Arte, ZDF Studios, Cartoon Saloon Win Tributes at Cartoon Forum
by Ben Croll · VarietyFrench-German institution Arte was named top broadcaster at this year’s Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, offering a fitting end to an edition that exalted public broadcasters and intra-European cooperation. Attendees at Cartoon Forum’s 35th edition also paid tribute to Germany’s ZDF Studios and Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon, offering respective honors for Investor/Distributor and Producer of the year.
As voted by the near 1000 attendees of the animation confab, the peer-to-peer tributes offer a real-time gauge of industry currents, and here, even more so than last year, public outfits take pride of place. Alongside honors for Arte and ZDF, event organizers also offered a Cartoon Tribute of Honor RAI Kids executive director Luca Milano.
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Founded in 1992, European cultural broadcaster Arte is now having a banner year in the digital space. After acquiring the Cartoon Forum-selected series “Samuel,” the cultural service has subsequently turned the short-form title into a non-linear smash, racking up millions upon millions of online views by adapting to the unique format requirements of each social network. Dubs have been made for Spanish-speaking markets, while linear broadcast and longer-form extensions are now in the cards.
The commercial subsidiary of Germany’s national public television service, ZDF Studios, works in production, distribution and licensing with affiliates in the Netherlands and U.K. Earlier this year, ZDF Studios partnered with France Television to greenlight the Paris Opera-based series “20 Dance Street,” which presented to much acclaim at last year’s Cartoon Forum. ZDF Studios will share worldwide sales duties alongside Federation Kids and Family, with the title already locking in pre-sales. In a challenging commissioning landscape, the ZDF deal offered no small degree of succor.
Cartoon Saloon founders Paul Young, Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey can now boast a Cartoon Forum producer tribute in the very year their Kilkenny-based studio celebrates its 25th anniversary. The studio has kept busy for that quarter century, scoring five Academy Award nominations and two Golden Globe nods alongside BAFTA wins and Emmy trophies. In-house productions like “Skunk Fu,” “Dorg Van Dango,” and “Silly Sundays” have all come through Cartoon Forum as well.