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.
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.
Kitty is Not a Cat
BES’s original series KITTY IS NOT A CAT has produced two seasons (104 x 12 minute episodes) and is currently in production on Season 3 commissioned by Network Seven. Teaming up with Jetpack Distribution, KITTY IS NOT A CAT has been screened in over 85 countries around the world including in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Israel and Asia Pacific. KITTY has won the 2018 SPA Award for Animated Series Production of the Year and nominated for the 2019 Kidscreen Award Best New Series; Pulcinella Award for Best Kids TV Series; and 2020 Venice TV Awards for the Children/Youth section.
Development
BES currently has over a dozen projects in various stages of development with solid interest from leading international broadcasters. These include the hair-brained misadventures of THE JAN & RAI SHOW, and the magical thrills and skills of Danny in THE ALCHEMISTS’ DELIVERY SERVICE.
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.
Production Services
BES is an Award winning studio with an incredibly talented team of creators, writers, designers, storyboard artists, animators and composers. We provide high quality 2-D services including Frame by Frame animation service animation. We can create and produce across all areas of the production and have an efficient pipeline that can operate remotely. We have been able to continue production throughout 2020 without any Production delays
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.