News

Indie Sales has closed a raft of deals on “Dandelion’s Odyssey,” Japanese director Momoko Seto’s feature debut. The movie will have its North American premiere in the Centrepiece section at Toronto.

“Dandelion’s Odyssey” world premiered at Cannes Critic’s Week where it won the Fipresci Award, and went to play at Annecy where it nabbed the Paul Grimault Award.

The animation film has sold in Switzerland (Praesens), Greece (Cinobo), Poland (Best Film), Baltic States (Gpi), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Latin America (Cinetopia), Indonesia (Pt Falcon) and Philippines (Crystalsky Multimedia).

Leading family movie distributor Gebeka will handle the French theatrical release in March 2026, while Bantam (“Flow”) will release it in the Benelux.

An ecological fable animated by Guionne Leroy (“Toy Story”) and scored by Nicolas Becker (“Sound of Metal”) and Quentin Sirjacq, “Dandelion’s Odyssey” is set in a a dystopian world where plants and animals are the main characters.

One of the more hotly anticipated work-in-progress sessions at this year’s Annecy Animation Festival was for “Viva Carmen,” a new feature from director Sébastien Laudenbach.

At the 2023 edition of the festival, his feature “Chicken for Linda!”—which he co-directed with his partner Chiara Malta—took top honors, and for good reason. It was a ravishing, vibrantly colored, light-hearted film that trusted its young audience to engage with reflections not just on death and grief but also on proletarian solidarity (the children go on strike and throw sweets at a bumbling police officer).

Laudenbach’s new film “Viva Carmen” has a similar mission: to translate Georges Bizet’s famous opera to a younger audience without compromising the themes and music that have contributed to its longevity.

The film is “an adaptation of ‘Carmen,’ but also a spin-off,” as much of the perspective comes from Salva, a 13-year-old street kid in...

Global Constellation, the financing and international sales outfit recently formed through the union of London- and Paris-based Film Constellation with Munich’s Global Screen, is making a strong showing at the Annecy Animation Festival as it unveils its animation slate.

Global Constellation, part of Vuelta Group’s international sales division Playtime Group, has six high-caliber animated features in production and slated for delivery in 2025 and 2026, and additional titles in advanced development for 2027 and beyond.

Fabien Westerhoff, managing director – film, Global Constellation, said: “Animation is a key pillar of our strategy, and this slate signals the scale of our ambition. We’re curating projects that combine strong market appeal with the distinct creative signatures of Europe’s most exciting talents. This is about building globally-minded, theatrically viable animation that travels, both commercially and culturally.”

In Cannes, Global Constellation unveiled a new promo for underwater CG adventure “The Last Whale Singer” from...

Exclusive: Italy’s Vision Distribution has signed on for international sales to Three O’Clock In The Morning, the next film from Chicken For Linda! director Chiara Malta.

Stefano Accorsi will star in the 1980s set Three O’Clock In The Morning as an Italian mathematician who finds himself having to spend three days and two nights in Marseille with his only teenage son, who grew up with his mother.

The boy, who suffers from epilepsy, must undergo an experimental treatment that requires him to remain awake for two consecutive nights. Between nocturnal wanderings and sleep deprivation, father and son...

Annecy, the world’s leading animation film festival, unveiled its official program on Wednesday, with a line-up that includes features from some 20 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas and a range of styles, from the big-budget 3D computer animated feature Into the Mortal World from Chinese director Zhong Ding; to the hand-drawn title Balentes by Italian filmmaker Giovanni Columbu, and the digital cut out animation of Mexican filmmaker Aria Covamonas: The Great History of Western Philosophy.

Covamonas’ debut premiered at the Rotterdam festival, and Annecy’s 2025 lineup features a best-of selection of recent fests, including Berlinale highlights Lesbian Space Princess and Tales from the Magic Garden, and several features premiering in Cannes next month, including The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol from The Triplets of Belleville director Sylvain Chomet; Dandelion’s Odyssey from Japanese director Momoko Seto; and Death Does Not Exist from Canadian filmmaker Felix Dufour-Laperrière.

‘Lesbian Space...

France’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 8-14) will preview upcoming animations including Zootopia 2, Animal Farm and the Stranger Things animated series as part of its 2025 lineup.

