News

Sydney-based production company Aurora Films is developing an adaptation of late French writer and photographer Hervé Guibert’s 1989 novella Crazy for Vincent.

The autobiographical work charts the author’s infatuation with the titular Vincent Marmousez, a young tearaway who came in and out of his life over the course of six years, before falling to his death from a third-floor window while under the influence of drink and drugs.

The company has optioned the novella and is planning a French-language production which will shoot in France and Europe, with post-production taking place in Australia. Casting is underway with the company aiming to announce a start of shoot date by Cannes in May.

Australian director Jamieson Pearce, a recipient of the Lexus Short Film Fellowship with credits including Adult (SXSW) and Strangers, has adapted the novella and will make his feature directorial debut with the production.

“Hervé Guibert’s writing is fearless and unflinching.

Stop-motion maestro Claude Barras will back “Ogresse,” a tragicomic musical directed by three-time Grammy winner Cecile McLorin Salvant and Belgian animator Lia Bertels.

Variety can share this first look.

Led by Miyu Productions – the studio behind last year’s Annecy Animation Festival top-winner “Chicken For Linda!” – the upcoming project adapts a stage show vocalist and MacArthur fellow Cecile McLorin Salvant has toured since 2019, marrying Salvant’s jazz stylings with 2D animation from Bertels and stop-motion interludes overseen by Barras’ Lausanne-based Helium Films.

Belgium’s Umedia and Luxemburg’s Melusine Productions (“The Swallows of Kabul”) will co-produce alongside John Carlin, with French distributor Kmbo handling the domestic release.

The so-called murder ballad set to a jazz tempo will hit bittersweet tones as it follows a forest-dwelling ogress, ostracized because of her physical difference and pursued by a young hunter determined to claim her heart in either love or combat. The project...

Interested in independent Asian animation, but not sure where to start? Well, we could give you a list of anime, but we've already got (three parts!) to an anime tribute already. Instead, here's a list of 15 animated indies from the last few years that fall outside of mainstream animation studios like Disney, Pixar and Ghibli.

This list is in no way prescriptive nor comprehensive, and is merely organized by date of release. Some of these filmmakers are more established; others are just beginning their careers. Some of these are shorts, others are features, a few are even series. Regardless, with each of these animated indies, prepare to laugh, cry, and have your mind blown by the unbridled joy of animation.

1. Your Name (2016) by Makoto Shinkai (Japan)

While Makoto Shinkai had been churning out his own shorts and mid-length films for almost a decade preceding “Your Name,” he doesn't really nail...

London- and Paris-based Film Constellation has boarded sales on 2D family animated feature “Carmen,” a contemporary adaptation of the opera, to be directed by 2023 Annecy Film Festival winner Sébastien Laudenbach. Variety revealed first details of the project last year exclusively.

Laudenbach, who won the best film award at Annecy for “Chicken for Linda!,” is teaming up with renowned French animation studio Folivari on “Carmen.”

It’s 1840 in Seville, a pulsating town of sailors and small-time crooks. Salvador, a young assistant to the gifted knife grinder Antonio, meets a captivating gypsy girl named Carmen. Her rapturous beauty and independent spirit are the talk of the town, but Antonio’s ability to glimpse the future foretells a tragic fate. With unwavering resolve, Salvador will muster an eclectic band of misfit kids, led by the spirited Belén, to protect Carmen against the unyielding threads of destiny, igniting the ancient city’s alleyways in a symphony of emotions.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Joey Soloway and Morfydd Clark will be honored this year as part of Canneseries 2023, the French TV festival that runs alongside international television market MIPTV.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wolf Pack star Gellar will receive this year’s Canal+ Icon Award for her life’s work. Clark, best known for playing Galadriel on Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings series, will be honored with the Canneseries rising star award. Soloway, the Emmy-winning creator of Amazon’s Transparent, will receive this year’s commitment award, which honors social engagement by creatives in the TV industry.

Canneseries on Tuesday also unveiled its competition jury for the 2023 event, with Fauda creator Lior Raz heading up the five-person group, alongside Lupin actress Shirine Boutella, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Bad Sisters actor Daryl McCormack, Emmy-nominated composer (and Police drummer) Stewart Copeland and French actress Zabou Breitman (24 Days,...

World premieres of Prime Video’s Rachel Weisz-starrer “Dead Ringers,” Paramount+’s “Fatal Attraction, with Lizzy Caplan, and Joshua Jackson, and Netflix’s awaited French bio “Tapie” pack out a 6th Canneseries which boasts its biggest U.S. presence yet, with titles from nearly all the major global streamers.

They join Apple TV+’s already-announced “Silo,” another world premiere. Paramount+ will also be represented by Korean smash hit “Bargain.”

In all, the main Competition features seven world premieres, Lewi said at a Paris lineup presentation on Tuesday.

