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Damien de Froberville has been hired as EVP of production and operating strategy at Sony Pictures Animation, TheWrap has learned. He comes from his post as CEO and producer at Sergio Pablos Studio in Spain.

The industry vet’s new role was announced by Sony Pictures Animation president Kristine Belson in an email to staff Monday. The move is, in part, meant to fill the role that Pam Marsden, head of production, will leave when she retires in the new year.

Additionally, SVP of physical production Erik Vignau, who has been leading new series production, will continue to do so but will also be leading “feature productions day-to-day” (according to the email).

“Those two production leads, in addition to artist management and operations, finance, technology and post-production will all report to Damien,” Belson wrote.

You can read the full email below:

Dear all,

As many of you know, Pam Marsden...

Sony Pictures Animation is shoring up its executive ranks with the addition of Damien de Froberville, who has been named executive vice president of production and operating strategy.

De Froberville comes from the Spain-based shop Sergio Pablos Animation and will largely assume a portfolio held by long-serving Spa executive Pam Marsden. Marsden will retire in 2024 after nearly two decades with the studio.

Kristine Belson, leader at Sony Pictures Animation behind films like the Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse,” informed her staff of the hire in a memo circulated on Monday. She touted de Froberville’s “remarkable career” and said “we know Damien will help us break new ground at Spa.”

As an independent producer, de Froberville was behind the critically acclaimed animated short film “Sith” as part of the “Star Wars: Visions” anthology series at Disney+. He was also an early employee at Netflix’s animation unit, overseeing flagship productions like the Oscar-nominated “Klaus.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is considered one of the best comic book movies ever made with improved animation and deeper character exploration. The film is filled with numerous Easter eggs and hidden references to Marvel's history, including appearances from real-life creators who worked on the film. The directors, Sony Pictures Animation executives, and other Sony employees all make cameos in the film, honoring their contributions to the production.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse includes several cameos from the wider Marvel universe, yet also includes a handful of appearances from real-life creators who worked on the film. Across the Spider-Verse is the sequel to 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and elevated its predecessor in every way. From the increased scale of the story to the improvements in the already-fantastic animation and deeper exploration of its characters, Across the Spider-Verse was considered superior to the first film and one of...

Sony is expanding the scope of the Spider-Verse this summer. Not only do we have "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" due to hit theaters in June, but the studio has also revealed that a brand new, in-universe short titled "The Spider Within" is headed our way as well. As for how you can see the short? At least at first, it's going to be a select few attending a major film festival this summer.

According to Variety, "The Spider Within" is set to premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June. Perhaps not coincidentally, this is right around the time that "Across the Spider-Verse" will be hitting theaters. We have reached out to Sony for further details regarding release plans for the short beyond Annecy but the studio has not yet responded to our request for comment. As for what the short will entail? The synopsis reads as follows:

In the short,...

Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks will release a brand new original short film titled “The Spider Within.”

Set in the world of the upcoming release “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” the animated short will debut exclusively at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this June.

In the short, Miles Morales struggles to balance his responsibilities as a teenager, friend and student while acting as Brooklyn’s friendly neighborhood superhero. After a particularly challenging day living with these pressures, Miles experiences a panic attack that forces him to confront the manifestations of his anxiety and learn that reaching out for help can be just as brave an act as protecting his city from evil.

“The Spider Within” is part of Sony Pictures Animation and Sony Pictures Imageworks’ new mentorship program Lens (Leading and Empowering New Storytellers). Launched internally last year, the new program aims to provide high-potential candidates from underrepresented...

Most animation studios have a distinct in-house style that sets them apart from their peers. For example, it's pretty easy to look at a Pixar animated film and recognize it immediately, but Sony Pictures has the rare distinction of not having an in-house style. Each of their films, made by Sony Pictures Animation (Spa) and Sony Pictures Imageworks (Spi), have their own unique look that best serves the story being told. In a 30-year retrospective, The Wrap traced the past, present, and future of Spa, and revealed that not having an in-house style is actually an important rule that kept Sony unique. 

By focusing on the filmmakers' needs and ideas instead of trying to hold to a consistent style, the various films made by Spa and Spi are able to go above and beyond, breaking the boundaries of animation in bold new ways. Something as groundbreaking as "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse...

When visual development artist Chris Appelhans (“Coraline”) realized that “Aladdin” was originally a Chinese folk tale while visiting Shanghai 20 years ago, he had an aha moment about writing and directing an animated genie-in-a-bottle retelling set in modern Shanghai. The result is “Wish Dragon” (streaming Friday on Netflix), an American-Chinese co-production with Sony Pictures Animation, in which working-class college student, Din (Jimmy Wong), teams up with pink, fluffy, snarky genie, Long (John Cho), to reunite with his long-lost childhood friend, Lina (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), now a famous model.

As Appelhans watched a friend in Shanghai “struggling with family and class and concepts of success, it seemed like that timeless [‘Aladdin’] story… about a peasant boy who lives with his mother, meets a wish-granting genie, falls in love with a princess, loses himself, and finds himself again, could have newfound relevance today,” he said. “It made me think a lot about the world.

