BRB’s “The Secret Life of Suckers” and Mago Audiovisual’s “The Flying Squirrels” among the most attended projects at the event

Cartoon Forum Rogaland revealed that European animation remains resilient thanks to its creative wealth, high quality and significant sales potential. The 20th anniversary of the event – which drew to a close on September 25 in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, County of Rogaland – also showed that animation productions are becoming increasingly attractive and competitive on the international stage.

Over 700 professionals present at this event got a sneak preview of 61 new projects to come out over the next few years. Together, these projects – the latest generation of animation series for television and new media platforms – sum up 310 hours of content and a total budget of 148 million EUR.

The ten projects that garnered the most interest among broadcasters, investors, producers and distributors at the meeting were “Boo Boo Dolls” (Germany); “Granny O’Grimm” (Ireland); “Skybabies” (UK); “Kinky & Cosy” (France); “Me and my Robot” (France), “The Flying Squirrels” (Spain); “The Secret Life of Suckers” (Spain); “Copy Cut” (France); “Pigly” (France); and “Dustbunnies” (UK).

Cartoon Forum has been a driving force behind European animation over the past two decades and can be given credit for this year’s hike in co-productions between two or more European countries (39% vs 20% in 2008) and an increase in projects from countries beyond the traditional “big five”, including Ireland, Belgium and the Nordic Countries.

Along with the presentation of these new projects, the event also hosted the Cartoon Tributes and Cartoon d’Or 2009, which have become prestigious awards for European animation.

Aimed at recognizing companies or personalities that have had a positive influence on the European animation industry over the last year, this year’s Cartoon Tributes went to NRK (Best Broadcaster), Cake Entertainment (Best Investor/Distributor) and Brown Bag Films (Best Producer).

Meanwhile Irish director David O’Reilly took the Cartoon d’Or 2009 for his innovative short film “Please say something”. Written and directed by O’Reilly, the film won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film earlier this year at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. This year's jury was composed by directors Serge Elissalde (France), Kari Juusonen (Finland) and Tomm Moore (Ireland).

Organised every year by the European Association of Animation Films, this new edition of Cartoon Forum was supported by EU MEDIA Programme, the County of Rogaland, the cities of Stavanger and Sandnes, the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs, the Norwegian Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Innovation Norway, Sparebanken 1 SR-Bank and NRK.

Since its creation in 1989, 429 European animated projects presented at Cartoon Forum were fully financed for a global budget of 1.5 billion EUR. In 2010, the event will celebrate its new edition in the city of Sopron -one of the most picturesque towns in Hungary-from September 14 – 17.

Photos of the event: www.flickr.com/photos/35940214@N05/sets/72157622269725929/ (All pictures © Valerie de Halleux / CARTOON)