Webtoon Academy
Média-Participations' animation and webtoon company Ellipse Studio and webtoon platform ONO, to open the Webtoon Academy in Angoulême France in partnership with Korea’s webtoon production company Kenaz, the first one outside Asia. The 13-week training program is free and will start in September 2024 at Ellipse Studio in Angoulême with the goal to enable potential talents to get started in this fast-growing format.
The Webtoon Academy is designed to train around a dozen artists every year in the tools and storytelling techniques specific to the webtoon format so they can produce the first episodes of their series. At the end of the program, some of them may be selected by a jury made up of Kenaz, Ellipse Studio, and ONO, to produce their webtoon series at Ellipse Studio in Angoulême, for a release on ONO.
“As the European leader in comic books and manga and a key player in animation, we want to empower a whole new generation of storytellers in the webtoon format. The Angoulême Webtoon Academy is a new step –and a major one– to encourage the emergence and training of new French-speaking authors in this medium," said Julien Papelier, Média-Participations CEO, Ellipse Studio and ONO’s parent group. “We are delighted to work on this exclusive free training program with our friends at Kenaz, with a shared belief: French webtoons can have a global reach,” he added.
“France holds a central position on the cultural and artistic scene, and is a major influence in the fields of comics and graphic novels. We couldn’t have wished for a better setting to announce the opening of the Webtoon Academy in France in 2024, in collaboration with ONO and Ellipse Studio,” said Lee Woo-Jae, director of KENAZ.
The Angoulême Webtoon Academy is supported by EMCA (École des Métiers du Cinéma d’Animation), Wacom, the world leader in interactive screens and tablets for artists, and Celsys, the most convenient software for webtoon artists by Adobe.
