The 11th edition of Cartoon Springboard, the pitching event for young animation talent, has selected the 22 projects heading to this year’s event, and a few have well-known kids studios attached. 

The event, which is hosted by CARTOON, the org behind Cartoon Forum, aims to connect the European animation industry with up-and-coming creatives. The Madrid pitchfest takes place October 28 to 30.

Ireland’s JAM Media is one of the companies on board, with Fished and Found (pictured). This 52 x 11, 2D-animated comedy is about a pair of fish detectives who run a lost-and-found agency, where they seek out everything from a missing umbrella to a person’s lost confidence. Creator Marie Kishchuk won The Big Pitcher award at Ireland’s Animation Dingle Awards with this concept back in March. The prize for that victory was an internship with JAM and the chance to pitch at Springboard. 

Another project that’s got a studio behind it already is Marmots. France’s Werlen Ipsum, which was just at Cartoon Forum with the YA series Funestopole Circus, is behind the CG-animated series for five- to six-year-olds. In the project from young director Alexandre Perrière, two marmots (similar to groundhogs) living at a ski resort try to take care of their almost 200 excitable children. This dialogue-free concept promises plenty of slapstick humour in its 52 x seven-minute episodes. 

On the 28th, the event will host a job fair for local studios to network with up-and-coming animators. The event is also running one-on-one meetings for the first time on the 29th, to connect young creatives with industry professionals. 

Since launching in 2015, 18 of the 258 projects that have presented at Cartoon Springboard have been completed, and more than 90 of the projects are in development now. A project from the event typically gets to pitch at Cartoon Forum as well, helping it get in front of buyers across Europe.

This year’s 22 projects come from 11 European countries. Six are from France, four are from Spain, three are from Italy and two are from Germany. Greece, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine are all bringing one. The majority of the projects are aimed at kids and family audiences (preschool and kids and family categories make up 55% of the projects), while 36% are for YA and adult audiences and 9% are aimed at teens. 

See a full list of the selected projects here.