Anca Damian, Funan, Buñuel in the CARTOON Tributes Nominees

The Cartoon Movie animated features pitching and co-pro event has announced the finalists for Cartoon Tributes 2019. The awards honor outstanding contribution to the development of European animation over the last year, in the categories of Director, Distributor and Producer of the Year. The nominees will be voted on by the 900 animation professionals attending the 21st edition of Cartoon Movie, being held in Bordeaux, France from March 5-7.

Cartoon Movie is also one of 10 co-production markets around the world partnering with the Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund to present the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award: a cash prize of €20,000 to encourage international co-productions from the initial stages of a project. The eight features in development selected for the event will contend for the prize, with the winner to be announced alongside the Cartoon Tributes on March 7.

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

• Anca Damian (Romania) is nominated for her feature Marona’s Fantastic Tale (in sneak preview at Cartoon Movie 2019 – release date: September 2019 in France). Damian is the most prolific animation director from Romania. She already directed two animation feature films (The Magic Mountain and Crulic: The Path to Beyond – Cristal for Best Feature Film at the 2012 Annecy International Animated Film Festival). Damian will also present The Island, her new project in concept mixing 2D/3D, painting and cut-out.
• Denis Do (France) is nominated for his movie Funan (release date: March 2019 in France). It is at the heart of a dramatic historical event, the Khmer Rouge revolution, that Do set the scene for his first feature film. This work is a perfect example of the ability of animation to capture an adult and historical subject and make it accessible to the greatest number of people. In 2018, the movie won the Cristal for Best Feature Film at Annecy International Animated Film Festival, the Jury Prize & Audience Awards at Animation Is Film, and Best Sound Design & Best Writing at the Emile Awards.
• Anders Matthesen & Thorbjørn Christoffersen (Denmark) are nominated for Checkered Ninja, a 3D movie which is the best-selling animation movie in Denmark ever, since its release on December 25, 2018 (to date: 900,000 tickets sold). In 2019, the feature won the Best Children/Youth Film & Best Adapted Screenplay Awards at Robert Festival, the Best Danish Film at Zulu Awards and is nominated for the Best Film at Bodil Awards.
• Salvador Simó (Spain) for Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (in sneak preview at Cartoon Movie 2019 – release date: June 2019 in France). The movie is based on the 1932 documentary Land without Bread, controversial at its time and now reckoned as one of the greatest films of Luis Buñuel. In 2019, the movie won the Special Jury Prize at Animation Is Film and is nominated for the Best Film Award at Miami Film Festival. Simó is already working on a new animation film: Gabo: Memoirs of a Magic Life.

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles

EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR

• Cinema Public Film (France) is a film distribution company dedicated to art-house cinema for a young audience. Founded in 1989 to defend and develop cultural diversity, the company took an active role in promoting international filmmaking. Some of the titles released by the company are The Three Musketeers, The Wind in the Reeds, Marona’s Fantastic Tale, Pat & Mat, Mimi & Lisa and La Chouette.
• In The Air (Netherlands) distributes youth and family films and TV series in innovative ways. Animation highlights include: Beyond, Beyond, Otto the Rhino, Rabbit School, The Great Bear, the Lotte films, Luis and the Aliens, Long Way North and Solan & Ludvig. This year, the project in development Miss Moxy is presented at Cartoon Movie and will be distributed by In The Air.
• SC Films International (U.K.) is a sales and distribution company behind the international success of animated features such as Yellowbird, White Fang, Ozzy, Pachamama, Dragonkeeper and The Ark at 8.
• Sola Media (Germany) is a worldwide sales agent specializing in high-quality children’s films and family entertainment with a strong focus on animation feature films for the big screen. Recent animation features include Rabbit School, Coconut the Little Dragon, Captain Morten and the Spider Queen, Up & Away, Manou the Swift and Latte and the Magic Waterstone.

EUROPEAN PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

• Folivari / O2B Films / Doghouse Films / Kaïbou Production for Pachamama (France / Luxembourg / Canada). The movie takes the public on an amazing trip through the cultural and artistic splendor of the great pre-Columbian civilisation. It is the first animation film ever made about the conquest of America from the point of view of the natives. The movie mixes digital 2D/3D, stop-motion, puppets & cut-out techniques. Directed by Juan Antin (Mercano the Martian), Pachamama was nominated for the Best Animated Feature César Award 2019.
• Les Films d’Ici / BAC Cinéma / Lunanime / ithinkasia for Funan (France / Luxembourg / Belgium / Cambodja), a story about the survival and the struggle of a young Cambodian woman under the Khmer Rouge regime to reunite with her four-year-old son. In 2018, the movie won the Cristal for Best Feature Film at Annecy, the Jury Prize & Audience Awards at Animation Is Film, and Best Sound Design & Best Writing at the Emile Awards.
• Submarine (Netherlands), as the premier animation studio in the Netherlands, creates compelling and visually-stunning stories for both the big and small screen. Submarine is nominated for six of its current animated feature co-productions: Coppelia (directed by Jeff Tudor, Steven de Beul & Ben Tesseur), Fox & Hare Save the Forest (dir. by Mascha Halberstad), Where Is Anne Frank?(dir. by Ari Folman), Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (dir. by Salvador Simó), My Grandfather Used to Say He Saw Demons (dir. by Nuno Beato) and In the Forest (dir. by Joris Bergmans & Cedric Babouche).
• Ulysses Filmproduktion / A. Film Production / Fabrique d’Images for Luis and the Aliens(Germany / Denmark / Luxembourg) – nominated at the Emile Awards 2018 for Best Character Animation – released in June 2018. It is an animated adventure sold in 150 countries, telling the story of an 11-year-old boy who makes friends with three lovable little aliens.

EURIMAGES CO-PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT AWARD

• Comrades – Blick Productions, Donten & Lacroix Films, Belle Epoque Films (France / Germany / Poland)
• Ghostdance – a_BAHN, Melusine Productions, Terre Innue, URBANIA (Luxembourg / Canada)
• My Grandfather Used to Say He Saw Demons – Sardinha em Lata, Submarine, Basque Film (Portugal / Netherlands / Spain)
• No Dogs or Italians Allowed – Les Films du Tambour de Sole, Vivement Lundi!, FOLIASCOPE, GRAFFITI DOC, NADASDY FILM (France / Italy / Switzerland)
• Of Unwanted Things and People – Maur Film, Artichoke, ZVVIKS, WJTeam/Likaon (Czech Republic / Slovakia / Slovenia / Poland)
• The Secret of Birds – Folimage, Nadasdy Film (France / Switzerland)
• The Infanzie – Offshore, Minimum Fax Media (France / Italy)
• Yuku and the Flower of the Himalayas – La Boite … Productions, Les Films du Nord, Nadasdy Film, Folimage (Belgium / France)

No Dogs Or Italians Allowed

The nominees will be voted on by the 900 animation professionals attending the 21st edition of Cartoon Movie, being held in Bordeaux, France from March 5-7.

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