The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, director Michel Gondry andacclaimed UK animator Joanna Quinn will receive honorary Cristal awards.

Gondry will present his Berlinale 2025 title Maya, Give Me a Title as a special screening.

Scroll down for the full list of competition films, screening events and studio showcases

Also attending are Andy Serkis for what the festival described as a ‘special premiere’ of his animated feature adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm,...

The Annecy Festival continues to champion cutting-edge global animation, from studio tentpoles to indie darlings. This year’s Work in Progress showcase – always one of the most popular sidebars at any edition of the fest – offers an enticing glimpse into 12 upcoming features and four series in varying stages of production. Here’s a look at this year’s impressive 16-title lineup.

Features

“Carmen,” Sébastien Laudenbach (France)

From “Chicken for Linda!” and “The Girl Without Hands” director Sébastien Laudenbach, “Carmen” is set in 1840s Seville and follows Salva, a teen assistant to a blind knife grinder, who becomes captivated by a young gypsy woman with a haunting voice. A grim prophecy foretelling Carmen’s death sets Salva and his gang of street kids on a desperate mission to change her fate. Animated in a painterly 2D style, this atmospheric French production weaves suspense, music, and youthful defiance into a tale as...

Cannes parallel section Acid, run by France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (l’Acid), has unveiled its 2025 line-up.

The section will open with French actress and director Sophie Letourneur’s L’aventura set against a family road trip to Sardinia told by the 11-year-old daughter.

Letourneur co-stars as the mother opposite Philippe Katerine, who gained international fame over the summer when he appeared nearly naked and painted blue as Dionysus in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

The section will showcase nine features – eight of them world premieres – selected by a committee of directors from 600 submissions and aimed at showcasing “original and audacious” works.

International films include U.S.-based Argentinian director Lucio Castro’s Drunken Noodles. Loosely inspired by the life of embroidery artist Sal Salandra, it follows a young artist as he arrives in New York and tries to break into the gallery scene.

From Finland,...

Celebrated Japanese animation director Masaaki Yuasa has unveiled the debut project from his newly established animation studio, ame pippin. Titled “Daisy’s Life,” the feature is a Japanese-French co-production based on Banana Yoshimoto’s novel Hinagiku no Jinsei, with original illustrations by renowned artist Yoshitomo Nara. The film is set for delivery in 2026.

Yuasa is best known for his surreal storytelling and bold visual style in films such as “Mind Game,” “Lu Over the Wall,” and the Golden Globe-nominated “Inu-Oh.” He launched ame pippin in February 2025 with the goal of pushing artistic boundaries in the animation world. Backed by heavyweights Asmik Ace, Inc., Aniplex Inc. and CoMix Wave Films, the Tokyo-based studio aims to be a major force in the ever-evolving global animation landscape.

“Daisy’s Life” follows the emotional journey of a six-year-old girl named Daisy, who loses her mother in a tragic accident and struggles to adapt to life with her aunt.

The Wild Robot swept its categories at the 2025 Annie Awards, winning a leading nine awards, including best feature.

The DreamWorks Animation title was nominated 10 times, but two of those nods were in the same category.

Also Saturday night, The Wild Robot won the Producers Guild Award for outstanding producer of animated theatrical motion pictures. And Friday night, it won best animated feature at the Critics Choice Awards.

Other features that won multiple awards from the International Animated Film Society Asifa-Hollywood, which presents the prizes recognizing the year’s best in animation, include two-time winners Flow and Orion and the Dark, with the former winning best feature — independent and best writing — feature.

Flow, which won the Golden Globe for best animated motion picture, and The Wild Robot are both nominated for the Oscar for best animated feature, along with Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.

The board of Asifa-Hollywood, the organization behind the 52nd annual Annie Awards, pondered, like many other organizers behind events on the awards season calendar, whether the show should be postponed or scaled back because of the devastating fires that ravaged Los Angeles in early January. Many members of the animation community are among those who’ve been severely impacted.

“We represent the animation community and it’s really important to us, especially at this time, that we support them a thousand percent,” says Asifa-Hollywood executive director Aubry Mintz. And after much discussion, the board decided that the show will go on, albeit with a somewhat more somber tone and featuring the announcement of efforts to consolidate resources and support for those in the community dealing with various (and in many cases multiple) losses.

