European animation feature film projects are always looking for money, so Lyon’s Cartoon Movie co-production forum, now in its 16th year, is a vital way to find backing.

More than 700 participants from 40 countries met in the French city this year aiming to create partnerships and raise funds for European animation productions.

“We looked at the 14 years before Cartoon Movie, and the 14 years since the forum’s creation, and we discovered that feature-length animated film production increased five-fold, a huge jump, and audiences for these films increased by a factor of 10,” said Cartoon Movie’s Director Marc Vandeweyer.

Since 1999, over 215 films pitched at Cartoon Movie, with a total budget of 1.5 billion euros, have secured financing and have been released in the cinema.

These include ‘Minuscule – La vallée des fourmis perdues’, or ‘The Valley of the Lost Ants’.

The movie is a mix of real-life action and animation and had a budget of 10 million euros.

In France it sold over 1. 2 million tickets which is quite successful for a French animated film which was released at the same time as big US blockbusters.

The rights to ‘Minuscule – La vallée des fourmis perdues’ have already been sold around the world.