Israel and Scandinavia have a prominent presence as ever at Canneseries. The selection also takes in, however, its first South African title in Competition, “Spinners,” admired at the London Screenings.

Adding star wattage, Sarah Michelle Gellar will pick up the Canal+ Icon Award, Joey Soloway, creator of Amazon Studios’ “Transparent” and producer of “Six Foot Under,” receives a Commitment Award. Canneseries’ Rising...

When “Summit of the Gods” director Patrick Imbert graduated from France’s Les Gobelins school of animation in the late 1990s, he entered an industry still looking for its right footing.

“The market and industry was not as developed as it is today,” Imbert tells Variety. “There were much fewer projects because there were much fewer screens. We did pre-production in Paris and sent most of the production work overseas. You couldn’t imagine becoming a film director or a character designer or anything so prestigious. You were happy enough to simply make your living by drawing, hoping to work on cool projects. That was our vision of animation.”

Suffice it to say, France’s animation ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds over the following decades. Buoyed by advances in digital software that cut down production costs, staffed by a workforce from a growing number of training programs and...

Broadcasting

Channel 4 and Sky in the U.K. have extended their pre-existing, long-term commercial partnership in a new multi-year agreement which, according to the companies, will facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration, commercial growth and innovation as broadcasting evolves going forward.

Under the terms of the new deal, Sky customers will have access to even more Channel 4 content as more than 1000 hours of All 4 — Channel 4’s VoD platform — exclusives are integrated into Sky’s current and future TV products. Channel 4 will benefit from under the new terms by opening avenues to new digital ad revenue streams which can support its Future4 strategy.

“When we set out our Future4 strategy last year, we made clear that securing strategic distribution partnerships would be a vital part of ensuring we can maximize our reach and impact with viewers in a digital age, grow our revenues and compete more effectively for the future,” said Alex Mahon,...

Since 2015, a growing number of animation studios and post-production houses have been landing in Spain’s Navarre, driven by a 40% tax deduction for R&d and tech innovation activities. Spanish productions and co-production also have access to a 35% tax credit. Pamplona-based Dr. Platypus & Ms. Wombat, co-founded by Carlos Fernández de Vigo and Lorena Ares and credited on feature films such as “Memoirs of a Man in Pajamas” and “The Swallows of Kabul” and videogames (“Zombeer”), is working on its first Navarre-based animated feature production, “DinoGames,” which played at the 2017 Annecy MIFA market as a transmedia project and has high-profile Barcelona-based Grangel Studio on board.

How has “DinoGames” evolved from a transmedia to a feature film project?

“DinoGames” maintains its transmedia spirit because it’s in its DNA since we wrote the first line of the script. During my career, I have written and directed videogames for many platforms, including smartphones,...

A burgeoning film-tv hub and shoot locale in Spain, Navarre is proving a hotbed for new companies and projects which are now helping the region to gain bigger visibility abroad. Some start-up, or standout Navarre-based outfits expected to attend this week’s on-site Conecta Fiction in Pamplona:

Adhokers Navarra

Created by Beatriz Acinas and José Luis Tejedor, Adhokers has offices in Madrid and Pamplona and produces TV contents and commercials. Upcoming projects include TV series “Encuentros en Villa Lancaster” and “Manual de usar y tirar.”

Apolo Films

Founded by legendary animation creator-entrepreneur Claudio Biern Boyd, indie studio Apolo has operated in Navarre since 2018, focusing on toon features inspired by well-known international brands. On Jan. 21, it will release in Spain swashbuckling adventure “Dogtanian & The Three Muskehounds,” the newest installment in the the 40-year-old iconic TV property. “Dogtanian” is helmed by Apolo creative director Toni García and written by “Puss in Boots...

Orange Studio has boarded “Tanzanite,” a female-centric thriller from Swiss-Rwandan filmmaker Kantarama Gahigiri, Variety has learned exclusively.

“Tanzanite” takes place in the year 2045 in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, a lawless city where temperatures have become dangerously high and the government has imposed a curfew to tame brewing unrest. One day, a bright and feisty 11-year-old girl working in an illegal mine discovers a precious tanzanite gemstone, which is believed to hold the soul of the region and give hope and protection to its bearer.

But the gemstone’s discovery sets off a scramble to possess it and harness its powers, pitting a psychopathic cult leader and his private army against an all-female militia and a jaded detective on the downward slope of her career.

“Tanzanite” is co-produced by Urucu Media and Close Up Films, with development funding from Orange Studio and Switzerland’s Migros. The film is co-written by Gahigiri...

It’s the evolution of animation. It can be argued that “The Simpsons” opened the door for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, which in turn kicked down the door to let in shows including “Bojack Horseman,” “Archer” and “Rick & Morty.” U.S animators are serving up not only raunchy comedy but also sophisticated storytelling. Outside the U.S., animated features have a long history of telling difficult stories — most recently “The Swallows of Kabul” and “Funan” are two films that tackled horrific events. Animation aimed at adults is on the rise worldwide.

