CANNES: Five Malaysian animation studios signed memorandum of agreements (MoA) with their respective international counterparts at the annual International Market of Communications Programmes (MIPCOM) 2015 on Tuesday.
The signing, which was witnessed by Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Jailani Johari, took place during the Creative Malaysia Networking Reception held at the Malaysian Pavilion here at Palais des Festival.
One of the Malaysian studios, the award-winning Lil' Critter Workshop, will be working with South Korea's top animation studio Grafizix Co. Ltd. to co-produce the latter's latest production FrienZoo, a 78-episode 2D cut-out animation comedy.
The collaborative project will begin production by December this year, and the series is set to air on South Korea's Education Broadcasting System (EBS) in late 2016.
Lil' Critter Workshop managing director Walid Omar said, "We are excited to be working with Grafizix and their unique award-winning intellectual property, FrienZoo."
He added that this collaboration enables both companies from different countries to exchange ideas and skills, which will ultimately contribute to their respective creative industries.
Recently in July at the Seoul Promotion Plan 2015, Lil' Critter Workshop won the Best Planning Award for its animation Hogie The Globehopper, while Grafizix Co. Ltd. won Best Creativity Award for FrienZoo.
Grafizix Co. Ltd. international marketing and business head Park Eunee said: "This is our first collaboration with a Malaysian animation studio and we have to say that Lil' Critter Workshop is the best choice as their work resonates with ours and they have the potential to go global.
"Malaysian animation has grown tremendously in terms of market size compared to a few years ago and the technology has improved significantly.
"Thus, we hope this collaboration will set the pace for our animation to be successfully completed and distributed worldwide," said Park.
Walid added: "We would like to thank Grafizix for this amazing opportunity, as well as the Malaysian government bodies such as Finas (National Film Development Corporation), MDeC (Multimedia Development Corp) and MyCreative Ventures for supporting us.
"This is a testament of Malaysia's ability to provide international-quality animation and work," he said.
The other Malaysian animation companies who signed their respective MoAs are Animasia Productions Sdn Bhd with Zodiak Kids (France), Funcel Sdn Bhd with Semerkand Radyo Ve TV (Turkey), Giggle Garage Animations with Funny Flex (South Korea) and Frogtale Studio Sdn Bhd with Kartonrobot Animation Studio (Turkey).