Cartoon Discussion board, Europe’s main animation collection co-production occasion, has revealed the winners of this yr’s Cartoon Tributes, recognizing the dedication and creativity of key gamers within the European animation trade.
Chosen by occasion individuals gathered in Toulouse, the winners within the three established classes (Producer, Broadcaster and Investor/Distributor of the Yr) had been celebrated immediately because the Discussion board slowly attracts to an in depth after three intense days of pitching periods, networking and debates across the state of the European animation tv trade.
This yr, the Producer of the Yr was awarded to Bobby Prod (France), who offered “The Broos” in 2024 on the Cartoon Discussion board. Now broadcast on ARTE France, the collection (born on social media earlier than being developed as an animated collection in co-production with ARTE) highlights the potential of digital storytelling to achieve a wider viewers, with deeply related creators and communities.
An method that has been on the coronary heart of Bobby Prod for over 15 years, because the studio has constructed its sturdy identification round irreverent humor, artistic freedom and daring storytelling. After bringing well-known IPs to life with “Creatures Commandos” or “Lifeless Cells,” Bobby Prod and its sister firm Bobbypills are actually increasing their very own unique IPs with the hit French queer animated characteristic “Jim Queen” now displaying at TIFF, and Jordan Firstman introduced because the lead voice.
French firm Folivari Worldwide wins the Investor/Distributor of the Yr award. Two years after its founding by Folivari, the impartial gross sales company has fastidiously constructed its distinctive lineup mixing in-house titles and third-party acquisitions, with hit collection corresponding to “Samuel” and scorching titles at present in manufacturing and/or growth, corresponding to “Pil’s Adventures,” “Ted & Paula’s Tadpole Journey,” “Nino Dino” and “The Baker Avenue 4,” all featured at Cartoon Discussion board.
The BBC, the British public service broadcaster and a significant participant within the international animated tv collection economic system, obtained the Broadcaster of the Yr award, highlighting the enduring hyperlinks between European animation and the post-Brexit UK. With its youngsters’s providers CBeebies and CBBC aimed toward pre-school and college audiences respectively, the BBC stays a significant sponsor and co-producer of kids’s animation, with a powerful emphasis on unique content material and partnerships with impartial manufacturing corporations. An extended-time presence on the Cartoon Discussion board, the BBC added a number of European collection to its roster following their shows on the Discussion board, together with “Duck & Frog,” “Maddie + Triggs,” “Piggy Builders,” “Pablo” and “Dungeons & Kittens.”
This yr’s Tributes additionally launched a fourth class, the Ecoprod-Cartoon Tribute, honoring a European animation manufacturing firm or initiative that has made a big contribution to the development of sustainability within the sector.
Introduced in partnership with Ecoprod, a French non-profit group supporting the environmental transition of the audiovisual trade, the brand new award featured three nominees, with the winner chosen by Ecoprod in recognition of its dedication to sustainable growth by its operations, manufacturing strategies and storytelling.
The Ecoprod-Cartoon Discussion board’s first-ever tribute was paid to Réunion-based Gao Shan Footage, a 2D and 3D animation providers studio and manufacturing firm creating daring, distinctive and significant movies for worldwide audiences with sustainability on the coronary heart. A place that’s mirrored each within the tales chosen and in the way in which they’re produced, with credit corresponding to “In Waves”, “The Smurfs”, “Jim Queen” and “Allah is Not Obliged”. At Cartoon Discussion board 2026, Gao Shan Footage offered “The Roots of My Hair”, a 2D animated collection for youngsters aged 12 to fifteen tailored from the bestselling graphic novel of the identical identify.
This yr, all nominees had sturdy ties to Cartoon Discussion board, having attended the occasion each to showcase their initiatives and to attach with the European animation trade. Firms from the Czech Republic, Germany, Eire, Luxembourg, Spain and Sweden had been additionally amongst this yr’s nominees.
Established in 1990 to spice up the co-production and distribution of European animation throughout tv and new media platforms, Cartoon Discussion board has since helped over 1,000 1,053 animated collection safe funding, totaling over €3.83 billion ($4.39 billion).