Sony Pictures Animation unveiled an expanded slate Wednesday at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in Annecy, France.

Coming off the success of its Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the studio announced that China’s Tencent has boarded Jackie Chan’s Wish Dragon, and also revealed three projects in development – a reimagining of The Boondocks, horror series Hungry Ghosts, based on the Dark Horse Graphic Novel by the late Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, and comedy Superbago, a collabortion with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios – along with two new adult-skewing animated features from Genndy Tartakovsky.

The studio also announced a big international initiative spearheaded by Oscar-winning producer Aron Warner. With the initiative, Sony Animation will collaborate with storytellers from different countries around the world to develop and produce a wide variety of animated features for both local and global release.

Warner is currently producing the initiative’s first release,...

Annecy — In an expansive mode after the huge critical, commercial and Academy Award validation for “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Sony Pictures Animation announced at Annecy on Wednesday that China’s Tencent has boarded Jackie Chan’s “Wish Dragon,” plus a reimagining of “The Boondocks,” horror series “Hungry Ghosts,” comedy series “Superbago” and two new Genndy Tartakovsky movies.

There was a sense at Annecy that this is a studio with wind in its sails and an empowering confidence.

All the moves are encompassed in the creation of two new bold production lines unveiled by Kristine Belson, Spa president, at an Annecy Spa presentation on Wednesday which proved one of the hottest tickets in town: An international initiative, headed by producer Aaron Warner, and a slate of alternative animation taking in not only “The Boondocks” with Sony Pictures Television and original creator Aaron McGruder, but the horror anthology “Hungry Ghosts,” “Superbago” and...

Pam Marsden has been promoted to head of production of Sony Pictures Animation.

The exec, who will report to Spa president Kristine Belson, was previously executive vp production, a position she held for the last six years.

In that role, Marsden was responsible for supervising all projects on Spa’s slate and recently has been overseeing every aspect of the studio's growth, according to Spa. The studio has been ramping up drastically, and its output in 2017 will be three theatrical features, two series, a short film and a direct-to-home feature. It has tripled its staff size in the last year.

"I...

Pam Marsden has been promoted from to head of production for Sony Pictures Animation, the studio announced Tuesday. As Evp of physical production for Sony Pictures Animation for the past six years, Marsden has been responsible for supervising all projects on the Sony Pictures Animation slate and recently has been overseeing every aspect of the studio’s growth. Sony Pictures Animation — which is drastically increasing its output starting in 2017 with three theatrical features, two series, a short film and a direct-to-home feature — nearly tripled the size of its staff over the last year. Also Read: Maya Rudolph Set for Sony's.

Inventor Flint Lockwood, the star of Sony Pictures Animation's highly anticipated animated feature Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, has a whole new way for moviegoers to meet his delicious co-stars before the movie hits theaters everywhere on September 27. Beginning tomorrow, the fun "foodimal" stars of the film will be available - in healthy and tasty lunch-sized portions - in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 foodimobile tour!

Beginning tomorrow in Salt Lake City and Miami, two film-themed food trucks will be visiting family-friendly destinations across the country, bringing tacodiles, hippotatomuses, fruit cockatiels, subwhales, watermelophants, Barry (he's a strawberry), pickles, carrots, and celery to hungry moviegoers. The food, which is provided by Ortega Mexican Foods and promotional partners on the film, including Subway restaurants, California Giant Berry Farms, Cal-Organic Farms, Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Grimmway Farms, and the National Watermelon Promotion Board, will be served in lunch boxes featuring foodimal characters,...

With “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”, Sony Pictures Animation’s mouth-watering 3-D animated event, about to hit theatres worldwide, the world’s largest meatball ever created has also descended. The announcement was made today by Hannah Minghella, president of production for Sony Pictures Animation, Inc., and Carlos Martinez, adjudicator, Guinness World Records.

The meatball, weighing in at 49.5 kg, or 109 lbs, was cooked up by the chefs at The Ritz Carlton in Cancún, Mexico, to promote the upcoming animated film, in which a budding inventor causes food to fall from the sky like rain. The Hotel’s Executive chef Rainer Zinngrebe along with banquet chef Aldo Novoa accomplished the appetizing feat, surpassing a previous record set in 2008 that stood at 32.93 kg, or 72 lbs., 9 oz. The new record was confirmed by Martinez, and after the record was confirmed, the meatball was cut up into normal-sized portions and served to everyone at the record-setting event.

"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" features the voice talents of Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, Bill Hader, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Mr. T and Tracy Morgan. We now have the first image in from the animated comedy helmed by Phil Lord and Chirs Miller. The duo also adapt the novel written by Ron and Judi Barrett. Columbia Pictures' and Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will be the most delicious event since macaroni met cheese. Inspired by the beloved children's book, the film focuses on a town where food falls from the sky like rain. Pam Marsden produces and Yair Landau serves as executive producer.