ABOUT BES ANIMATION
BES Animation is a wholly owned Australian company formed in 2007 by Executive Producer Bruce Kane and Creative Director Maurice Argiro with the express purpose of creating top level 2D animation and original stories for local and international audiences. Based in Melbourne, BES has grown from a two-man team to a 40-person operation spanning two studios.
BES is proudly a creator-driven studio with the ability to originate content and realise projects through all stages of production. The philosophy of the company is simple … create, nurture and develop great ideas for the world…. It’s a lofty ideal but it’s working.
BES produced a feature length telemovie for Cartoon Network - EXCHANGE STUDENT ZERO - that screened to 25 million plus viewers and won the Australian Writer’s Guild award for best script. On the strength of this, Cartoon Network commissioned a series of 13 x 22 minutes that hit the screens in 2015.
BES’s second feature length telemovie with Cartoon Network - MONSTER BEACH - debuted to 40 million viewers in the APAC region alone. It was the highest rating program in its timeslot on Australian Pay TV and in multiple regions across the Asia Pacific region. Monster Beach won the ASTRA award for Most Outstanding Children’s Television Program and plays regularly in USA , Europe , Latin America and Asia Pacific Region.
BES’s latest original series KITTY IS NOT A CAT has been commissioned by Network Seven with 52 x 12 minute episodes currently in production and slated for delivery in 2018. Teaming up with Jetpack Distribution, KITTY IS NOT A CAT has pre sold to broadcasters across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Israel and Asia Pacific; and was voted in the top 5 programs at MIP JNR in 2016.
Also in 2016, BES Animation teamed up with Rubberhouse studios to produce GINGER SNAPS – an adult animated web series for Warner Brothers / ABC (America) / Blue Ribbon Content. The series was written and created by Sono Patel and voiced in the USA with all design, animation and post-production taking place at BES’s studios in Australia.
BES currently has over a dozen projects in various stages of development with solid interest from leading international broadcasters. These include: the tongue-in-cheek LANCE LIONHEART and sci-fi comedy HEART OF GANDOR lead by Director Patrick Crawley. JAN & RAI - a property being co produced with Canada’s Copernicus Studios is also part of BES's vast development slate.
BES has been recognised as a key emerging screen business and received Enterprise Stories funding from Screen Australia. This enabled BES to further develop their slate of programming and mentor emerging writers and directors.
BES are represented at all the key international animation markets and festivals and have strong and ongoing relationships with a wide variety of broadcasters, distributors, licensees, writers, content creators and production studios globally.