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The CEE Animation Industry Is Uniting into a Single Market
This year the European Commission developed an Animation Plan, which aims to invigorate the animation industry in the entire EU. The Central and Eastern European region contains great potential that has yet to be tapped. A new initiative titled the CEE Animation Workshop is striving to capture this potential by bringing together independent animated film producers from a total of eighteen countries and showing producers from the CEE region the latest international animation industry trends. The event will be held from 2 to 6 December, 2017 in Ljubljana.
The initial idea to connect independent animated film producers from the CEE region (Central and Eastern Europe) emerged in autumn 2016. The need for joint events and more intensive collaboration is the motto of the Visegrad Animation Forum, an international platform that has been connecting producers for the past several years. The primary aim of this initiative is to help grow the industry and lay the groundwork to enable development of successful co-productions which will be competitive internationally. The idea to organize this one-off event, which would welcome producers from over half of the countries in Europe and set a firm foundation for future collaboration, was immediately accepted by Creative Europe Desk (CED) representatives. The engagement of a total of nineteen national Creative Europe Desks – MEDIA offices (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Georgia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine) is a huge benefit. “We are convinced that through better use of the potential for collaboration between producers in our region, our applicants will be more successful in Creative Europe MEDIA EU programme. That is one of the reasons why so many Creative Europe – MEDIA Desks are taking part in the project,” saysSabina Briški Karlić, the head of the Slovenian CED, adding: “Our mission is not only to put collaborative efforts for the workshop to happen. We are above all working together to identify issues in each of the countries that are part of the CEE Animation Workshop to be able to reach expected workshop outcomes and promote its results at the very moment of European strategy for animation sector being set.”
An important part of the Ljubljana workshop will be a panel discussion on co-production conditions in Central and Eastern Europe. The meeting will be attended by over thirty film professionals who will try to formulate a joint statement to cinematographic funds and representatives of TV broadcasters calling for greater support of the animation industry. This document, titled the Ljubljana Accord will include a description of the specific conditions for production of animated works in the CEE region and draft improvement strategies aimed at developing a competitive animated film industry – both nationally and internationally.
Press realease for download here.