In his recently released white paper, “Adult Animation Finally Breaking Free of Its Comedy Shackles,” John Evershed, head of High Concentrate, which specializes in the packaging, development and sales of animated TV series and movies for adult audiences, notes that adult animated series have been driving ratings on both linear TV and SVODs for the past few years.

Annecy 2020 Online’s first wave of special programming for its world-class French animation festival (June 15-30) will include making of sessions, previews, and works-in-progress. The biggest news is that indie feature “Animal Crackers,” which premiered at Annecy in 2017, returns as a making of program, having been acquired by streamer Netflix.

The CG children’s fantasy, directed by Tony Bancroft (“Mulan”) and Scott Christan Sava, concerns a magical box of cookies coming to the rescue of a rundown circus. It contains voice work by John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, and boasts the work of character designer Carter Goodrich (“Ice Age”).

Netflix is also bringing a work-in-progress presentation of “The Cuphead Show!” series for 2021, adapted from retro-style video game by showrunners Dave Wasson (“Mickey Mouse”) and Cosmo Segurson (“SpongeBob Squarepants”). Drawing on the classic ’30s rubber hose animation style of Disney and Fleischer, the comedy follows the misadventures of the impulsive Cuphead and his naive brother,...

Switzerland’s Close Up Films, producer of the Participant Media-backed Toronto-premiered “Sing Me a Song” and co-producer of high-profile Cannes title “The Swallows of Kabul,” is developing a new production, “The Gift” (“Faiseuse de Secret”).

Set to be presented on Saturday April 25 as part of an Rts Prize: Documentary Perspectives showcase at Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland, news of “The Gift,” comes as Close Up Films bows its latest film, Michele Pennetta’s “Il Mio Corpo,” in main competition on Visions du Réel’s online platform. It will be made available to 500 viewers over April 25 to May 2. Swiss sales company Sweet Spot Docs has acquired international sales rights to “Il Mio Corpo.”

Produced by Close Up Films’ Flavia Zanon, whose credits also include Karim Sayed’s “My English Cousin” and Locarno-selected “Bird Island,” “The Gift” turns on what seems a remarkable phenomenon for modern-day Switzerland. The Secret is...

Barcelona — “Klaus,” “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians” and “Uncle Thomas Accounting for the Days” are among the finalists at the 3rd Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, to be held in the Spanish Canary Islands city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on April 18.

Produced by Spain’s Spa Studios and Atresmedia Cine for Netflix, “Klaus” delivers a singular Santa Claus origin story written by first-timer director Sergio Pablos, as well as Zach Lewis and Jim Mahoney. Carlos Martínez López co-directs this high-profile title, the first 2D movie by a major U.S. studio in many years, which snagged an Academy Award nomination and prizes at the Bafta and and Annie Awards.

Brazilian CG-animated hit “Tainá and the Amazon’s Guardians” is lead-produced by Marcela Baptista at Sincrocine in co-production with Hype Animation and Nickelodeon and directed by Andrè Forni (“Dino Aventuras”). A spin-off from a feature film trilogy, the ecology-themed 52-part...

Bordeaux, France — French directors Zabou Breitman and Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec, Belgian distributor Lumière and French production outfit Xilam won Tributes Awards at this year’s Cartoon Movie, Europe’s biggest animated feature co-production and sales forum which closed today in the French port city of Bordeaux.

Breitman and Gobbé-Mévellec’s “The Swallows Of Kabul,” which world premiered at the Cannes Festival’s Un Certain Regard last year, is produced by Les Armateurs in co-production with Melusine Prods. and Close Up Films. The 2D watercolor-style animation adapts the bestselling book from Yasmina Khadra offering a touching “fresco” of life under Taliban rule in the Afghan capital through the intertwined stories of two couples. It marks the fifth feature of actress-director Breitman and the her first animated title and for animator Gobbé-Mévellec her debut feature. “Kabul” is sold by Paris’ Celluloid Dreams.

Nominees for the Direction Tribute Award also included Spain’s Sergio Pablos...

The filmmaker jury of the online festival organised by UniFrance has crowned Sébastien Marnier’s feature film its winner, whilst the international press recognised The Swallows of Kabul . Whilst the audience awards of the online festival organised by UniFrance and running 16 January to 16 February, MyFrenchFilmFestival, won’t be announced until the close of this 10th edition of the event (read our news), the Filmmakers’ Jury and that of the international press have already delivered their verdicts. School’s Out by Sébastien Marnier found favour with the Filmmakers’ Jury, presided over by American director Ira Sachs and composed of his fellow countryman Brady Corbet, Czech director Michaela Pavlatova, Guatemala’s Jayro Bustamante and French actress Agathe Bonitzer. The film walks away with 15,000 euros. The vote of the international press jury, meanwhile, in the category of feature films, went to the animated title The Swallows of Kabul by Zabou Breitman and Éléa...

