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Animation Cinéma Télévision annick.maes@car toonmedia.eu

21 février 2025

CartoonNext 2025 : les projets sélectionnés

Les projets viennent de 7 pays d'Europe : France (2 projets), Slovénie, Bulgarie, Norvège, Espagne, Finlande et Islande.

Car toonNext 2025

Car toonNext, dont la prochaine édition aura lieu du 23 au 25 avril 2025 à Marseille, dévoile le line-up des projets sélectionnés. Il comprend cinq projets d'animation en développement, deux en production, et un en concept, venant de 7 pays d'Europe : France (2 projets), Slovénie, Bulgarie, Norvège, Espagne, Finlande et Islande. Il peut s'agir de séries TV ou web, de longs métrages, d'expériences VR…

Les descriptions des projets sont accessibles en ligne, tout comme le programme des trois jours de Car toonNext, qui accueillera différents panels et étude cas pour scruter le futur de l'animation.

P U B L I C I T É

CartoonNext incluye dos proyectos iberoamericanos en su selección 2025

Conoce todos los proyectos que formarán parte del evento de seminarios y pitch.

21 de febrero de 2025 Por Staﬀ

Compartir Compartir

CartoonNext CartoonNext, evento de seminarios y pitch dedicado a las nuevas oportunidades procedentes de la innovación tecnológica, las nuevas formas de consumición de contenido y los nuevos formatos audiovisuales, ha anunciado a los proyectos seleccionados para su edición 2025 proyectos seleccionados para su edición 2025

La lista es integrada por ocho proyectos de siete países ocho proyectos de siete países. Cinco de estos proyectos están en desarrollo, dos en producción y uno más en etapa de desarrollo. En cuanto a las plataformas, apuntan a siete distintas como son series de televisión, experiencias de realidad aumentada y/o virtual, móviles y videojuegos, licencias, actuaciones en vivo, novelas gráﬁcas y comics, y podcasts. Todos han sido contemplados para todos los públicos. Finalmente, sobresale que uno tiene a España España como productor principal, Biggie and the Magic Bag Biggie the Magic Bag; uno más cuenta con España España y Portugal como coproductores, Twisted Tales Twisted Tales

El primero es un proyecto de serie en desarrollo, concebido para para preescolares y con opciones de extensión en licensing, juegos móviles y contenido digital. La autoría del trabajo original corresponde a Anton Ten y el guion a Iordan Kefalidi. Finalmente, el productor principal es Siesta Entertainment Siesta Entertainment, representado por Natalia Hebel.

La historia nos adentrará en un mundo repleto de ruido y distracciones inﬁnitas en el que Biggie ofrece a los niños en edad preescolar una nueva perspectiva. Rodeado de un ambiente vibrante, a veces abrumador, Biggie demuestra que enfrentar desafíos con creatividad, atención plena y un enfoque tranquilo puede ser poderoso y divertido. Biggie and the Magic Bag Biggie inspira a los inspira a los pequeños a abrazar la imaginación, encontrar alegría en los momentos cotidianos y pequeños la imaginación, alegría en los descubrir la magia de reducir la velocidad y jugar con un propósito descubrir la jugar

El segundo es un proyecto de webserie en producción, centrado en temáticas folclóricas y que también apunta a exhibiciones de realidad aumentada y programas educacionales. Es producido por Eslovenia y coproducido por Serbia, Montenegro, Austria, Polonia, Croacia y Bosnia. España y Portugal también fungen como coproductores, representados respectivamente por IAAC – Fab – Fab Lab Lab y Sparkle Animation . Sus autores son Sara Bozanic, Mataje Filipovic-Sandalj, Marko Pejovic, Dalibor Kazija, Matej Koncan y Oleg Morovic, mientras que sus guionistas son Dora Vagic, Boris Bakal, Miroslav Minic y Marko Pejovic.

Twisted Tales Twisted Tales retoma los cuentos de hadas conocidos por todos a través del prisma de retoma los cuentos de hadas conocidos por todos a diferentes estigmas diferentes estigmas en forma de webserie, audiocuentos, libros impresos de realidad aumentada, una exposición de realidad aumentada y un programa educativo para niños, profesores y padres. El universo comunica al público joven que nada puede detenerlos. No importa los obstáculos que enfrenten, pueden afrontarlos y superarlos. Los temas abordados incluyen masculinidad tóxica, aceptación e inconformidad, salud mental, acoso, estatus social y estigma relacionado con la pobreza, cambio climático y el impacto de los desafíos ambientales en las comunidades, guerra, racismo y desafíos de integración.

