Enterprise Ireland Toronto brought three high profile members of Canada’s vibrant animation industry to Ireland on August 11th to 13th. VP Development, DHX Media - Stephanie Betts, Director Acquisitions and Business Development, Tricon Films – Ashley Rite and Founder & Partner, Industrial Brothers – Matthew Fernandes travelled to Ireland and met with a wide selection of our finest animation studios including studio tours in Kilkenny and Dublin.
The past few years have seen some great partnerships form between Irish and Canadian studios with projects such as the feature length animation “The Breadwinner” currently in full production. The Breadwinner, a collaboration between Kilkenny based Cartoon Saloon and Toronto live action producer Aircraft Pictures is based on the best selling book by Canadian author Deborah Ellis. It is the story of a young girl living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan who disguises herself as a boy so she can work to feed her family when her father is imprisoned for being an intellectual. Aircraft Pictures acquired the rights to the book intending to make a live action adaptation. However, it soon became apparent that an animated feature was the most suitable for this project. The only problem was their zero experience in animation, which meant they needed an expert partner. The studio reached out to Cartoon Saloon after seeing Tom Moore’s feature length “Secret of Kells”, impressed by the way Cartoon Saloon had managed to make a film which was stylized and artistically compelling yet still accessible to families. An EI funded visit to Ireland in 2013 allowed Aircraft to visit the studios and finalise the deal, worth in excess of €10m.
Co-production arrangements of a similar scale are now in negotiation following the recent Canadian visit, the future of Irish animation is bright.
