Raphaelle Stolz’s Animated Short ‘Miracasas’ Reinterprets Circle of Life at Annecy

Kim Kardashian has hit the catwalk. The 41-year-old reality star, who has starred in Balenciaga's campaigns, took her representation of the brand one step further on Wednesday when she walked in the label's couture fashion show in Paris, France. The mom of four modeled a black, curve-hugging gown with her newly blonde hair pulled back into a bun.

Kim Kardashian has hit the catwalk. The 41-year-old reality star, who has starred in Balenciaga's campaigns, took her representation of the brand one step further on Wednesday when she walked in the label's couture fashion show in Paris, France. The mom of four modeled a black, curve-hugging gown with her newly blonde hair pulled back into a bun.

The most famous baldheaded cartoon kid is making a big comeback.

Naman Ramachandran Wildlife and nature programmer Love Nature has greenlit five-part natural history series “Evolution Earth” in co-production with PBS and Arte. The series, produced by Passion Planet and shot in extreme locations around the world, is an examination of adaptation stories that illustrate the rapid pace of change happening across Earth, while providing a look at nature’s ability to thrive.The series includes five films, each showcasing a different extreme landscape including Earth, Islands, Ice, Heat and Grasslands. It will debut across Love Nature’s branded linear and streaming platforms around the world, PBS in the U.S., Arte in France and Germany and on Sky Nature in the U.K.

‘Evolution Earth’ Greenlit By PBS, ARTE, Sky Nature and Love Nature

Directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre take home the top prize for their animated film Little Nicholas–Happy as Can Be at the annual Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“Little Nicholas – Happy As Can Be” scooped this year’s Annecy Animation Festival’s top Cristal Award for best feature in a 20 plaudit award adjudication which also saw Wes Anderson win a Jury Award for best commissioned film.The biggest winners at Annecy this year, however, was the Festival itself, animation at large and, when it came to movie prizes, France in particular.Directed by Benjamin Massoubre and Amandine Fredon, Annecy’s top feature winner is classic French animated feature fare in artistic and industrial terms: 2D, based on a literal source – writer René Goscinny and illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé’s comic-strip, and featuring large Gallic IP: Little Nicholas, France’s quintessential schoolboy, who here meets his makers, Goscinny and Sempé. Produced by Aton Soumache, one of the dominant figures on France’s animation scene and producer of “The Little Prince,” France’s biggest movie export in 2015, “Little Nicholas” may look exquisite at times, but, family fare, packs a more modern pace and focus on entertaining than much arthouse 2D cinema.The top Cristal for “Little Nicholas” surprised some.

Lise Pedersen Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”) has unveiled his first-ever animation film project at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival.Entitled “The Most Precious of Cargos,” it is an adaptation of the eponymous best-selling book by acclaimed French playwright and children’s books author Jean-Claude Grumberg, who is co-writing the film with Hazanavicius.Told in the form of a classic fairy tale in 2D animation, it is set during World War II, and tells the story of a poor woodcutter and his wife who live deep in the Polish forest.

Lise Pedersen France’s animation industry is thriving, according to the latest figures published by the country’s national film center, the CNC (Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée), during the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival.The country’s animation production levels in 2021 were the second highest ever, at 357 hours of programs, surpassed only by 2006, which reported 395 hours.French animation, whose long-established reputation of excellence and know-how has been a draw for international co-productions for decades, has proved increasingly attractive to international co-productions thanks to its generous tax rebate for international projects, which was revised upwards from 20% to 30% of spend in 2015.

EXCLUSIVE: London and Paris-based production and sales company Film Constellation has inked pre-sales on family adventure animation The Last Dinosaur following its Cannes market launch.

EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of us revealing their Katy Perry animated musical Melody, The Trial Of The Chicago 7 and The Pale Blue Eye outfit Cross Creek Pictures and animation specialist Zag have set an agreement to develop and produce a slate of ten animated, live-action and hybrid format features, the majority of which will be musicals.

Lise Pedersen Six teams of budding animation professionals have pitched their projects at the Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival as part of a new mentoring program for women from France and Africa launched by Les Femmes s’Animent (LFA), an organization that supports women in animation.The aim of the initiative, entitled “A Woman’s Journey,” is to help women who want to create short animated films but are not part of, nor have access to, the animation industry.

Marta Balaga France’s Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival is celebrating Swiss animation – which marked its 100th anniversary back in 2021 – with a slew of retrospectives, screenings and special events.In its Official Selection, Switzerland is represented through 13 films spread across different sections.

Naman Ramachandran Wildlife and nature programmer Love Nature has launched FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) service NatureTime. NatureTime will be available as a free streaming service in markets where the Love Nature brand is already established as a linear service. Content will be windowed in strategic ways to set each brand apart – i.e.

Things are already heating up in the Love Island villa, but it looks set to get even hotter over the coming days with temperatures rising up to 40C in Mallorca. A mega heatwave has already started to hit Spain, and the Islanders have been soaking up the sun with highs of 37C in the villa so far.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMediawan Kids and Family’s Method Animation, the prestige animation label behind “The Little Prince,” is set to reboot “Le Manège Enchanté” (“The Magic Roundabout”), the iconic 1960’s French stop-motion animation series.The new show, whose first season will comprise 52 episodes of 11 minutes each, will be aimed at a pre-school audiences. Founded by Aton Soumache, Method Animation has a stellar track record with reboots of cult franchises, from “Robin Hood” to “The Little Prince,” as well as with original IP’s such as “Miraculous” (produced with ZAG).

Reelz & Paramount+ Among Pre-Buyers Of Princess Diana Doc

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKinology (“Annette”) has closed a raft of deals on two highlights from its slate, “Argonuts,” an animated feature produced by TAT Productions, the banner behind “The Jungle Bunch,” and Emmanuel Mouret’s “Diary of a Fleeting Affair” which premiered at Cannes. A Pixar/Dreamworks-style family film, “Argonuts” is a comedy adventure set in a magical yet hostile world of Greek mythology. It follows the journey of Pathie, a young, smart and daring mouse, and her mate Sam who set off to fight the most bizarre and dangerous creatures in Ancient Greece, including Poseidon himself.“Argonuts” reunites “The Jungle Bunch” director, David Alaux, and producer, Jean-François Tosti at TAT Productions.

Emilio Mayorga Alberto Vázquez’s “Unicorn Wars” is an Annecy  competition frontrunner. “They Shot the Piano Player,” from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, weighs in as one of the festival’s most anticipated works in progress.A bevy of Annecy MIFA unveils and score of Spanish titles, sometimes sneak peeked at other events, form part of a historic growth on Spain’s animation scene.At March’s Cartoon Movie, only France had a larger number of titles than Spain.