Jacqueline Lyanga, currently the Artistic Director of Film Independent in La, and Jasmine Jaisinghani, a film and culture professional based in La, have teamed up to present the inaugural Global Cinematheque World Cinema Awards. Seeking to give a more complete picture of the world films on offer throughout not just this past awards season, but the entire movie year, the prizes celebrate the best international cinema of year across 10 categories. Lyanga and Jaisinghani previously collaborated while working at AFI Fest.

Lyanga describes the initiative best in her statement: “Global Cinematheque and the World Cinema Awards were born of the passion for international cinema that … Jaisinghani and I share. The awards are a new platform for films made outside of the United States, through which we hope to expand the global reach of international cinema. There are extraordinary films being made all over the world and we want to bring the...

Parasite, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, Pain And Glory figure prominently in roster.

Citing a need for the awards season “to more authentically reflect the culture of the world in which we live”, Los Angeles-based film curator and promoter Global Cinematheque has announced the winners of its inaugural World Cinema Awards.

Parasite, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, and Pain And Glory figure prominently in the roster. In addition, UniFrance will receive Global Cinematheque’s first World Cinema Cultural Spotlight Award in honour of 70 years of “extraordinary work” promoting French cinema throughout the world.

Three additional Global Cinematheque Spotlight...

By any measure, it’s been a great year for animation. From “Frozen 2” and “Toy Story 4” bringing in huge box-office numbers in the U.S. to “Ne Zha” becoming the top-grossing Chinese animated film with more than $700 million gross to 32 official entries in the best animated feature category for the 2020 Oscars, animated stories flexed their muscles.

But those animated films are also vehicles for filmmakers to tell diverse, challenging and unexpected stories of all kinds throughout the world. Whether their films are fantasy or even historical fiction, the storytellers are drawn to the medium.

“Animation makes it easier for the audience to believe in the world we created, they might think was a fantasy world but we show them that it is not,” writes Salvador Simo in an email with Variety about his film “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles.”

The animated feature takes us through the...

Upcoming talent to be showcased at the Berlin Film Festival.

The 10 young actors selected for this year’s European Shooting Stars has been unveiled.

European Film Promotion (Efp) has revealed the selection of upcoming talent, which will be introduced to international casting directors, producers and filmmakers at the Berlin Film Festival next month.

They include Germany’s Jonas Dassler, who starred as serial killer Fritz Honka in Faith Akin’s The Golden Glove, a biography of German serial killer Fritz Honka, which played in competition at last year’s Berlinale.

The selection also features Poland’s Bartosz Bielenia from Poland,...

European Film Promotion has unveiled the 10 Shooting Stars, up-and-coming acting talents set to break out internationally, who will be honored at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.

The selection comprises Bartosz Bielenia from Poland, star of Jan Komasa’s “Corpus Christi,” among films shortlisted for this year’s best international feature film Oscar; France’s Zita Hanrot, the voice talent of Zunaira in animated Oscar contender “The Swallows of Kabul” who broke out locally with Philippe Faucon’s “Fatima”; and Portugal’s Joana Ribeiro who is currently shooting Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller “Infinite” for Paramount alongside Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Previous Shooting Stars include Alicia Vikander, Alba Rohrwacher, Matthias Schoenaerts, Pilou Asbæk and Baltasar Kormákur.

The Shooting Stars initiative is also honoring German actor Jonas Dassler, who made a splash at Berlin last year with his performance as a serial killer in Fatih Akin’s “The Golden Glove”; Dutch actor Bilal Wahib,...

The 2020 edition of European Shooting Stars has unveiled the 10 young acting talents it will spotlight, with participants arriving with credits including Polish Oscar shortlisted feature Corpus Christi.

On the list is Polish actor Bartosz Bielenia, whose turn as an amateur priest in Jan Komasa’s Corpus Christi has already earned him acting awards at the Stockholm, Chicago and El Gouna film festivals.

He is selected alongside Danish actress Victoria Carmen Sonne, who has appeared in Hlynur Palmason’s Winters Brothers and Isabella Eklöf’s 2018 Sundance pic Holiday; she has won two Danish Academy awards (Bodils).

Also named is Swiss actress Ella Rumpf, who lead the cast of Julia Ducournau’s 2016 Cannes selection Raw, which won her the Révelation prize at the 2018 César Awards, and Jakob Lass’s 2017 Berlin title Tiger Girl. Rumpf will also appear this year in upcoming German Netflix series Freud.

Portuguese talent Joana Ribeiro makes the 2020 cut...

Ten of Europe's hottest young acting talents were unveiled Thursday, with the announcement of the 2020 European Shooting Stars.

The talent scouts at European Film Promotion selected up-and-coming actors and actresses on the cusp of their international breakthrough.

