Cartoon Financing

Underwriting animated features:

European animation feature film projects are always looking for money, so Lyon's Cartoon Movie co-production forum, now in its 16th year, is a vital way to find backing.

More than 700 participants from 40 countries met in the French city this year aiming to create partnerships and raise funds for European animation productions.

“We looked at the 14 years before Cartoon Movie, and the 14 years since the forum’s creation, and we discovered that feature-length animated film production increased five-fold, a huge jump, and audiences for these films increased by a factor of 10,” said Cartoon Movie’s Director Marc Vandeweyer.

Since 1999, over 215 films pitched at Cartoon Movie, with a total budget of 1.5 billion euros, have secured financing and have been released in the cinema. ...

Everybody knows about the high-profile animated features: The Disney and Pixar output, the DreamWorks Animation features, the movies being made by Blue Sky Studios.

It's the smaller budgets, smaller grossing films that many people don't hear about. But it's good they're financed and produced. Getting green-lit by one of our fine, entertainment conglomerates is not the end-all, be-all.