The Nominees for Cartoon Tributes 2015
Skwigly
CARTOON MOVIE, pitching and co-production event for animated features, has announced the finalists for Cartoon Tributes 2015, the awards for outstanding contribution to the development of European animation over the last year. Divided into three categories – Director, Distributor and Producer of the Year – this year’s Cartoon Tributes bring together the best of the latest European animated features as well as some of the continent’s most active companies within the industry. Over 700 professionals attending Cartoon Movie will be in charge of selecting the winners who will be announced in Lyon, France on 6th March.
Xavier Picard is nominated in the category “European Director of the Year” for the film “Moomins on the Riviera”. Adaptation of a famous cartoon by Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson, the film is a co-production of the Finnish company Handle Productions and the French company Pictak. Other nominees in this category are Tomm Moore for “Song of the Sea” (Ireland / Luxembourg / Belgium / France / Denmark) nominated for Oscars in 2015 – his first feature film “The Secret of Kells” was also nominated for an Oscar in 2009 – and Mark Burton and Richard Starzak for “Shaun the Sheep” (United Kingdom), the opening film of CARTOON MOVIE 2015 on 4th March.
Three companies will compete for “European Distributor of the Year“: INDIE SALES, a Paris-based international feature film sales & co-productions company, which specialises in commercial independent projects. INDIE SALES’ current line-up includes “Moomins on the Riviera”, “My Life as a Zucchini” and “DOFUS – Book I”.
Since 2009, Agora Films has been releasing one animation film per year for the Christmas holidays and buys all rights for Switzerland. In 2009, they released “Eleanor’s Secret” in 2010 “A Cat in Paris”, in 2011 “The Painting” by Jean-François Laguionie and in 2012 “The Day of the Crows” by Jean-Christophe Dessaint. The next movie will be “Phantom Boy”. Global Screen is a joint venture between Bavaria Film and Telepool for sales & distribution of theatrical and TV programming outside of German-speaking territories such as “Ooops! Noah is gone…”, “Niko 1 and 2”, “Legends of Valhalla – Thor”, “Marnie’s World”, among others.
The shortlist for “European Producer of the Year” includes France’s TeamTO for “Yellowbird”; Spain’s Zeta Cinema for “Mortadelo & Filemon. Mission: implausible”, winner of the Goya 2015 for the Best Animated Feature Film – the first two adventures of “Mortadelo & Filemon” raised 30 million EUR together; and Germany’s Studio 100 MEDIA for “Maya the Bee – The Movie”, Studio 100 MEDIA also co-produces “Vic the Viking – The Movie”.
Along with these prizes, the Rhône-Alpes Region will award a special Tribute to highlight regional animation talents.