LYON, FRANCE — Cartoon Movie, the pitching and co-production event for animated features, has announced the finalists for Cartoon Tributes 2016. The awards recognize outstanding contributions 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 in the industry. Over 750 professional attending the event will select winners, who will be announced on March 4th in Lyon.
European Director of the Year
Michael Ekblad, Ted Sieger and Matthias Bruhn (Germany) are nominated in the category for the film “Ted Sieger’s Molly Monster - The Movie.
Jan Bultheel (Belgium) is nominated for his first long feature Cafard, who brightly uses motion capture like his new project in concept Canaan.
Remi Chaye (France) is nominated for Long Way North, released in January 2016 in France.
European Distributor of the Year
Three companies will compete for European Distributor of the Year: The Turkish company BIR Film, responsible for the launch of Little Dragon Coconut, Raven the Little Rascal - the Big Race, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Persepolis, The Painting, Freddy Frogface and Marco Macaco.
SF Film is a Danish distributor that buys mainly for theatrical release and DVD. The company has distributed the European films Emil & Ida from Lonneberg, Pettersson & Findus and Postman Pat. In 2015 they released Paddington, Shaun the Sheep and Song of the Sea.
The third nominee is La Belle Company, a Paris-based company that’s among the top 20 French distributors. They had success wilt Maya the Bee and are currently distributing Loving Vincent.
European Producer of the Year
This category includes Italy’s MAD Entertainment for The Art of Happiness and Cinderella the Cat; Germany/Luxembourg/Belgium/Ireland’s Ulysses Filmproduktion, Fabrique d’images, Grid Animation & Moetion Films for Ooops! Noah is Gone…; and France’s Ankama Animation for Dofus - Book 1: Julith.