A continuación te presentamos todos los proyectos que formarán parte de CartoonNext CartoonNext 2025 2025:

Blue Figures (Nathan Otaño, Francia, Canadá)

Charlie against the Metamorphs (Noruega)

Echo Chamber (Juha Fiilin, Jan Andersson, Finlandia, Noruega, Grecia, Chequia, Irlanda)

Khalo, the Zmeyborn (Sava Komitski, Pollyna Vucheva, Peter Atanosov, Alexandra Proynova, Alexander Natchev, Atanas Filipiv, Bulgaria, Grecia)

Ormhildur the Brave (Thorey Mjallhvit, Islandia, Polonia)

Queerstory (Imis Kill, Francia)

La edición 2025 de CartoonNext CartoonNext se celebrará del 23 al 25 de abril 23 al abril en Marsella Marsella Francia Francia

Seguir leyendo

Adéntrate en Maya con el workshop online de Animum

XR is next on the cards for AIdriven content, Cartoon Next delegates hear

CARTOON NEXT: Extended Reality (XR) and location-driven narratives are where AI is heading next in the content space, delegates at Marseille-based animation event Cartoon Next heard on Thursday.

Leading a keynote session on the impact of generative AI tools on storytelling and animation was Japhet Asher, director of cross tech IP creation and consulting company Polarity Reversal.

Discussing how rapidly AI is evolving, Asher pointed to a shift from AI usage in text and video to spatial and location-based content.

“[Software developer and Pokémon Go creator] Niantic has stopped making games and started making world mapping. Apple and Meta are racing to make AR glasses and smart glasses that are world aware. Why are they all doing this? Why does this matter? It’s because AI is shifting from text and video understanding to spatial and contextual understanding,” Asher said.

“What does that mean? Context is already queen but she’s about to get a promotion. Multimodal AI and spatially-aware XR will soon combine, and they’ll deliver amazing personalised location-driven narratives. Gen AI is going to rocket XR to where we all dreamed it would be, so next year I expect we’re all going to be talking about XR.”

On a more basic level, offering advice on how people working in animation should be using AI at this moment in time, Asher urged producers to consider adopting AI tools in the same way they would use VFX.

“It’s unwise for animation studios not to explore these things and understand where the right place is to be in that environment. At the moment, for animation pipelines, it’s about thinking about AI tools as another VFX capability. Don’t think of it as something that is going to take you way off this way or that way. Think of it as ‘how can this make my process better to get my vision on the screen?’” he said.

With multiple different AI tools now available, Asher also advised producers against following a “one ring to rule them all” approach.

“A lot of people make judgments about AI based on having spent some time with ChatGPT. There’s an obsession within big tech for these big models to do everything for everyone and keep people in their ecosystem. But is that the way we can get the most out of AI? It’s important we don’t judge the value of gen AI tools based solely on our experience with chatbots,” he said.

“The really interesting stuff is when you ﬁnd models that are extremely good at one thing and combine them with another model that’s very good at some other thing you need. I really encourage people to explore these kinds of multimodal approaches rather than just going to the ‘one ring to rule them all’ and assessing whether or not you think AI is useful based on that.”

Acknowledging that the industry is “in the midst of a massive epochal shift with what’s happening, not just with gen AI, but machine learning and the role it’s playing in our lives,” Asher raised a question over how we “retain agency over things like storytelling, but also over things like clean energy, protection of data, privacy and a whole lot of things we have to trade off and balance to get this right.”

“We’re in a very thrashy period right now where there’s a new model, a new tool, a new capability every few days,” he said. “But if you don’t want to use AI, don’t use AI. People still get work in the theatre and people pay a premium for it because they ﬁnd it special. It’s never going to take over our brains. It does nothing unless we ask it to.”

Next wave of kids’ IP will come from Roblox, predicts Irish game developer

Karolina

Kaminska 25-04-2025 ©C21Media

CARTOON NEXT: The next wave of kids’ creators and IPs will come from social gaming platform Roblox, according to the 23-year-old CEO of Irish game development studio Bura Games.

Dáire Bohan founded Bura Games in 2021 with Croatian game developer Andrija Ivančan, since when they have developed games for Roblox including Anime Champions Simulator and Anime Training Simulator.

Before founding the company, the pair found success with the launch of games including Pet Heroes and Wizard Simulator. Their games have racked up hundreds of millions of plays in over 100 countries.

Bohan was at Marseille-based animation event Cartoon Next on Friday, where he talked about his path to success and shared his predictions for the future of Roblox and its place in the world of animation. Key among his predictions is that Roblox is where “the next wave of creators and IPs” will come from.

