For its tenth-anniversary edition, Young Horizons Industry (YHI) put together a Spotlight on Polish Animation intended as a prelude to the 80th anniversary of Polish animation coming up next year, eight decades after Zenon Wasilewski's puppet animation Za króla Krakusa, made after World War II as a state-funded animation industry started blossoming. The idea behind this programme co-organised by Polish Animations and the SPPA, and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, is “to present our talents and studios, and bring international experts along so they can exchange with them”, as Anna E Dziedzic, head of YHI, stated in her introductory speech.

A lot has been accomplished, explained producer Robert Jaszczurowski (GS Animation/Grupa Smacznego, former chairman of the SPPA), especially after the previous system collapsed and Polish animation started making a comeback in the noughties with original programmes such as his own Mami Fatale. “After 25 years, we have reached a point where our industry has grown and we can deliver equal quality compared to other European countries.”

Given that the challenges faced by Polish creators of animation for young audiences are very much the same as those tackled in the YHI keynote presentation on the fragmented ecosystem they are dealing with, and the panel on building IPs that followed, a talk titled “Navigating the Distribution Maze” was organised as part of the spotlight to address the major shift that has affected producers’ work. Now, with multiple formats in play, they need a clear distribution strategy, and in most cases, they need to start getting in touch with their audiences and campaigning just to strengthen their position in the eyes of potential partners and distributors. There is increasing pressure on them to have something to leverage in advance (and ideally to partially finance their content) and a variety of paths to achieve it – digital first, using cross-media outlets, going 360° – which can be tricky to navigate for a producer, not to mention the fact that they effectively require a whole new set of skills.

During the panel, Jaszczurowski recounted his experience with the pre-school animated series Basia, based on best-selling books, which did not have the expected “super-classic distribution”. As broadcasters asked for a lot more episodes than his studio could finance in Poland, he followed the suggestion of Maciej Jakubczyk (formerly YHI, now New Horizons Association) and screened the first episodes of the show in cinemas. “It was a total game changer,” said the producer. Not only did it allow the team to test and adjust the content, but it also “shortened the period of time between production and delivery. And we are still doing that.” Now, Netflix and Canal+ have picked it up, a second season is in production, diversification aimed at different target audiences is happening, and there might be spinoffs on the horizon, following the growth of the original fan base.

In Poland, creating this additional window by releasing compilations of episodes in theatres before airing them on TV has really helped producers. Basia was a known IP based on books (optioning books and working with famous IPs remains the preferred option, as explored at YHI through the session “IP to Screen: Books and Games Pitching”), but in the case of new IPs built as digital first and 360°, or based on existing brands such as toys, an additional problem is that it can become difficult to access public funding.

Moderator Zofia Ścisłowska (Laniakea Pictures) experienced this firsthand as the creative producer of the 360° digital-first brand “Cloudy & Stormy”, the first Polish kawaii IP, which was at the centre of a captivating case study organised within the Producers LINK side programme. The characters – two cute, fluffy and clumsy Pomeranians with clear cross-media potential – were created based on real-life dogs coming from a popular lifestyle YouTube channel, launched and tested there through short episodes and developed further. They became a series of narrative books, colouring books, games (both board and video), influencer-promoted snacks and ice creams, apparel and accessories, stationery, and real-life mascots. Many partnerships and collaborations later, whilst being considered “too commercial” for public financing, six episodes intended for broadcasting were able to be financed and made, which will be released theatrically in December (with a second set of episodes coming up next year).

It certainly takes courage and a great deal of work to create original content, but not everyone gets discouraged. There is “excitement to doing something new”, says Jaszczurowski, who is working on an entirely new IP (which may be more open to other outlets, too): Endover Groove, a 26x7-minute animated series for young teenagers about kids who want to start a band. It was presented within the Spotlight on Polish Animation amongst other upcoming projects illustrating the vitality of the national sector, also including the animated film Kitty the Great (Animoon), meant for pre-schoolers, which takes on the challenge of dealing with themes such as migration, war and trauma; the paper-based stop-motion short-format series Lemon & Berry (produced by Likaon, in co-production with GS Animation and French outfit Foliascope); the 52x7-minute series Freddie Little Chopin (Letko), introducing children aged three to five to music; and the 52x7-minute TV series Paddy (EGoFILM), based on the best-selling Pucio books and showing the world through the eyes of a child, which is “the first project in Poland with exercises to support speech development through interactive elements with a unique visual style”.