BBC, Bobby Prod, Folivari and Gao Shan Win 2026 Cartoon Tributes
France's Bobby Prod, the BBC, Folivari International and Gao Shan Pictures have won the 2026 Cartoon Tributes in Toulouse.
The winners were unveiled on 17 September as Cartoon Forum closed in the French city, chosen by a vote of attendees at the market, according to Variety.
Cartoon Forum is Europe's annual co-production market for animated series, where producers pitch new ideas to broadcasters and funders looking to back them. The 2026 edition ran from 14 to 17 September. Ten companies from seven countries were in the running for this year's Tributes, according to Animation Magazine.
Bobby Prod took Producer of the Year. The French company presented 'The Broos' at Cartoon Forum in 2024. That project started life on social media before being developed as an animated series in co-production with ARTE and streamed on ARTE France.
The BBC took Broadcaster of the Year. That is the prize for the channel or platform judged to have given the strongest backing to European animation. The British public broadcaster boarded 'Duck & Frog,' 'Maddie + Triggs,' 'Piggy Builders,' 'Pablo' and 'Dungeons & Kittens' after their Cartoon Forum pitches.
Folivari International took Investor/Distributor of the Year. The category covers companies that put money into cartoons and sell them into other countries and platforms.
This year brought a new fourth prize. The Ecoprod-Cartoon Tribute honours a European animation company or initiative for advancing sustainability. Ecoprod is the French non-profit organisation that supports the audiovisual industry's environmental transition.
Its first winner is Gao Shan Pictures. The company is a Réunion Island-based French 2D and 3D animation studio that works both as a service studio, making animation for other producers, and as a production company on its own projects.
What makes this stand out is the voting. The Tributes are not decided by a jury. They are decided by the producers, broadcasters and investors in the room. A win does not order a new series. But it tells crews and writers where their peers see momentum.
