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09.06.2021 - 19:03 / variety.com
Andrew Barker Senior Features WriterEver since the 1960s, animators from the world over have assembled in the Alpine French city of Annecy to celebrate animated film. Initially a biannual event, the Annecy Intl.
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Leigh Griffiths insists he WAS fit enough to play last season, as he took a veiled dig at Neil Lennon. The 30-year-old was left out of a pre-season trip to France and blasted by his manager for reporting back overweight after lockdown.
Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFrance’s public broadcaster France Televisions confirmed its status as one of Europe’s biggest financiers of animation during the Annecy festival where it unveiled its wide-ranging slate during a press conference. In 2020, which was marked by the pandemic and two lockdowns, the broadcaster invested 32 million euros in productions of French animated content, 2.3 million euros of which went into films.
Ben Croll If no distributor can ever handpick its audience, once Netflix sent its ribald and irreverent reframing of the U.S.’ foundational myth to the French animation festival, the streamer certainly came awfully close.Produced by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and directed by “Archer” producer Matt Thompson, the decidedly hard-R “America: The Motion Picture” played to a room primed to react when it screened in France as part of Annecy’s Midnight Specials sidebar this past Friday.Though the
Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentUgo Bienvenu (aka Ugo), the popular French illustrator and comics author of “Préférence système,” is partnering up with veteran producer Valerie Schermann (“The Red Turtle,” “Paris, 13th District”) on his animated feature debut “Arco.”An ambitious science-fiction film, “Arco” is being co-developed and co-produced by Remembers, the outfit launched by Bienvenu and Félix de Givry, and Schermann at Akaba.
Ben Croll Speaking before a rapt audience at the Annecy Film Festival on Friday, director Pierre Földes, producers Tanguy Olivier and Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, and artists from France’s Miyu Productions premiered work in progress footage from Földes’ “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” a 2D animated adaptation of a handful of Haruki Murakami stories that looks to translate the Japanese author’s idiosyncratic style as no feature has to date.Murakami’s is a world of sex, surrealism and cigarettes, a
Jamie Lang On Friday afternoon at France’s Annecy Animation Festival, Nickelodeon gave the most detailed preview yet for the network’s second “Spongebob” spinoff, “The Patrick Star Show,” and looked back at 20 years of the global hit franchise.
Sheer Qorma — Bush describes this “endearing” 30-minute short from India, revolving around three resilient, queer Muslim women, as a film about “a single mom grappling still years later with her daughter and her daughter’s partner, now wife, [and] her spiritual beliefs and acceptance.
Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentOscar-nominated French actor Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) has joined Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor”), Nanni Moretti, and the Italian cast of romantic drama “Il Colibrì,” which has started shooting in Rome.Fandango Sales is launching sales at the virtual Cannes market on this high-profile drama directed by Francesca Archibugi (“A Question of the Heart”) based on the eponymous novel by Sandro Veronesi, winner of Italy’s top literary prize, the Premio
Ben Croll Speaking at a Monday morning panel dedicated to emerging female talent in the French animation sphere, filmmakers Marine Blin (“What Resonates in Silence”), Mélanie Robert-Tourneur (“Hold Me Tight,” pictured above), and Kajika Aki Ferrazzini (“MOM”) spoke candidly about pet obsessions and shared approaches while breaking news of future projects.The Belgium-based Robert-Tourneur (who uses they/them pronouns) will build on their previous film’s visually symbolic and narratively oblique
Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentUniversal Music France and Mediawan’s Method Animation (“The Little Prince,” “Miraculous”) are joining forces on “Jam,” a animated music anthology which will showcase the greatest talents in both music and animation.Co-developed with Universal Music France’s original contents department, the 15-part series will be directed by Michael Gracey, the revered helmer of “The Greatest Showman,” and is being created by Method Animation’s roster of talent,
Wild Bunch is getting deeper into animation with the launch of a new sales company it is setting up with French animation specialist Gebeka.
Jamie Lang On Tuesday afternoon, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival streamed a candid, hour-long conversation between four of the key minds behind Netflix’s second season of “Love, Death & Robots.” Creator and executive producer Tim Miller (“Deadpool,” “Terminator: Dark Fate”), executive producer David Fincher (“The Social Network,” “Fight Club”), supervising director Jennifer Yuh Nelson (“Kung Fu Panda” 2 and 3) and visual effects supervisor Jerome Denjean from France’s Blur
John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentDidier Brunner – producer of “The Triplets of Belleville,” “The Secret of Kells” and “Ernest and Celestine” – is readying his next production, ’Prends Garde à toi!,’ an adaptation of the ‘Carmen’ story led by one of France’s freest creative spirits: Sébastien Laudenbach.Laudenbach’s feature debut, “The Girl Without Hands,” an adaptation of a Brothers Grimm fairy tale, was acquired by Gkids for North American distribution.
Lise Pedersen TeamTO is unveiling a trio of cosy winter story animation projects at Annecy after nabbing TV, film and licensing rights to three popular children’s books.TeamTO aims to produce three individual specials for the 2022-2023 winter season suitable for both at-home TV or platform viewing, as well as cinema screenings.The leading French studio has enlisted the skills of three young directors for the adaptations of best-sellers “Snowman” by Jacques Duquennoy (which becomes “Snowy and
Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentWhile U.S. blockbusters deserted screens in 2020, French animated features had 10-year record-breaking performance at the local box office last year, according to a study conducted by the CNC (National Film Board) and unveiled on the opening day of Annecy Film Festival.
John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentSuperights, the upscale distribution arm of France’s Superprod Group, a co-producer on Tomm Moore’s Academy Award-nominated “Song of the Sea,” has licensed international rights to three new series, securing properties produced out of France, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland.The acquisition marks the latest move from Superprod, founded in 2010 by Jérémie Fajner and Clément Calvet, which has made its name producing both animated series (“Pat the Dog,”
Another early morning, another early announcement from France. As promised by the organizers previously, new titles have been added to the Cannes Film Festival, nine of them in total.
John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLes Femmes s’Animent (LFA), France’s highly active women in animation organization, will launch its first international initiative at this year’s Annecy Intl. Animation Festival, Parcours de Femmes (Women’s Journey).A mentoring program, the diversity drive will help six French-speaking women writer/directors – three from France, three from Africa – produce their own animated short film.