The Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Animarket trade fair returns this year with North American and international exhibitors, ranging from conglomerates to small animation companies, ready to scout talent and raise their profiles.

According to Animarket manager Jose Sanchez, the number of Animarket exhibitors has increased to 21 from 16 at the last oiaf, and he expects the number to rise as festival attendance increases.

Among the companies setting up booths for the first time this year is eos, a u.k. animation systems manufacturer and supplier, whose clients include Walt Disney and Teletubbies.

‘People have often said that we should go to the Ottawa festival,’ says Elin Jones, eos’ sales director, who is hoping to establish the company in North America. ‘It’s a very good place to make contacts and meet people. We thought we’d give it a whirl.’

Ottawa-based Dynomight Cartoons is also a first-time exhibitor at Animarket. ‘We want to show off our stuff,’ says Michael Valiquette, development coordinator at Dynomight, whose projects include animating sequences for Anastasia (20th Century Fox) and handling layout and posing for Nelvana’s Franklin and Pippi Longstocking and Cinar’s Arthur.

‘We feel it’s very important to contribute to the industry, and to the industry in Ottawa in particular,’ Valiquette says.

Dynomight is designing what he calls ‘a set’ for the trade fair. ‘We’re putting together something a little different than the standard table and some Velcro boards. We want to have some fun with it. It helps to raise the studio profile.’

Cartoon specialty net Teletoon, which launched in October 1997, is another new Animarket exhibitor looking to raise awareness. ‘We’re there to brand andÉexpand,’ says Pascale Guillotte, Teletoon’s director of communications. ‘It’s absolutely essential for Teletoon to be seen everywhere there’s animation.

‘There’s such a pool of talent and unbelievable ideas. It’s not just producers and animators that go there. It’s teachers who teach animation, and an informal discussion suddenly may trigger an important project that we want to do with schools across the country. So it’s also that kind of creative pool and creative background that’s essential for us for to be original and creative.’

Other first-time exhibitors are Nickelodeon, Australian animation book publisher John Libbey & Company and Crater Software, which is based in Spain and has a Montreal office.

Some smaller Canadian companies – Boomstone Entertainment, TOPIX/Mad Dog and the Toronto New Media Trainers Alliance – will also be on hand through an initiative created by the Ontario Film Development Corporation and the oiaf (see opposite).

Visibility is a common thread that ties the exhibitors to Animarket. ‘It’s mainly for exposure in the industry and to get to know more of the talent out there and for them to get to know pdi,’ says Patty Wooton, senior vp production, Pacific Data Images, which, through a coproduction deal with DreamWorks, created Antz, the festival’s gala opener. ‘We want to know what other people are doing, we want to know what kind of other stories and animation are being done out there.’

While trade shows are a traditional method of marketing for many companies, Chris Wallace, president of t/md, an animation production and post effects services company in Toronto, considers this promotional route ‘non-traditional.’

‘We’re the only commercial production company [exhibiting],’ he explains. ‘I know the big studios do it, but there’s very few [commercial production] companies in Toronto that go to trade shows, set up a booth and say, `Hey, do your commercial with us.’ How many advertising executives are going to walk byÉlooking for an animation house to do their commercial? Nobody.

‘It’s the drop-in-the-bucket theory of promotion that every time you do it, every little thing continues to add up and you find all kinds of small ways of exposing yourself to the general public or the trade.’

Some Animarket exhibitors will not only be promoting themselves but also recruiting talent. Michelle Billingham, head of talent development and enrichment at Walt Disney Television Animation in Burbank, California, will be on hand to represent Walt Disney Animation Canada, which she says is looking for new talent for the Vancouver and Toronto studios.

‘Because both studios do direct-to-video and tv series,’ Billingham comments, ‘and because of the level of artistic talent [required], we tend look for more industry-level talent.’

She says they also do ‘quite a bit of recruiting’ from Sheridan College in Oakville, Ont., adding that the studio does some 3D animation, so they’re looking for a ‘range of talent.’

Disney Canada’s work includes Pocahontas II: Journey to the New World and The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride.

Other Canadian Animarket exhibitors include Nelvana, Cinar, Pixar, well known for creating the first computer-animated feature Toy Story; Chromacolour International, a Calgary-based animation supplies manufacturer and distributor; Toon Boom Technologies, a Montreal-based 2D cel animation company; and Hardware Computing Canada.