Cannes – The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has launched the International Animation Fund (IAF) at MIPTV 2010 in partnership with FremantleMedia Enterprises. The new International Animation Fund, which invites applications from all over the world for new animation content in any format – including television series, telemovies, theatrical features – will see MDA co-investing up to S$5 million (US$3.5 million) for each qualifying project. FremantleMedia Enterprises is MDA’s partner for this new initiative, and will represent the chosen projects as worldwide distributor. Applications for the International Animation Fund are now open (www.smf.sg). MDA and South West Screen (SWS), the development agency for the film, TV and digital media industries in the South West of England, announced the cross-media projects to receive funding under the ATF-launched ‘Multi-Platform Content Across Continents’ initiative. Eco Gone Mad, a factual entertainment series by Apostrophe Films (Singapore) and Junction K (UK), and iLand, an animation series by Scrawl Studios (Singapore) and Wonky Films (UK) have been selected as the first two winning projects who will receive a total of up to £50,000 in funding. And Scrawl Studios and the MDA announced that they will be collaborating with international producers, including those from Canada, France and Taiwan, to coproduce up to five animation titles with a total production value of US$13.5 million for global audiences. These productions are scheduled to be completed over a period of five years. The first two projects to kick off this collaborative effort are Almost Extinct, an original 3D animated TV series created by Scrawl Studios to be co-produced with CCI Entertainment (Canada) in association with Coolframes Digiworks (Taiwan); and Hunter the Wereboy, another original 2D animated TV series to be co-produced by Scrawl Studios and Planet Nemo Animation (France). MDA will be a co-investor in these projects.