“We discussed this with the board: ‘What are the implications if we go forward with the Annies...

“Chicken for Linda!” directors Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta will follow-up their multiple award-winning feature with a mortality-themed animal tale “My Stupid Intentions.”

Adapted from a 2023 book from Italian author Bernardo Zannoni, the decidedly adult novel reads as the autobiography of a beech marten born into poverty then raised into a harsh and uncaring world.

“This is a book of extraordinary cruelty,” Malta tells Variety. “It’s a very dark tale that deals with death and the emergence of consciousness in the animal kingdom. Because with consciousness comes nostalgia, memory, the fear of mortality, and the awareness of being finite. With it comes loss, grief and chaos – and this is the challenge [Sébastien Laudenbach and I] have set for ourselves.”

“By adapting a book with such intense cruelty for a young audience, the goal, essentially, is to talk to children about death,” Malta continues. “We want to take this beautiful book — one that deals...

DreamWorks Animation leads the 2025 Annie Awards feature competition with 10 nominations, including for best feature, best FX and best character animation, it was announced on Friday.

The top feature category saw nominations also handed out by the International Animated Film Society Asifa-Hollywood to DreamWorks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda 4, Pixar Animation Studios’ Inside Out 2, Locksmith Animation and Netflix’s That Christmas, Tsuburaya Productions/Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, from Aardman and Netflix.

Based on Peter Brown’s bestselling middle-grade novel, Wild Robot from director Chris Sanders centers on Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), a robot marooned on a jungle-y island, as she meets an assortment of colorful anthropomorphic animals. They include a wry mama opossum (Catherine O’Hara), a mischievous fox (Pedro Pascal) and a small orphaned goose, voiced by Kit Connor.

The best indie animation feature category has entries for Chicken for Linda!, Flow,...

After collecting the Spark Award at last month’s IndieWire Honors, Chris Sanders now has further reason for celebration as his sci-fi adventure “The Wild Robot,” produced by Dreamworks Animation, has gone on to receive the most recognition from Asifa-Hollywood this year, earning 10 Annie Award nominations, including in the category of Best Feature and Best Direction. No other film came close to this number, though “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” from Aardman and Netflix and “Inside Out 2” from Pixar Animation were closest with 7 nominations each. “That Christmas” from Locksmith Animation and Netflix also fared pretty well, eking out 6 nominations, including in major categories like Best Feature.

The 52nd Annual Annie Awards will be held at UCLA’s Royce Hall on February 8, 2025 at 7:00 pm Pt. In addition to “The Wild Robot,” “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” “Inside Out 2,” and “That Christmas,” others competing for the title...

After a year of big changes, The A.V. Club’s roster of film critics has added a slew of new faces and brought back some old favorites. That state of flux—a net positive to be sure—means our final voting roster of regulars is a little smaller than in years past.

With an awards season and year-end lists that tend to favor films that have been released in the last few months, there’s many films that can go overlooked. For our yearly feature highlighting the 50 best films you might have missed––arriving before our overall top 50 films––we’ve sought to dig deep to find the gems that deserved more attention upon their initial release and have mostly been left out of year-end conversations. Hopefully, with many widely available on a variety of streaming platforms, they will begin to find an expanded audience.

While many documentaries would qualify for this list, we stuck strictly to narrative efforts; one can instead read our rundown of the top docs here. We also haven’t included 2024 films that only got awards-qualifying runs this year, including Universal Language and Armand. And while there’s some films that deserved bigger audiences, such as Here, Juror...

The Academy has unveiled the list of feature films that are eligible for consideration in the animated feature, documentary feature Film, and international feature at the 2025 Oscars.

In animation, 31 films will vie for one of the five spots, including “The Wild Robot,” “Inside Out 2,” “Memoir of a Snail,” “Flow,” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.”

In documentary feature, 169 films are eligible. Among them are “No Other Land,” “Daughters,” “Martha,” “I Am: Celine Dion,” and “Dahomey,” which is Senegal’s submission for international feature.

