UK animation production firm Cantilever Media, recognized for its 2022 release The Amazing Maurice, has successfully secured a £500,000 investment from Creative UK’s Creative Growth Finance (CGF).
Cantilever plans to utilize these funds to expand its UK-Ireland distribution arm, Kazoo Films, which debuted in 2024 and specializes in animated features for young audiences and families.
Kazoo is set to distribute upcoming Cantilever productions, including Benoit Godbout’s Unstable, currently in development for a 2027 release, and Dana Dorian’s Bird Brain, with an estimated budget of $15 million.
CGF operates as a specialized investment fund, managed by Creative UK, offering debt financing up to £500,000 initially for small and medium-sized enterprises within the creative sectors, with the option for additional funding after two years of the loan term.
Previous film company beneficiaries of the fund include Mike Elliott’s London and Yorkshire-based Emu Films, which received investment in 2021.
Creative UK is now under the leadership of Emily Cloke, a former senior civil servant within the UK government’s Department for Business and Trade. She has taken over the role from former chief executive Caroline Norbury.
Cantilever’s Expansion Initiatives
Bird Brain represents the inaugural animated feature to be sold through Cantilever’s joint venture sales agency with the UK’s Architect Global. It will also be the first co-production with ReDefine, the animation division of the prominent UK-India VFX company DNEG, as part of a Cantilever-ReDefine slate partnership.
Kazoo will also distribute films resulting from a three-picture co-production agreement between Cantilever, Los Angeles-based Viva Pictures Distribution, and HarperCollins Productions, aimed at adapting HarperCollins intellectual property into comedic animated features.
Cantilever’s upcoming production slate features titles such as Bollywoof, Wed Wabbit, and a sequel to The Amazing Maurice.