22/02/2016 - Rémi Chayé, Jan Bultheel, and the trio consisting of Michael Ekblad, Ted Sieger and Matthias Bruhn will duke it out for the Best European Animation Director of the Year Award

The nominations for the Cartoon Movie Tributes, which reward a leading individual or company that has had a dynamic and positive influence on the European animated feature-film industry, have been revealed. The names of the winners will be announced on 4 March in Lyon at the 18th edition of Cartoon Movie (2-4 March 2016), the co-production forum for European animated features.

Featuring in the Best European Director of the Year category are France’s Rémi Chayé (for Long Way North [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – winner of the Audience Award at Annecy in 2015 and the Young Audience Award at Anima in 2016 – released in France on 27 January), Belgium’s Jan Bultheel (for Cafard [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and its revolutionary motion capture system), and the trio comprising Michael Ekblad, Ted Sieger and Matthias Bruhn for the German production Ted Sieger’s Molly Monster – The Movie [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which has just had its world premiere in the Generation Kplus section of the 2016 Berlin Film Festival.

The nominees for the Cartoon Movie Tribute for European Producer of the Year are French outfit Ankama Animations (which hails from the video-game world, has just made a splash with its first cinematic effort, the feature debut Dofus – Book 1: Julith [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and is preparing Mutafukaz), Italy’s MAD Entertainment (The Art of Happiness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alessandro Rak
film profile], Cinderella the Cat and imminently A Skeleton Story) and a four-company partnership (involving Germany’s Ulysses Filmproduktion, Luxembourg’s Fabrique d'images, Belgium’s Grid Animation and Ireland’s Moetion Films) for Ooops! Noah Is Gone...

Lastly, the Best European Distributor of the Year Award will pit Paris-based firm La Belle Company (which made Maya the Bee Movie [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a smash hit in French theatres last year, and is a partner on Loving Vincent, a project in production) against Turkey’s Bir Film and Denmark’s SF Film.

(Translated from French)