Cartoon Forum, the European forum for the co-production of animated TV series, unveiled yesterday the list of nominees for the 2023 Cartoon Forum Tributes, which recognize the most outstanding names in European animation this year. DeAPlaneta Entertainment is nominated in the Investor/Distributor of the Year category, along with three other nominees.

These awards will be voted on by the 1,000 professionals attending Cartoon Forum, which will be held in Toulouse from September 18 to 21. The names of the winners in each category will be announced on September 21, at a ceremony held during the event. The press release sent yesterday by the organization stressed that "the diversity of this year's nominees, regarding both their profiles and the countries from which they hail, reflect the forward momentum of the animation industry across the continent."

This nomination is the result of DeAPlaneta Entertainment's continued support of European animation throughout its solid track record. The company, a European leader in the creation and marketing of brands and entertainment content, has been working with the most important companies in the sector on the continent for more than 20 years. DeAPlaneta Entertainment also has a wide territorial presence in Europe, with offices in Spain, Italy, UK, France, Eastern Europe and, recently, Germany.

Since 2000, DeAPlaneta Entertainment has been creating and consolidating strategic agreements with the most important European companies in the entertainment sector, and one of its main objectives is precisely to support European creators, production companies and studios to jointly create brands that can be expanded worldwide. Some of the European productions and brands that stand out in the company's portfolio over the last two decades are classics such as Maya the Bee or Heidi, also in their new CGI versions (co-production projects with Studio 100, from the Netherlands), as well as current global phenomena such as Miraculous Ladybug (Zag Entertainment/ON Kids & Family), IP for which DeAPlaneta Entertainment has been the European licensing agent (Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and countries belonging to the CEE territory, including Poland) since 2016.

Other brands managed, distributed and/or co-produced by the company in recent years include: Gormiti, The Smurfs, That's Joey!, Power Players, Mutant Busters, Vicky the Viking and Pippi Longstocking, among many others. In January 2023, DeAPlaneta Entertainment announced the acquisition of BRB Internacional's catalog, which meant the inclusion in its portfolio of timeless brands such as David the Gnome, Willy Fog or Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, and new IPs such as Bernard. At the end of 2022, the company distributed in Spain Little Nicolas. Happy as Can Be, a French-produced animated feature film directed by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre that won the Best Film Award at the Annecy Film Festival 2022 and earned nominations for the Annie Awards 2023 (Best Independent Animated Film), the César Awards 2023 (Best Animated Film) and the European Film Awards 2023 (Best Animated Film).

Currently, DeAPlaneta has in its portfolio several European brands in different stages of development, among which we highlight:

• Milo: a preschool animated series co-produced with Fourth Wall (UK) whose first season is already broadcasted on four continents and has been dubbed into dozens of languages. Its second season is in production and will be available in the first quarter of 2024.

• Monster Shaker: children's animated series co-produced with GO-N (France), based on the comic books of the same name by Mathilde Domecq and Mr. Tan, whose first season has already been completed.

• Magic Lilly: a new animated series distributed worldwide by DeaPlaneta Entertainment, based on the successful literary and audiovisual saga born in Germany, Lilly The Witch (Hexe Lilli in its original language), which is currently in pre-production in Spain. It is produced by Bwater Animation Studio (Spain), The Magic Lilly Company (Germany), with the participation of VRT (Belgium).

• Karters: an animated series in pre-production that could be defined as a combination of the magic of My Little Pony and the thrilling races of Mario Kart. This co-production is part of a broader strategic agreement recently signed between DeAPlaneta Entertainment and Mediawan Kids & Family (France) to further develop their brands and become their Master Licensing Agent globally.