Cartoon Movie has long been the leading European co-production event for animated features in Europe. During this week’s edition of the two-day gathering, 50 projects from 20 countries were presented by eager producers and directors in front of their peers, as well as investors, distributors, and international sales agents, with more than 250 buyers in attendance.
Moving from one room to another and discovering more than 10 potential features in less than a full day’s work can seem overwhelming to newcomers. But Cartoon Movie also acts as a 48-hour catalyst for the European animation industry and beyond, one of the sparks that helps ignite the animated worlds of tomorrow.
Since its creation in 1999, Cartoon has helped 513 feature films secure financing, with an overall budget of €3.42 billion ($3.7 billion).
From this year’s 50 projects, Cartoon Brew has already profiled a couple with individual features, but we wanted to go beyond the big names and fan favorite studios such as Cartoon Saloon’s upcoming Kindred Spirits and Sacrebleu’s latest space opera Cosmo Princess to highlight five lesser-known yet similarly eye-catching features currently in concept, development, or production. From cynical adult comedy to heartfelt family stories, these projects aim to captivate audiences in the years ahead.
Starseed
Country: Romania, South Africa, France, Belgium & Canada
Producers: Aparte Film, Known Associates Group, Special Touch Studios, Wrong Men, Quetzalcoatl, Yzanakio
Length: 97 minutes
Technique: 3D computer animation
Status: In production
From acclaimed Romanian filmmaker Anca Damian comes a female-driven family adventure with the director’s distinctive touch. Written by Damian with award-winning Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo, Starseed opens in a township facing the drying up of its river. There, three children witness the arrival of a strange visitor who claims to come from the future.
Loveness, a brave albino girl, seizes the opportunity to save the goddess of water, trapped in a knot in time.
Currently in production, Starseed is an ambitious 3D animated feature with a striking visual world. Underwater goddesses and eerie sorcerers populate unusual settings where children navigate using only their innocence and curiosity.
Produced with a €4.8 million budget, the team is still seeking gap financing, as highlighted by co-producer Sébastien Onomo (Special Touch Studios). To finalize the budget, they are looking for additional partners and aim to deliver the film in time for Cannes 2027.
Riamise
Country: Italy, France & Japan
Producers: Ibrido Studio, Something Big, Studio 4°C
Length: 87 minutes
Technique: 2D computer animation
Status: In concept
Indie anime powerhouse Studio 4°C is collaborating with Ibrido Studio, an Italian company making its feature debut with directors Francesco Forti and Hirokazu Kojima.
Forti, presenting alongside his French and Italian producers, introduced the audience to the dry streets of Riamise—a city without water, consumed by drought, crime, and giant reptiles, the last non-human creatures on Earth. Its people survive by earning blue crystals, the only source of sustenance.
While the rich thrive, two clans battle for control of the city. Order collapses when the police commissioner—Jona’s father—is murdered. Returning home, Jona searches for the truth behind his father’s death and the mystery of the crystals. Alongside Kala, a bold girl from the city’s dump, he may uncover a secret that could restore the water supply and change Riamise’s fate forever.
Nearly ten years after Mutafukaz, their first Japan–France collaboration, Studio 4°C returns to a European co-production, and the project already looks visually bold. Blending warm European color palettes with dynamic, anime-inspired camera movement, this teenage-driven adventure could appeal to audiences in both Europe and Japan.
At this early stage, the team is finalizing the first draft of the script and seeking co-producers, investors, and partners.
Once Upon an Egg
Country: Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic
Producers: Keplerfilm, A Private View, Hausboot
Length: 85 minutes
Technique: Stop-motion
Status: In development
From Wander to Wonder Academy Award-nominated director Nina Gantz comes an epic, comedic stop-motion musical about… pigeons.
In Once Upon an Egg, we follow two ordinary gray city pigeons, Molly and Mick, who have struck it lucky with their nest on top of a fries stand in the heart of Amsterdam. One day, everything changes when a cleaning crew washes away their nest—along with their only egg.
Heartbroken, they set off in search of a new home and a renewed sense of purpose. Along the way they befriend a young ring-necked parakeet named Brutti and eventually discover an abandoned egg. While caring for the egg—and for each other—they learn that only by adapting to the changing city can they build a new life and family of their own.
A Dutch-Belgian-Czech production in the early stages of development, Once Upon an Egg promises to be visually appealing for stop-motion fans. Gantz plans to use recycled materials, discarded cloth, wool, and other textiles to craft the pigeons, demonstrating the concept with a sock-turned-pigeon during one of the event’s most entertaining pitches.
The project is backed by an experienced creative team including character designer Félicie Haymoz (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Isle of Dogs), storyboard artist Jay Clarke (Isle of Dogs, Wallace & Gromit), key animator Steve Warne (Pinocchio, Frankenweenie), puppet artists Mackinnon & Saunders (Corpse Bride, Pinocchio), composer Terrence Dunn (Wander to Wonder), and Dutch screenwriter Robert Alberdingk Thijm.
A love letter to pigeons—animals that were once close companions to humans before being dismissed as “sky rats.”
Flick!
Country: France
Producers: Wizz, FOST
Length: 80 minutes
Technique: 2d computer
Status: In development
For their debut feature Flick!, Paris-based 2D/3D graphics studio Wizz teamed up with FOST, the studio behind The Summit of the Gods and Splinter Cell: Deathwatch. The pairing proves fitting for the unusual duo at the center of director Nicolas Pegon’s film.
Joy, born to an American father she never knew and a French mother, has spent her life trapped in a sleepy valley in the Vosges mountains, bored out of her mind. Didier, a fifty-year-old history teacher who shares a house with her, is neither particularly captivating nor captivated by life, often seeming to drift on another plane.
As Joy moves between the local bar and her apartment in a tedious routine, she stumbles upon the body of a dead cowboy. It soon becomes clear that, even if she had nothing to do with the crime, she could easily be accused. So she and Didier decide to hide the body.
That’s when the cowboy’s ghost begins appearing in real life.
Set in a decaying industrial landscape, Flick! recalls the tone of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo, blending quirky characters with a grounded, darkly cynical sense of humor. Featuring actors Mara Taquin and William Lebghil making their animated voice-acting debut, the project positions itself as a distinctive arthouse animated feature that could aim for major festivals such as Berlin, Cannes, or Venice.
With a budget of €6 million, the producers are seeking co-producers, partners, and investors, with a target delivery by the end of 2028.
The Heart of the Djembe
Country: France, Belgium & Ivory Coast
Producers: Cottonwood Media, Booya Studio, Umedia
Length: 80 minutes
Technique: 2D computer animation
Status: In development
With many female directors present this year and gender parity nearly achieved (44.6% female, 54.9% male, 0.5% non-binary), Cartoon Movie continues to highlight female-driven stories and coming-of-age narratives.
Presented by three women, The Heart of the Djembe is one such project.
Eight-year-old Imani lives with her grandmother in the village of Alkeboulane and dreams of playing the djembe, just like her late father and her brother, who continues his legacy. But in Alkeboulane, women are forbidden from touching the instrument, and doing so is believed to invoke a powerful curse.
When a relentless drought strikes, Imani embarks on a perilous journey into the wild to seek Denga, the god of abundance, and uncover the truth hidden deep within the forest.
In this tale of music, magic, and courage—where one girl’s rhythm could change the fate of her world—authors Ani Eliam and Assa Ouattara, along with director Mathieu Vavril, bring together lush forest settings, emotional moments of connection, and a strong sonic dimension that extends beyond the physical world.
With a budget of €5 million and a script expected before the summer, the producers are currently seeking investors and partners, with a planned release around 2029.