The Shooting Stars class of 2020 includes French actress Zita Hanrot, star of local hit School Life as well as the voice of Zunaira in animated Oscar contender The Swallows of Kabul; Portuguese star Joana Ribeiro, currently shooting, alongside Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, Antoine Fuqua’s new TV series, Infinite; and German actor Jonas Dassler, whose transformative performance as serial killer Fritz Honka in Fatih ...

Ten of Europe's hottest young acting talents were unveiled Thursday, with the announcement of the 2020 European Shooting Stars.

The talent scouts at European Film Promotion selected up-and-coming actors and actresses on the cusp of their international breakthrough.

The Shooting Stars class of 2020 includes French actress Zita Hanrot, star of local hit School Life as well as the voice of Zunaira in animated Oscar contender The Swallows of Kabul; Portuguese star Joana Ribeiro, currently shooting, alongside Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor, Antoine Fuqua’s new TV series, Infinite; and German actor Jonas Dassler, whose transformative performance as serial killer Fritz Honka in Fatih ...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that 344 feature films are eligible for the 2019 Academy Awards.

To be eligible for the consideration, the films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by Dec. 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days. Academy rules also state that a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format.

Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. The ceremony takes place on Sunday, Feb. 9, airing live from Hollywood on ABC.

“Abominable”

“Ad Astra”

“Adam”

“The Addams Family”

“The Aeronauts”

“After the Wedding”

“The Aftermath”

“Aga”

“Aladdin”

“Alita: Battle Angel”

“Always Be My Maybe”

“The Amazing Johnathan”

“American Factory”

“American Woman”

“Angel Has Fallen”

“The Angry Birds Movie 2”

“Anna”

“Annabelle Comes Home...

Now in their 32nd year, the European Film Awards unfold Saturday in Berlin, and here’s where you can live-stream the ceremony. With some titles controversial (Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy”) and others at least a year old for those of us stateside (“The Favourite”), this year’s ceremony is sure to be a fun romp.

Leading the pack is director “An Officer and a Spy,” the Dreyfus affair drama that picked up a top prize at Venice back in September, tied for four nominations alongside Pedro Almodóvar’s self-reflective “Pain and Glory,” Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Favourite.” While released in the fall of 2018 in the United States, the latter film’s international release window made it eligible for the European Film Awards this year. “The Favourite” won star Olivia Colman, who plays a gout-stricken Queen Anne, a Best Actress Academy Award earlier...

An acclaimed French director who has also been acting since age four, Zabou Breitman made her first animated feature with 2020 awards contender The Swallows of Kabul—a film that came about, and was crafted, in an unusual and unexpected way.

Set in a Taliban-occupied Kabul in the summer of 1998, the drama centers on young lovers Mohsen and Zunaira, who work to preserve their relationship amidst a backdrop of perpetual violence and misery, until a senseless act on the part of Mohsen changes their lives forever. Screening in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, the film is based on a novel by Algerian author Yasmina Khadra, though it wasn’t the book that brought Breitman to the project.

“A young producer had the script from the book made already and thought to make, I think, a real action movie, but then thought it would be better to have an animation film.

Industry veterans, Dov Kornits and Lou Balletti have announced the launch of a new theatrical distributor operating in Australia. The company pitches itself as a one-stop shop straddling distribution and media promotion, and will begin operations with a Friday 13 December release of horror title “Wrinkles the Clown.”

Kornits is publisher of Australian film magazine and website FilmInk. He has also been head of theatrical for specialty distributor Umbrella Entertainment, and has consulted with distributors Label, Bonsai, Universal and Athabasca on local releases.

The company’s co-director Lou Balletti had her earlier career in exhibition, before becoming head of theatrical sales for distributor Hopscotch Films. In recent years she headed digital sales across Australia and New Zealand for Entertainment One, with responsibility for launching titles including “Peppa Pig,” “Vice,” “Green Book” and “The Walking Dead.”

The company’s 2020 release slate includes “Talking About Trees” (an audience winner at the Berlin and...

Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” lead the race for the 32nd European Film Awards with four nominations apiece in the major categories. The awards, voted on by more than 3,600 members of the European Film Academy, will be presented at the awards ceremony on Dec. 7 in Berlin.

Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” followed with three nominations in the top categories each, while Ladj Ly’s “Les Misérables” and Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” were both short-listed in two major categories.

“The Favourite” picked up an additional nomination in the comedy category, while “Les Misérables” received a further nomination in the Discovery section for newcomers.

A single nomination each went to “A White, White Day,” “And Then We Danced,” “Beanpole,” “Gundermann” and “Queen of Hearts.”

Competing for best documentary are “For Sama,...