Recognising a similarity between Roblox and YouTube and noting how “YouTube celebrities have taken over everything,” Bohan praised Roblox for its accessibility.

“There’s no barrier to entry. This is where all the new ideas are being tried out. It’s experimental,” he said.

“If you wanted to start building a game and you had no resources – you’re a teenager but you have a dream – where would you start? I know where I would, it’s where I did.

“There are huge brands and IPs being born on Roblox. I would challenge you to go into a toy store where you can’t ﬁnd a toy from some kind of Roblox game. And it’s not just toys; there are visual novels, animated TV shows, Netﬂix documentaries and, yes, a Roblox Happy Meal. That’s the world we live in today. It’s totally taking over.

“This is the platform where the kids are. They’re not on streaming services. They’re on YouTube a bit, but Roblox has the highest engagement – higher than TikTok, higher than YouTube – with over 2.5 hours for the average user per day.”

According to Bohan, Roblox is now starting to attract older users too, as children are tending to stay on the platform as they age rather than migrating elsewhere. Therefore, the exec also predicts the age of the average Roblox player will be about ﬁve years older than the current average in ﬁve years’ time.

“We’re going to see much more demand for more mature, complex games, which are technically possible, but albeit not as successful nowadays as the kids’ stuff. And [the players are] going to have more money to spend when they’re getting their ﬁrst jobs, so I think we’ll see huge growth on the platform in that area,” he said.

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Dáire Bohan (left) and Jerome Mazandarani at Cartoon Next

THE DREN'S

yes, a Roblox Happy Meal. That’s the world we live in today. It’s totally taking over.

“This is the platform where the kids are. They’re not on streaming services. They’re on YouTube a bit, but Roblox has the highest engagement – higher than TikTok, higher than YouTube – with over 2.5 hours for the average user per day.”

According to Bohan, Roblox is now starting to attract older users too, as children are tending to stay on the platform as they age rather than migrating elsewhere. Therefore, the exec also predicts the age of the average Roblox player will be about ﬁve years older than the current average in ﬁve years’ time.

“We’re going to see much more demand for more mature, complex games, which are technically possible, but albeit not as successful nowadays as the kids’ stuff. And [the players are] going to have more money to spend when they’re getting their ﬁrst jobs, so I think we’ll see huge growth on the platform in that area,” he said.

“I also think more and more real-life events are going to integrate with and take place on Roblox. We’ve already seen virtual concerts and movie screenings [on the platform], but did you know you can order clothes to your front door from Roblox virtual fashion stores? Or that you could order [Mexican food outlet] Chipotle’s burritos from their immersive experience?

“Roblox and UGC [user-generated content] are huge and they’re only getting bigger. I think it’s a huge opportunity, not just for established brands to come onto Roblox, but also to experiment and build new IPs and brands on the platform. You don’t want to be the last company on radio after everyone else has already moved to TV.”

Speaking alongside Bohan was independent animation consultant Jerome Mazandarani, who said the accessibility of platforms like Roblox means content creators should no longer have to rely on the backing of a big studio or spending lots of money in order to create new IP.

“There is a democratisation of how and where you can go to start the story and build the audience. It shouldn’t always be about you having to go to Annecy [International Animation Film Festival] every year at great expense, hoping you get a meeting with a commissioner or someone with inﬂuence within one of these large gatekeeper organisations. The most important thing is you need to build and develop an audience for your story. Do not expect Netﬂix or Disney or Warner Bros to do that for you,” he said.

Bohan added: “There’s always going to be a place for big-budget productions [with the likes of the big studios], and I think using strategies that involve UGC and massmarket reach with very low risk and cost are going to become part of it.

“But it’s also about the fact you can actually go toe-to-toe with these big guys and you can have huge success as a small team. It is totally democratised and it’s getting more and more of a level playing ﬁeld every day. There will always be space for big players, but there’s way more space for small players as well.”

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BBC picks up ZDF’s Minecraftinspired Little Red Riding Hood animated ﬁlm

CARTOON NEXT: UK pubcaster the BBC has picked up German pubcaster ZDF’s Minecraft-inspired Little Red Riding Hood ﬁlm Herr Bergmanns Rotkäppchen (Mr Bergmann’s Little Red Riding Hood).

ZDF partnered with YouTuber Herr Bergmann on the 27minute German-language ﬁlm, which was created by Bergmann, who makes short ﬁlms for social gaming platform Minecraft.

Produced in an animation style similar to that of Minecraft, the ﬁlm reimagines the classic fairytale for a modern audience but is aimed at older children and teenagers. It aired on digital channel ZDFneo last year and is available on ZDF’s streaming service, but is not available on YouTube, with ZDF maintaining the rights.

