Cartoon Springboard has unspooled once again in Madrid between 29 and 31 October. On this occasion, 22 projects were pitched by emerging European animation talents and assessed by the experts in attendance. Cineuropa takes a closer look at six of these new series and features in development.

Maxivilian’s Great Show – Yagiz Tunceli, Serena Moka (Italy)
Penny is a little girl with a big dream: becoming famous! Her story is set in the not-too-distant past, where everything feels old-timey, familiar but not quite. She stumbles upon a magical circus-world, populated by performers who, like her, are driven by ambitions of fame. There, she befriends Trumpet and Gismo, two sweet but unlucky clowns who assist her in navigating this foreign place, led by her reckless curiosity and zeal. However, making it big proves easier said than done, as our characters have to deal with the many hurdles of showbiz, plus menacing rivals like mobster mimes, snotty magicians, and the all-powerful Ringmistress. This is the synopsis of the 52x15 series project, aimed at a 6 to 9-year-old audience and made by the duo Yagiz Tunceli and Serena Moka, both based in Italy.

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"With the advice of producers we’ve contacted, we’ve come broadly to an estimated cost of €17,000 per episode with a runtime of 15 minutes, around €3 million for the 2 seasons of 52 episodes. For the timeline, we’re looking at a year or two to get our first pilot if things go well at Springboard and other future events,” Tunceli and Moka told us.

Painting Illusions – Carles Abad (Spain)
The feature, now in early development, promises to be "the world’s first animated feature film to use exclusively portraits and landscape paintings from museums to build its plot." It is an animated and live-action film in which Isabel, an orphan and fictional girl, lives under the protection of the King. When she discovers that her family and home lie beyond the borders of the Palace, she decides to escape and sets out on a quest to find her father. PI Art Produccions is producing it. The tentative budget is €5 million, with delivery slated for 2029. The project, aimed at a family audience, received a €32,000 grant from the Institu Valencià de Cultura. "We hope to find a production partner with more experience in animation and, hopefully, secure a studio that would like to join this project," the team told Cineuropa.

The Archives – Colin Lagarde (France)
This project, aimed at an audience of teens and young adults, follows a high-school girl who, while searching for her missing figurine, finds herself hired as an intern in a section of the Archives—a vast, seemingly disorganised place with no clear boundaries. This is where everything ever lost ends up, from objects to people themselves. When someone misplaces a possession and begins searching for it, they are drawn back to this mysterious realm, where archivists guide them to the object of their quest. These items are often tied to memories, cherished stories, or unresolved issues. Once the characters reclaim their object, they return to where they left off, with time frozen in their absence and no memory of their journey through the Archives. 

"We’re a group of five friends. We shared three study years in Marseille. […] We presented our project at Cartoon Next last year, and we’re very happy to present it again here. We expect to meet people, to have great discussions about our project with students and professionals alike, and to get advice and help for its development," Lagarde said.

Atomic – Iva Zahova, Kalina Aleksandrova (Bulgaria)
Directed by Zahova and co-directed by Aleksandrova (both Falmouth University graduates), this 12x22, teen-orientated series follows a teenage girl named Willow who wants to help her overworked engineer-hero father by taking over his heroic duties of protecting the city. With the help of her friends, Willow must defend the Eastern European-inspired Hope City from mutants, robots and aliens, all while uncovering secrets from her father’s past, learning about science and surviving everyday teenage life.

To date, the project has a complete pitch bible and a trailer.

"Art and science are both lifelong passions of mine and I’ve always wanted to make an action show that can inspire viewers to learn about the technology that fuels our daily lives. As someone from Eastern Europe, I’ve also always wanted to see my experiences and culture represented in modern series animation," added Zahova.

Prism, Search for the Sea – Nora Al-Shamery (Germany)
This 2D animated fantasy, adventure and musical 10x22 series centres on Prism, an orphan raised by the Devil of the North Sea, Davy Jones, who seeks to flood the world and rule an endless ocean. Trained in isolation to be his successor, Prism rebels, feeling trapped by his plans for her. Determined to break free, she steals his magic bottle, a powerful object that controls the North Sea's waters, and uses it to trap the sea, barring Jones from his domain. However, this act curses Prism, turning her body into glass. She escapes to Rough Riff Cliff, where she begins her journey to lift the curse and thwart her father’s ambitions. The project in development aims to reach an audience aged 12-15. 

Al-Shamery told Cineuropa: "I’m looking forward to meeting all the talented artists and hearing about the new ideas everyone has been cooking up. Cartoon Springboard is a great event to find like-minded people who love to create and tell unique stories. I’ll be looking for a production company interested in developing my own project further."

Quest Chefs - Nabil Afnan-Samandari (Germany)
Quest Chefs is a 2D TV series aimed at 10-14-year-old viewers. In the world of Culina, all foods are monsters, such fire-breathing chillies and flying apples that bite! That's why people rely on the service of legendary heroes known as Quest Chefs – and nobody wants to be a hero more than 12-year-old Crouton. She's looked up to these knights her whole life, and now, she wants to be just like them. But when she trains under Rosbif, her village's grumpy defender, she finds that her heroes are very different from what she expected. Quest Chefs is a show about learning that to be great, you can't just be like the people you look up to... You have to be like yourself!

The project in development is seeking funding, producers and studios, with a budget for the pilot episode estimated at around €130,000. "It’s my goal to create stories that meld action, comedy and heart to create something truly unique and fun. We’re hoping for the project to gain the attention of production studios at Cartoon Springboard, so that we can get closer to pitching the show to networks and start creating a pilot. I’ve already begun making an animated trailer with the generous help of my friends, and will be showing the work-in-progress edit of that here at Cartoon Springboard," said Afnan-Samandari.