Cantilever Media launches new UK distribution company Kazoo Films

In 2024, animated family films grossed over £250 million at the UK box office, representing an impressive 23.8% of total box office revenue. Despite this, independent animated features remain underrepresented in the market. Kazoo Films aims to address this gap by delivering fresh, engaging family entertainment across multiple platforms, ensuring these films reach the widest possible audience.

Kazoo Films invites producers, sales agents, and content platforms to collaborate in delivering inspiring family stories to audiences across the UK & Ireland.

Award-winning producer and executive producer Andrew Baker, Founder and CEO of Cantilever Media, will lead Kazoo Films. 

He said:

We have identified a gap in the market for a film distribution company that focuses solely on animated feature films. Kazoo Films’ slate will prioritize independent, commercial family films that we can release theatrically in the UK & Ireland. We want to showcase that animated films can generate significant theatrical interest in the UK, shining a spotlight on the territory as a potential co-production and sales market for animation producers and sales agents worldwide, and ensuring these films are seen by the UK cinema audience.

Cantilever Media’s most successful film to date is the award-winning The Amazing Maurice, a family animated feature for Sky Cinema based on the award-winning book The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Sir Terry Pratchett.

Written by Terry Rossio (Shrek, Aladdin) and co-produced with Ulysses Productions in Germany, the film features an all-star UK cast, including Hugh Laurie, Emilia Clarke, David Thewlis, Himesh Patel, Gemma Arterton, Hugh Bonneville, Ariyon Bakare, and David Tennant. The film has won several awards, including a British Animation Award and accolades at Cartoons On the Bay. It was longlisted for both the BAFTA Film Awards and the Academy Awards, shortlisted at the European Film Awards, and premiered in the USA at the Sundance Film Festival.

Building on this success, Cantilever Media is developing The Amazing Maurice 2 and has several exciting projects in production. These include the animated feature Bollywoof, being sold internationally by Embankment Films, and the animated TV series Badjelly The Witch, commissioned by WildBrain Television’s Family Channel (Canada) and TVNZ. Badjelly The Witch is co-produced with Mukpuddy Animation (N.Z.) and Sphere Animation (Canada), in association with Te Puna Kairangi Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund, NZ On Air, and the UK Global Screen Fund.