The movie awards season is full speed ahead, and today, the European Film Awards unveiled their nominations for the best films of 2019. Leading the pack is director Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy,” the Dreyfus affair drama that picked up a top prize at Venice back in September, tied for four nominations alongside Pedro Almodóvar’s self-reflective “Pain and Glory,” Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite.” While released in the fall of 2018 in the United States, the latter film’s international release window made it eligible for the European Film Awards this year. “The Favourite” won star Olivia Colman, who plays a gout-stricken Queen Anne, a Best Actress Academy Award earlier this year — the movie’s only win from 10 nominations.

Also picking up heat among the nominees is Céline Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” which Neon opens stateside in December. Sciamma...

Only a few days after Roman Polanski was accused of a 1975 rape by a French actress, the director has become one of the leading nominees for the 2019 European Film Awards for his film “An Officer and a Spy.”

The drama about the Dreyfus affair in 19th century France landed four nominations, tying it with Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory,” and Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor” for the most Efa nominations.

Those four films were all nominated in the European Film category, along with “Les Miserables” and “System Crasher.” Polanski was also nominated for European director, along with Almodovar, Bellocchio, Lanthimos and Celine Sciamma for “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”

“An Officer and a Spy” also received nominations for lead actor Jean Dujardin and for its screenplay by Polanski and Robert Harris.

Also Read: 'An Officer and a Spy' Review: Roman Polanski Is No Emile...

The venerable sales company changed its strategy before Berlin.

Celluloid Dreams has unveiled a slew of deals on its Venice competition titles The Painted Bird and Babyteeth and Cannes selection The Swallows Of Kabul, in a sign that the rationalised, targeted sales and acquisition strategy it adopted earlier this year is yielding results.

Panahi announced in February that she and company vice-president Charlotte Mickie were rationalising Celluloid Dreams’s operations and rethinking the way they did sales to take a more targeted approach.

“Our strategy, to acquire films selectively for theatrical potential and maximise results, has proven to be a winner for us,...

Netflix’s “I Lost My Body,” the existential adventure about a severed hand, won the Grand Prize award at the third annual Animation Is Film Festival, held last weekend at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood. The Cannes Nespresso Grand Prize winner from French director Jérémy Clapin beat out GKids’ “Weathering With You,” the popular Japanese climate-change romance from “Your Name” director Makoto Shinkai, which shared the Audience award with “The Swallows of Kabul” (from French directors Zabou Breitman and Elea Gobbe-Mevellec) about love and horror during Taliban occupation.

In addition, Romanian director Anca Damian’s hear-tugger “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” (GKids) earned the special jury prize for visual impact, exploring the memories of a mixed-breed Labrador with its various owners in a daring assortment of animated techniques.

The Aif win for “I Lost My Body,” the adult-themed, boldly graphic mystery about overcoming pain and suffering, means that the streamer...

“I Lost My Body,” the curious story of a disembodied hand searching to reunite with its body, won the grand prize at the Animation is Film Festival, held Oct. 18-20 in Los Angeles. The audience prize was split between two films, Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You” and “The Swallows of Kabul” by Zabou Breitman and Elea Gobbe-Mevellec.

Netflix acquired the worldwide rights to “I Lost My Body,” directed by Jérémy Clapin, after the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The French film — which bested its live-action competition to win the top prize in Critics’ Week at Cannes — screened in its original language at Animation Is Film. Netflix has also prepared an English dub featuring the voices of Dev Patel, Alia Shawkat and George Wendt, which will be available to Netflix subscribers on Nov. 29, two weeks after the French version receives its Oscar-qualifying run on Nov. 15.

“The...

The third annual Animation Is Film Festival (Aif) returns this weekend to the Tcl Chinese 6 Theater in Hollywood, with indie Oscar hopefuls “Weathering With You” (GKids), Japan’s official International Film Oscar entry from “Your Name” director Makoto Shinkai, and “I Lost My Body” (Netflix), the Cannes Nespresso Grand Prize winner from director Jeremy Clapin, competing for the jury Grand Prize and Audience awards.

This year Aif (co-sponsored by GKids and Annecy) offers 10 features in competition with a special emphasis on Asian releases. The festival will also present special screenings, retrospectives (a 4K restoration of the Hungarian “Son of the White Mare”), behind-the-scenes presentations (Disney’s “Frozen 2” and Netflix’s “Klaus”), short films (a Best of Annecy with female directors), and more.

“One of the trends that’s really obvious this year is representation by Asia, not just Japan, but China and India, and even within that, you have a huge range of filmmaking,...

“The Addams Family,” “Frozen II,” “Toy Story 4,” “Abominable” and “The Secret Life of Pets 2” are among the record 32 movies submitted for the animated feature film category at the 2020 Oscars.

Last year’s Academy Awards race boasted 25 entries, while 2017 had 26 and 2016 had 27 (a then-record).

