European Animated TV Series Reflect Zeitgeist, Says Annick Maes, Head of Cartoon

variety.com:

Lise Pedersen Beginning today, Cartoon Forum, the annual European pitching & co-production event for animated TV projects, is a mirror of the times we live in, according to its general director, Annick Maes.  “This year’s Cartoon Forum will incorporate the transformations we are going through in one form or another,” she told Variety. “There are a lot of projects about the ecology, about living together – quite a few targeting adults and teenagers.  “They really reflect the times in which times we are living.

For example, the impact of women is growing, there are more and more female producers and directors. It’s an industry where we’ve pretty much reached gender parity among our participants.

You can’t say the same for fiction or documentary.”  Among growing trends in recent years among animation film producers, Maes noted what she calls “the 360 approach.”  “This year, we have almost 25 book publishers coming to Cartoon Forum from all over the world to find new IPs and develop the book before the series or the film comes out: the book becomes a promotional tool for the series or the feature,” she said, citing as an example the graphic novel “Sisters of the Mist”, recently published by the U.K.’s Nobrow, which is based on an original IP by Dutch Studio Pupil.

First pitched at the Cartoon Springboard event for young talent in 2017, it went on to the 2019 edition of Cartoon Movie, where it was picked by Nobrow.