zagreb Animation Festival was held in the Croatian capital on June 21 25, 2000 for the fourteenth time. The atmosphere was literally hot; the sun shined more than enough during the whole festival, raising the daily temperatures easily to 35 centigrade (approximately 90+° F). No wonder the daily festival newspaper reported about the festival picnic with the headline "A hell-hot picnic". On the positive side, however, is that an effective air conditioned inside drew a large audience for the films. The four competition-screenings were very popular among the local audience.
European feature animation producers and filmmakers gathered in Potsdam to discuss funding and distribution partnerships and deals. Heikki Jokinen reports on Cartoon's latest coup.
Here is a selection of recent and upcoming European animated features. It is easy to see that the subject matter and countries of origin are all very varied.
The Long Shadow, a film about Hans Christian Andersen. Zentropa Production.
The Long Shadow H.C. Andersen's life was not always a...
Heikki Jokinen relates the current feature animation scene in Europe, from distribution problems to help from Cartoon.
Heikki Jokinen reviews the Tampere Festival in Finland,a unique short film festival that makes sure to integrate animation intoall of its programs.
On the 40th anniversary of Estonia's Nukufilm, Heikki Jokinen went for a visit to profile the puppet animation studio and their place in the post-Soviet world.
The latest from Europe, Heikki Jokinen recounts the news and views from Arles, France's Cartoon Forum.
What is CARTOON and just what are they doing in Arles? Heikki Jokinen answers all of our questions as he outlines the European Union's MEDIA program, CARTOON, the European Association of Animated Film.