The list of contenders makes for an interesting race leading up to the awards show on Feb. 9, 2020. Featuring an ensemble that includes Charlize Theron, Allison Janney and Bette Midler, “Addams Family” has raked in $35 million at the domestic box office since its release on Friday. While it brought in half the earnings of its predecessor, Universal and Illumination’s “Secret Life of Pets 2” had a decent showing, grossing $46.7 million in its opening weekend. Moviegoers are still anxiously awaiting the release of “Frozen II,” which hits theaters on Nov. 22.

Here’s the complete list of qualifying movies:

“Abominable”

“The Addams Family”

“The Angry Birds Movie 2...

Dilili In Paris - one of the contenders for Best Animated Picture in 2020 Photo: UniFrance

What will be the 2020 Academy Awards Best Animated Picture winner? The longlist was released today, showing 32 films in competition, though some ave not yet had the week-long Los Angeles theatrical run necessary for them to fully qualify. They range from popular hits like Toy Story 4 to traditional animation like Dilili In Paris and creative oddities like This Magnificent Cake! Some, like The Swallows Of Kabul and Another Day Of Life, are notable for their challenging subject matter, while others, like The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, focus on visual inventiveness.

The contenders will be whittled down to five by the 13th of January ahead of the final vote. They remain eligible for awards in other categories as well. The Oscar ceremony will take place earlier in the year than usual, on 9 February.

That...

Members of short films and feature animation branch automatically eligible to vote in category.

The Academy on Wednesday (16) unveiled a longlist of 32 films submitted for contention in the animation feature Oscar contest, which include Pixar’s Toy Story 4 and Enlight Media’s Chinese box office smash Ne Zha.

Among the hopefuls are Netflix’s I Lost My Body, How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World from DreamWorks Animation, Spain’s Buñuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles, and recent North American release The Addams Family from United Artists Releasing.

The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:

Abominable...

Now that five nomination slots are guaranteed for the burgeoning animated feature Oscar category, it doesn’t matter that as many as 32 films have been submitted. Assuming they are eligible (several films have not yet had their required Los Angeles seven-day qualifying run), they will contend for the Oscar won last year by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Read: Oscars 2020: Best Animated Feature Predictions

Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically eligible to vote for the final five nominees in the category, while other Academy members are invited to opt-in and must watch a minimum number of films to be eligible to vote for the animated final five.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.

Frontrunners in the animation race include PIxar’s “Toy Story 4,” DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World...

Now that five nomination slots are guaranteed for the burgeoning animated feature Oscar category, it doesn’t matter that as many as 32 films have been submitted. Assuming they are eligible (several films have not yet had their required Los Angeles seven-day qualifying run), they will contend for the Oscar won last year by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

Read: Oscars 2020: Best Animated Feature Predictions

Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch are automatically eligible to vote for the final five nominees in the category, while other Academy members are invited to opt-in and must watch a minimum number of films to be eligible to vote for the animated final five.

Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.

Frontrunners in the animation race include PIxar’s “Toy Story 4,” DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its list of films submitted for the Animated Feature race at the 92nd annual Academy Awards. Thirty-two films will vie for a slot on the Oscar shortlist and, ideally, a nomination when those are announced in January.

Here are the toon hopefuls, several of which have yet to yet to have their required seven-day qualifying run in Los Angeles:

Abominable

The Addams Family

The Angry Birds Movie 2

Another Day of Life

Away

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles

Children of the Sea

Dilili in Paris

Frozen II

Funan

Genndy Tartakovsky’s ‘Primal’ – Tales of Savagery

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

I Lost My Body

Klaus

The Last Fiction

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Marona’s Fantastic Tale

Missing Link

Ne Zha

Okko’s Inn

Pachamama

Promare

Rezo

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Spies in Disguise...

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, I Lost My Body, Marona's Fantastic Tale and The Swallows of Kabul are vying for the European Animated Feature Film award. The European Film Awards have announced the nominations for the award category European Animated Feature Film 2019. The nominations were determined by a committee comprised of Efa Board Deputy Chairman Antonio Saura (Spain), Efa Board Member Graziella Bildesheim (Italy) and producer Paul Young (Ireland) as well as, representing Cartoon, the European Association of Animation Film, film critic Stéphane Dreyfus (France), producer Kristine Mi Knudsen (Germany) and director Janno Põldma (Estonia). The nominees are: European Animated Feature FilmBuñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles - Salvador Simó (Spain/Netherlands)I Lost My Body - Jérémy Clapin (France)Marona's Fantastic Tale - Anca Damian (Romania/France/Belgium)The Swallows of Kabul - Zabou Breitman, Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec (France/Luxembourg/Switzerland) The nominated films will soon be...

