07/03/2012 - In Lyon, European co-production forum Cartoon Movie has increased in popularity with about 700 professionals attending.

Opening today with the screening of Wrinkles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ignacio Ferreras
interview: Ignacio Ferreras
film profile] (Arrugas) by the Spaniard Ignacio Ferreras, the 14th edition of Cartoon Movie will for three days bring about 700 animation professionals, of which 190 buyers, together in Lyon for a co-production forum to include 55 projects.

In the finished film section, the event will notably screen four 3D films: Cendrillon (lit. “Cinderella”) by Pascal Herold, Blakie & Kanuto by Francis Nielsen (co-production bringing together France, Spain, Italy, and Belgium), Legends of Valhalla [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Icelandic filmmaker Óskar Jónasson, and the Danish Ronal the Barbarian [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

As for the 11 projects in production, images will notably be screened for The Pirates! Band of Misfits by Peter Lord and Jeff Newitt (an Aardman studios production, in clay and 3D relief), for The Suicide Shop [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Patrice Leconte (read the interview), Le Jour des Corneilles by Jean-Christophe Dessaint (Franco-Luxembourgo-Belgo-Canadian co-production), Approved for Adoption by Jung et Laurent Boileau (article), The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu (led by EuropaCorp), Irish-British film Deep by Shane Acker, or even Niko 2 – Family Affairs (3D) (co-production bringing together Finland, Germany, Denmark, and Ireland). Also worth looking out for will be Phantom Boy, the latest project by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, who were this year nominated for an Oscar with A Cat in Paris [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Among the 18 features currently in development, apart from Animal’z by Enki Bilal (read article), there will be My Family & the Wolf by Victor Maldonado, Adrian Garcia, and Alfredo Torres, Bamboula by Claude Duty, and Over Splodge Hill (3D) by Hungarian filmmaker József Sándor. Film projects targeting an adult audience have also increased in number, and will include the French Young Perez (about the tragic destiny of a young box champion deported to Auschwitz) and Polish-Spanish co-production Another Day of Life by Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow (about the civil war in Angola and child soldiers).

Still at conception stage, those that stand out among 19 selected projects include Apocalypse Pizza Video by Andres Fernandez, Book of Secrets by Iain McCaig (initiated by Sweden and Ireland), Alpha by Edouard Salier (on the birth of the universe), 21Ž2 Bodies by Tatu Pohjavirta (which brings together Finland, Poland, and Croatia), Red Crows by Greek filmmaker Nikos Vergitsis, or even the Belgian Pic Pic André Shoow – The Film by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar.

(Translated from French)