Michael Stumpf, head of ZDF’s children and youth department, presented a case study on the ﬁlm at Marseille-based animation event Cartoon Next on Thursday, where he revealed that the BBC has picked it up and will dub it into English.

According to Stumpf, ZDF decided to embark on the project in response to declining linear viewership and the increasing amount of time spent by children on social gaming platforms like Minecraft, although he acknowledged that linear viewing in Germany is still strong when compared to other European markets.

“Minecraft is the leading game [among 12-to 15-year-olds in Germany], so it is natural that we as a public broadcaster want to target kids that are gamers, that play Minecraft,” Stumpf said.

Karolina Kaminska 25-04-2025 ©C21Media

Rai, YLE and TV3 board Finnish adult animated sitcom copro Belzebubs

Animated ‘family sitcom with a satanic twist’ Belzebubs

European broadcasters Rai in Italy, YLE in Finland and TV3 in Catalonia have boarded an adult animated series adapted from Finnish comic book artist JP Ahonen’s webcomic Belzebubs.

Coproduced by Italy’s Movimenti Production, Finland’s Pyjama Films and Barcelonabased Mago Production, the 13×22’ series is described as a “family sitcom with a satanic twist.”

Aimed at a 16-plus audience, Belzebubs follows the antics of a husband and stay-athome dad as he tries to balance family life with being the frontman of a black metal band.

The band also exists in real life as a virtual group, of which JP Ahonen is the songwriter. The identities of the band members behind the animated characters are kept secret.

The series is directed by Samppa Kukkonen and is currently in production. It will premiere on Rai and YLE in the second half of 2026 and on TV3 in 2027. Movimenti’s chief operating officer, Cristiana Buzzelli, presented the series during a session on webtoons at Marseille-based animation event Cartoon Next last week.

RADIO RELEASES

To download the Ici Provence Podcast about CartoonNext, click here: https://www.dropbox.com/t/awDOsFTuUHAaGFTq

INSTITUTIONS & ASSOCIATIONS

SOCIAL MEDIA VISIBILITY

LinkedIn

SOCIAL MEDIA VISIBILITY

LIST OF MEDIAS

PRESS ARTICLES

* Écran Total – FR

* The European Animation Journal – EU

* Generalitat de Catalunya – ES

* Radix – ES

* The Children Media Conference – UK

* La Marseillaise – FR

* La Provence – FR

* Le Jour et la Nuit – FR

* C21 Media – UK

* Les Nouvelles Publications – FR

* Gomet’ Premium – FR

* Cineuropa – BE

RADIO RELEASES

* Ici Provence – FR

INSTITUTIONS & ASSOCIATIONS

* Kreativ Europa MEDIA (Hungary) – HU

* Spain Audiovisual Hub – ES

* Creative Europe Desk (Slovakia) – SK

* Magelis – FR

NEWSLETTER

* Magelis – FR

SOCIAL MEDIA VISIBILITY

* Creative Europe Desks Deutschland – DE

* Kreativni Evropa MEDIA (Czech Republic) – CZ

* SudAnim – FR

* Spain Audiovisual Hub – ES

* Oficina MEDIA España – ES

* Hauteville Productions – FR

* Kelly Vero – CH

* Anton Ten – US

* The European Animation Journal – EU

* Des Gayle – FR

* Liliane Tremblay – FR

* Chase a Cloud – BG

* Marc Rius – FR

* Rikke Flodin – DK

* TNZPV Productions & Studio – FR

* Résidence Do Not Disturb – FR

* Thomas Bedenk – DE

* École de Condé – FR

* Thomas Demachy – FR

* Ariane Gantou de Masitre – FR

* Aurélie Taieb-Ortsman – FR

* Movimenti Productions – IT

* Vratislav Slajer – CZ

* Barbara H. Schmitt – DE

* École MOPA – FR

* Jerome Mazandarani – UK

* John Lomas-Billivant – UK

* Noé Doulière – FR

* World Trade Center Marseille Provence – FR

* Anna Shchur – ES

* Christophe Robert – FR

* Coline Lacire – FR

* DeAPlaneta Entertainment – ES

* Japhet Asher – UK

* Charlotte Monsarrat – FR

* Mirko Goran Marijanac – IT

* Fanny Heinonen – FR

* Ana Ivanovic – ME

* Chase a Cloud – BG

* Les Femmes S’Animent – FR

* Dilara Gurcu – FR

X (Twitter)

* Oficina MEDIA España – ES

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