Cannes Film Festival chiefs Pierre Lescure and Thierry Fremaux have named the six titles that will comprise its inaugural ‘Film Week’ at Hong Kong’s K11 Musea in November (12-17). They include three from this year’s Cannes competition: Young Ahmed, which won best director, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, which took best screenplay, and Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor. Screening from the Un Certain Regard section are The Invisible Life Of Euridice Gusmão, which won the sidebar’s top prize, The Climb, which took the jury’s Coup de Cœur prize; and On A Magical Night, which took the best performance award for Chiara Mastroianni. The Hong Kong event will also feature masterclasses with Young Ahmed directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux, who will talk about the works of the Lumiere brothers, and a third as-yet unannounced guest.

Rakuten TV, the European VOD service owned by Japanese retailer Rakuten,...

Winners set to be announced in Berlin on December 7.

The European Film Awards (Efa) has unveiled the four features that will compete for the animation prize.

Buñuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles; I Lost My Body; Marona’s Fantastic Tale; and The Swallows of Kabul are all in the running for European Animated Feature Film 2019.

The winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony on December 7 in Berlin.

Salvador Simó’s Buñuel In The Labyrinth Of The Turtles has already picked up several festival awards including the jury prize at the Annecy International Animation Festival in June.

The film,...

The third Animation Is Film Festival has set “Weathering With You” as its opening film on Oct. 18 at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

“Weathering With You” is set in Japan during exceptionally rainy weather and tells the story of a high school boy who befriends an orphan girl who appears to be able to manipulate the weather. It’s been chosen as Japan’s entry for best international feature film at the 92nd Academy Awards. Director Makoto Shinkai and producer Genki Kawamura are expected to be in attendance.

Closing the festival on Oct. 20 will be France’s “I Lost My Body,” with director Jeremy Clapin and producer Marc du Pontavice in attendance. The film screened at the International Critics Week section at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Nespresso Grand Prize.

The festival will present 10 feature films in competition, vying for grand prize, special jury prize, and audiences award.

The animated feature by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec has taken home the Award for Best Film, while Papicha scooped three prizes. The animated feature The Swallows of Kabul by France’s Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, which was unveiled in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, has come out on top at the 12th Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, taking home the Diamond Valois for Best Film handed out by the jury chaired by British actress Jacqueline Bisset. Also singled out in the Best Film Score category (thanks to the work of Alexis Rault), this production by Les Armateurs together with Arte France Cinéma, Luxembourg’s Melusine Productions, Switzerland’s Close Up Films and Rts, and Monaco-based outfit Knm, is being sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams and will be released in French theatres on 4 September by Memento Films Distribution.The winners’ list of the Charente-based festival also shone a lot of the limelight on.

Manora's Fantastic TaleA fluffy stick figure in Don Hertzfeldt’s introduction for The Animation Show (2003) plaintively asks, “What’s Animation?”—and what follows in this brilliant short is a staging of the magic and power of animation, its contrarian tendencies towards cuteness and violence, and its delightful defiance of accepted (realist) categories and definitions. While it may seem a bit obvious to ask this question, the problem of “what’s animation” continues to resonate deeply in contemporary film culture. This has been especially true this year with a controversial pick for the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, Lorenzo Mattotti’s The Bears Famous Invasion of Sicily. Was it too perverse, too demented, or too shoddy to be shown in the festival? No, it seemed too “childish,” provoking some critics to ask how it could be relevant for adults or appropriate for a “serious” film festival. Such rigorous...

Madrid — Navarre has been a long-term film and TV shooting locale thanks to diverse and sometimes stunning landscapes that take in the Bardenas Reales badlands, immortalized in titles such as “The World Is Not Enough” and “Game of Thrones.”

One of Spain’s richest regions, Navarre has historically levied its own tax regime, which led in 2015 to its launching a highly competitive 35% tax credit for shoots which spend at least 40% of their budgets in the territory.

Once the incentive became part of Navarre’s film-tv mix, it started to generate larger economic activity around the audiovisual industry, and see high-profile national companies such as Tornasol Films and Nostromo Pictures choose Navarre as a preferential locale.

Gerardo Herrero’s Tornasol, for example, shot Terry Gilliam’s Cannes Festival closer “The Man Who Shot Don Quixote” in the towns of Galipienzo, San Martín de Unx and Lerga; Nostromo filmed feature adaptations of...

Annecy, France — Fulfilling expectations, Jeremy Clapin’s “I Lost My Body, the subject of one of the highest-profile Netflix deals at this year’s Cannes, won this Saturday the Annecy Festival’s top Cristal Award of best feature plus, in a relatively rare Annecy double whammy, the festival’s Audience Award.

The first was expected, the second a sign of the broad appeal of a movie whose premise – a severed hand desperately attempting to be reunited with its body – seems a highly unlikely point of departure for a movie of any kind.

Hailed as a masterpiece by many critics “I Lost My Body” was described by Peter Debruge in his Variety review as “one of the strangest ideas ever committed to animation — a severed hand seeks answers,” which “ultimately proves to be one of the medium’s most profound offerings.”

With a 2019 Annecy jury mention going to Salvador Simó’s...