Public Broadcasters Take Limelight at 35th Edition of Cartoon Forum

variety.com:

Ben Croll Public broadcasters have taken center stage at this year’s Cartoon Forum, which runs Sept. 16–19 in Toulouse. With the European animation industry still facing a market crunch linked to substantially reduced streaming investment – and as producers now grapple with tough headwinds and reduced opportunities – industry eyes have turned to state funds.

Indeed, public stations make up all four nominees for Cartoon Forum’s Broadcaster of the Year tribute – among them Arte (France/Germany), RTS (Switzerland), RTV (Slovenia), and 3Cat (Spain) – while for the second consecutive edition 15 members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) have joined forces for a co-development initiative to collectively finance two chosen projects.

This 35th edition of Cartoon Forum will also host a meeting between 10 additional broadcasters from Central and Eastern Europe meant to promote further collaborations and to create a more agile domino market, where if one broadcaster acquires a title, others might quickly follow suit. “We take this as a very strong signal from our broadcaster partners toward animation,” says Cartoon Media director Annick Maes. “We can see that they support us, that they want to unite us, and that they want to make this industry stronger.” “This also ties into the very foundation of Cartoon Forum,” says Maes. “Because 35 years ago broadcasters and producers [had a more adversarial relationship] and we came along to bring them together.

So this kind of work is very important to us – it goes right back to our origins.” Of course, the market contraction has led to a commensurate shift in format.