Cyber Group Studios Makes Splash in Biarritz With Animated Fare

Coming off a yr of main worldwide progress, Paris-based animation large Cyber Group Studios is presenting a wide-ranging lineup of latest and returning reveals at this yr’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous within the French seaside city of Biarritz.

Amongst Cyber Group’s present high-profile titles is the brand new super-powered child comedy collection “50/50 Heroes,” which has bought to ITV within the U.Ok. and Discovery in Latin America. Commissioned by France Televisions and Disney, “50/50 Heroes” follows the excessive jinks of Mo and Sam, a half-brother and sister duo, aged 11 and 9, who share tremendous powers.

Cyber Group has been increasing its international operations over the previous yr with quite a lot of main acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures which have resulted in quite a lot of new initiatives.

The corporate has acquired majority stakes in main U.Ok. animation studio A Productions, Italian firm Graphilm Leisure and Scrawl Animation in Singapore.

The A Productions partnership has led to Cyber Group’s first fee from the BBC for the studios’ first collectively produced collection, “Digital Woman,” which has additionally bought to Tremendous RTL in Germany and Discovery Latin America.

Cyber Group’s acquisition in Singapore, in the meantime, is seen as a strategic enlargement into an important area.

“It’s an enormous hub for us,” Raphaëlle Mathieu, Cyber Group’s government vp, advised Selection. “Asia is important. We now have labored very properly with China and we need to be even nearer to the territory and carry on working properly with CCTV.”

CCTV has acquired all three seasons of Cyber Group’s flagship preschool collection “Gigantosaurus” in addition to “Taffy,” a co-production with Turner and France TV a few scraggly raccoon who, pretending to be a cat, weasels his means into the house of a rich woman and her ever suspicious Dobermann.

The corporate additionally counts Japan’s NHK, which likewise picked up “Gigantosaurus,” as a key consumer.

“Our presence in Asia is known as a subsequent massive step for us. That features working with all of the completely different potential native incentives and native expertise. It’s actually discovering each the nice expertise and extra financing assets.”

Cyber Group has additionally teamed up with Japan’s Nippon Animation on the function movie undertaking “Nanami and the Quest for Atlantis,” primarily based on the traditional Japanese TV collection “Tico and Mates.”

“For us it’s actually one thing essential as a result of it will likely be our first collaboration with Nippon Animation,” mentioned Mathieu.

The brand new collaboration “marks the start of what’s anticipated to be a long-term collaboration between the brand new co-production companions, which can embrace a number of of Nippon Animation’s traditional collection in addition to new properties and initiatives,” Cyber Group said.

The corporate has likewise partnered with Los Angeles kids’s leisure studio Splash Entertainment to kind CyberSplash, a brand new Paris-based firm that can create and produce unique animated collection and have movies.

The primary undertaking out of the three way partnership is “Household Rocks,” a preschool collection concerning the first fashionable household of the Stone Age. The digital cutout present, a co-production with Paramount’s Ananey Studios in Israel, is about to premiere in 2024.

Along with Season 3 of “Gigantosaurus,” Cyber Group can also be touting Season 2 of “Droners” in Biarritz. A high-tech journey collection aimed toward older youngsters, “Droners” is about on Terraqua, a world coated 95% by water, the place a workforce of younger drone pilots participate in a contest that would assist them save their island from sinking into the ocean.

“Droners” proved successful for French broadcaster TF1, main it and Germany’s WDR to shortly greenlight Season 2, Mathieu famous. The present has additionally gone to Disney for a second window in France in addition to to JTV in South Korea.

“What we attempt to do is absolutely to have essentially the most numerous sort of supply potential,” Mathieu added. “That’s actually necessary. We need to speak to as many purchasers as potential.”