France Télévisions, BBC, ZDF Board New CGI Preschool Series
Regulatory News:
Academy Award-nominated French animation studio Xilam Animation (Paris:XIL) has secured a wave of European public broadcast partners for its upcoming CG preschool proprietary series "Piggy Builders", with France Télévisions (France), BBC (UK) and ZDF (Germany) on board as commissioning broadcasters. The 52 x 11' series was first pitched by Xilam Animation at Cartoon Forum in 2021 and is now set to be delivered in Q3 2025 with Romain Villemaine as the director (Ricky Zoom, Maya the Bee, Valiant). The first episodes will be released at the upcoming MIPCOM (October 2024).
"Piggy Builders" is created by Marie Manand, Julien Hazebroucq and Emmanuelle Leleu and follows Cornelia, Cesar and Charlie, a trio of charismatic and curly-tailed piggy siblings who live in Fine Forest. Whilst they are very different to one another in nature, they have many things in common: they all love building, they all love solving problems, they all love their community and, most importantly, they all love each other. There's one more thing they have in common: they all have a lot to learn about working together. When these three little piggies don't function as a team, the projects they're working on go wrong in very silly and funny ways. But when they manage to work as a team, the impossible becomes possible!
As the piggies embark on their building projects, they also must face a lazy and selfish wolf, Vern, who thinks he's bigger and badder than he really is. Vern interferes with piggies' projects and rubs his paws in glee at the prospect that his meddling will mess things up for them.
Marc du Pontavice, Chairman and CEO at Xilam Animation said: "As we continue expanding our offering of CG content, "Piggy Builders" makes the perfect addition to our slate of proprietary content as it brings so many endearing characters and humorous stories of teamwork, while also highlighting the importance of family. "Piggy Builders" received a fantastic response at Cartoon Forum, and we're now honoured to have such strong national broadcast partners in France Télévisions, BBC and ZDF joining us on this adventure. We look forward to collaborating with each of these broadcasters and to introducing our wonderful little piggies to audiences, who we're sure will charm and entertain preschoolers and families around the world."
About Xilam
A major player in animation, Xilam is an integrated studio founded in 1999 that creates, produces and distributes original programmes in more than 190 countries for both children and adult audiences. Xilam content is broadcast on television, and is also available on SVoD platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon and Universal+ and AVoD streaming platforms including YouTube and Facebook.
With its creativity and capacity for innovation recognised worldwide, its unique expertise in CGI, as well as editorial and commercial expertise at the cutting edge of its industry, Xilam is positioned as a key player of the market. Each year, Xilam builds real successes and capitalises on its powerful historical brands including Oggy and the Cockroaches, Zig Sharko and Chicky, as well as new properties such as Oggy Oggy for a preschool audience, Mr Magoo and Karate Sheep, and Academy Award nominated adult feature film I Lost My Body. Xilam's expanding and strong catalogue now consists of over 2,800 episodes and three feature films.
Xilam employs more than 500 individuals, including 400 artists, across its studios in Paris, Angoulême in France and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. Xilam was ranked France's leading animation studio for the 2018-2022 period in a report by the French national centre for cinema and animation (CNC).
Xilam is listed on Euronext Paris Compartment C PEA SRD long Eligibility.
ISIN: FR0004034072, Symbol: XIL
For more information, visit www.xilam.com
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Contacts:
Marc du Pontavice Chairman and CEO
Cécile Haimet CFO
Phone: +33 1 40 18 72 00
The DDA Group
xilam@ddapr.com
Charlotte Newcombe Phone +44 7726 901 129
Image Sept Agency
xilam@image7.fr
Karine Allouis (Media Relations) Phone +33 1 53 70 74 81
Laurent Poinsot (Investor Relations) Phone +33 1 53 70 74 77
