This year’s Cartoon Movie lineup could feature a lot more beavers and mounties.

As part of a new initiative, the annual pitchfest invited a handful of Canadian studios to submit their animated films for consideration for the first time—and it’s already selected six projects that will be presented to European buyers and distributors at the event.

All six films are in very early stages of development. Half are aimed squarely at kids and families: Marguerite and the Duke (10th Avenue Productions) and The Mountain of Dreams (CarpeDiem Film & TV) and The President’s Daughter (Quarterlife Crisis Productions). And the rest skew a bit older to target teens and young adults: Jane, the Fox and Me (Embuscade Films), Puddle Jumpers (Flying Kraken Creative Studios) and Shanghai Ballade (Lofty Sky Pictures).

A few of the producers behind these projects provided more details to Kidscreen.

• The Mountain of Dreams is a fantasy film about a young girl who enters a dangerous world, and learns lessons about how to fix it that she brings back to the real world. It’s all avout giving kids hope that they can play a role in solving Earth’s ecological problems. CarpeDiem Film & TV has presented at Cartoon Movie as a co-producer before, and its distribution division Pink Parrot Media is handling sales for the film. The script is locked, the studio has started on designs and it’s moving into financing.
• Quarterlife Crisis Productions’ The President’s Daughter is the studio’s first animated feature. It’s a hand-drawn film based on Samia Nkrumah, the real-life daughter of Ghana’s first president, Kwama Nkrumah. When her father is ousted in a coup, Samia has to flee to Egypt while wrestling with the question of whether her father is a hero or a villain. The studio is seeking co-producers, financing and distribution.
• Meanwhile, Puddle Jumpers is a fantasy action-adventure aimed at tween and teen girls about Bryn, a teenager writing a graphic novel about the hero she wishes she was. But when her book ends up unleashing an evil monster, she has to step up to become the hero she always was. Studio Flying Kraken is looking for financing, co-pro opportunities and partnerships, including publishing.

These and the other three projects will be presented at the event—which is to be held from March 3 to 6 in Bordeaux, France—in a showcase called “Québec-Cana­da Land in Europe: A Space for Creation”.

The press release announcing this news alludes to the initiative being replicated at Cartoon Forum in September, but doesn’t offer any details about what that will look like. As of press time, CARTOON (the organizer that runs both events) had not responded to our request for more information on this point.

Canadian funding orgs Telefilm Canada, SODEC and Quebecreatif were instrumental in setting up this initiative with CARTOON to help Canadian producers pitch and engage with European buyers and distributors. CARTOON is positioning it as a way for two challenged markets to come together and form new business connections.

Canada has a long history in animation, and has established itself well in the animated feature film market. Recent co-pros including The Breadwinner (Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg) and Night of the Zoopocalypse (Canada, France, Belgium) have been distributed theatrically in more than 100 countries, according to the release.

Amid the current kids TV commissioning slowdown, many animation studios have pivoted to films to tap into this market’s growing demand for kids & family content, easier access to financing and untapped revenue streams—heightening the importance of events like Cartoon Movie in the industry. Last year’s edition welcomed more than 800 attendees, roughly 250 of which were buyers.

Cartoon Movie 2026 unveiled its full list of projects back in December. Of the 50 that have been selected to present this year, most (29) are aimed at kids and families.

CarpeDiem producer Marie-Claude Beauchamp says this new initiative is a long overdue recognition of Canada’s growing film animation industry and the country’s track record of creating, producing and selling original IPs. “There are determined and resilient Canadian producers who have been fighting for local IPs,” she says. “They have the power and strength to break into the international market.”

Updated 1:54 p.m. ET with quote from Marie-Claude Beauchamp of CarpeDiem, and details on a few of the projects.