On Wednesday afternoon, Marc Vandeweyer of CARTOON in Belgium welcomed delegates to the 3-day Cartoon Digital event at the Double Tree by Hilton in Luxembourg-Dommeldange and introduced it as one of eight events being held this year by the organisers.
Around one hundred or so people comprised the international audience from neighbouring coutries and some from further afield including the US and Finland.
He stated that Luxembourg is becoming an important co-production partner in the animation industry in Europe, which can be seen by the quality of the work produced in the Grand Duchy, highlighting the Oscar-winning Mr Hublot. He thanked Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, for addressing the conference which is devoted to the latest developments in digital animation and entertainment.
Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister as well as Minister for Media and Communications, explained that it important to go ahead and not wait until people ask for something, but to go ahead and others will adopt what you develop. He admitted he is a fan of cartoons and cartoon figures, and said that we are living in a society where bridges are important. He said that it is also important for designers to love what they do as otherwise it would be difficult to achieve. He also referred to Luxembourg not only having animated films short-listed for an Oscar, but also actually winning an Oscar too.
As well as developing environments for logistics and eHealth, the ICT sector is also one being developed in the Grand Duchy. He stated that 2016 will be the 25th anniversary of Film Fund Luxembourg and thanked Guy Daleiden of the film fund for his support and presence at this event. He stressed that he is there for support and help find shared solutions regarding regulation and funding, etc. He then introduced a short film prepared by students from the Luxembourg Animation School, a fitting way to open the conference.
Yolanda Alsonso of CARTOON in Belgium said that the guiding threads for this year's event are how creative and commercial opportunities can be converted to wider opportunites for content owners and animation producers, as well as creating synergies between gaming and animation countries.
The Shift to a New Digital Economy
Moderator John Lomas-Bullivant was suitably impressed and did refer to Luxembourg's Prime Minister taking the time to address this event and admired his enthusiasm for the industry, comparing him to Britain's Prime Minister who "appears to be more interested in bombing Syria".
The panel agreed that children nowadays are not interested in platforms but in being entertained. People spend an average of 15 minutes daily on YouTube; to move forward, the quality needs to be improved. Some YouTube channels are now commissioning content as producers realise that long-form content is key to retaining and growing markets.
Photo by Geoff Thompson (L-R): Yolanda Alsonso; PM Xavier Bettel; Marc Vandeweyer
