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Running Sept. 18 – 21, this year’s fully in-person Cartoon Forum co-production pitch session will build on pre-pandemic attendance numbers, welcoming 290 buyers, among them nearly two dozen first-time participants, while introducing new players into the mix.

Alongside the commissioners, producers, and broadcasters that have made up Cartoon Forum’s traditional base, this year’s bustling edition will host a growing delegation of publishers hungry for fecund I.P. and niche streamers filling in the gaps left by Amazon and Netflix, who will not make the trip to Toulouse in France.

“We’re opening up to a new generation,” says Cartoon Media director Annick Maes. “We’ll have [more than] 20 companies that have never attended Cartoon before, which should make for a very interesting event. How will they pitch? What will they produce? What will they bring [to the mix]?”

Among those new to the mix is Ubisoft Film and Television, a subsidiary of the video game powerhouse...

Nicolas Duvauchelle and Marilyn Lima topline this feature being staged by Overdrive and Entre Chien et Loup, the international sales of which are managed by Kinology. The first clapperboard will slam in Macedonia on 29 August for A Mermaid in Paris, the debut feature-length fiction film by Mathias Malzieu, who was nominated for the César Award for Best Animated Film in 2015 for Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart. The filmmaker, who is also a writer and the lead singer of the group Dionysos, will boast a cast that includes Nicolas Duvauchelle (nominated for the César and Lumières Awards for Best Actor in 2017 for A Decent Man, nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2012 for Poliss, due to grace screens this summer in Persona non grata...

Berlinale adds 17 features to the Generation programme, aimed at children and youths, including the European premiere of a feature co-directed by Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement.

A total of 60 short and full-length films from 35 countries have been selected for the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions at the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16). They include five long and nine short animated films.

Section head Maryanne Redpath said: “This diversity transcends all limits, in content, imagery, narrative structure and rhythm. Each of these animated gems creates its own universe and is a fantastic cinematic adventure, not just for children.”

The selection includes What We Do in the Shadows, a mockumentary that follows the struggles of a group of New Zealand–based vampires to understand modern society and adapt to the ever-changing world around them. The ensemble includes Flights of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, who co-directs alongside Taika Waititi.

This year, Generation will be...

Former Oscar winner Mike van Diem’s The Surprise and BBC backed series The White Queen [pictured] are among the recipients in the first funding round from the new Screen Flanders economic fund.

A total amount of €4,995,000 ($6,678,685) is to be distributed in the fund’s inaugural call.

The next call for projects closes on 28 June. The final call for 2013 opens from Sept 1 and closes on Oct 25. Another €5 million will be divided among applicants in both remaining calls.

Sitting alongside the Belgian Tax Shelter, the new fund is bound to boost the region’s appeal for coproduction and inward investment yet further. The aim of the selective system is to support (co-) productions that are made, in part or entirely, in the Flanders region. One of the conditions is that the project spends a minimum of €250,000 ($334,205) in the region. The 20 supported titles together stand for well over €20 million ($26,7m)of audiovisual expenses in the Flanders region.

The Screen...