In international feature, there are 85 hopefuls, including frontrunner “Emilia Pérez” (France), “I’m Still Here” (Brazil), “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” (Germany), “Kneecap” (Ireland), and “Flight 404” (Egypt).

The shortlists of 15 films for documentary and international features will be released on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Friday, Jan. 17. The 97th Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O’Brien, will be held on Sunday, March 2 at 7 p.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pulled back the curtain on the films eligible for consideration in the Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature categories for the 97th Academy Awards next year.

The list includes 31 toon features, 169 docs and international pics from 85 countries. Preliminary voting for the 97th Oscars runs December 9-13, and all three shortlists will be revealed December 17. The Oscars will be handed out Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

Here are the animated, documentary and international features eligible for the 2024 Oscars:

Best Animated Feature

Art College 1994

Captain Avispa

Chicken for Linda!

The Colors Within

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie

Despicable Me 4

Flow

The Garfield Movie

Ghost Cat Anzu

The Glassworker

The Imaginary

Inside Out 2

Kensuke’s Kingdom

Kung Fu Panda 4

Living Large

Look Back

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

Mars Express

Memoir of a Snail...

The Academy has unveiled its list of eligible films for the 97th Oscars in the animated, documentary, and international feature categories, spotlighting various blockbusters and critically lauded works. Submissions span major studios and independent filmmakers alike, and the competition promises to be one of the most competitive as films seek nominations.

A total of 31 animated feature films are in contention this year, including DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” IFC Films’ “Memoir of a Snail,” and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2,” which recently became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. While this year’s number is slightly down from 33 submissions in 2023, it marks an increase from the 27 entries in 2022, reflecting a robust year for animation. Among the list also is Janus Film and Sideshow’s “Flow,” which will also compete in the international feature race for Latvia.

Nominees in the Animated Feature category are determined by the Academy’s Animation Branch members,...

A total of 31 animated features, 169 documentary features and 85 international features are eligible for Oscar nominations this season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed on Thursday.

In the animated feature category, high-profile studio films like Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out 2 and Universal/DreamWorks’s The Wild Robot and acclaimed indies like Memoir of a Snail are joined in the running by longer shots like The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, a film jettisoned by Warner Bros. that wound up with the distributor Ketchup Entertainment.

The documentary feature race, meanwhile, includes titles that have dominated at the doc community’s precursor awards, including Nat Geo’s Sugarcane, Netflix’s Daughters and MTV’s Black Box Diaries; two that count Malala Yousafzai as an executive producer, Apple’s Bread & Roses and The Last of the Sea Women, and two that count Jennifer Lawrence as an EP,...

In the 23 years since the Best Animated Feature category was introduced at the Oscars, Pixar has dominated, racking up an impressive 11 wins from 18 nominations; its last victory was in 2021 for “Soul.” Walt Disney Studios has four trophies to show for its lucky 13 nominations while DreamWorks has gone 2 for 14, including the first-ever Oscar awarded for Best Animated Feature, which went to “Shrek.” Studio Ghibli also has a pair of prizes, and is the reigning champ with “The Boy and the Heron.” (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Animated Feature.)

That marked the second win for Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki, who had prevailed for “Spirited Away” 22 years earlier. Miyazaki crafted the only two hand-drawn movies to win this race. Two stop-motion flicks — “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” and “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” — have prevailed. The other 19 winners were all done with CGI.

Updated: October 10, 2024

Leading...

When it comes to animation, you can always rely on the French. They've been innovating and experimenting with the form since the dawn of motion pictures. From magic lantern presentations at the turn of the 20th century to modern works of art like The Triplets Of Belleville and Persepolis, French...

Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s “Chicken for Linda!” takes us on a lively and moving journey. The 2023 animated film tells the story of eight-year-old Linda, who longs for her late father’s chicken pepper dish after a misunderstanding with her mother Paulette leaves the girl feeling wronged. What ensues is a delightfully quirky attempt by an overwhelmed but loving mom to fulfill her daughter’s wish, spanning stolen chickens, improbable escapes, and more.

Along the way, we glimpse deeper truths about coping with loss and rebuilding relationships. Linda grapples with her lingering grief through a cherished memory of meals past. Paulette struggles to balance her responsibilities while honoring her daughter’s feelings. Their bond strengthens through comedy and compassion. Musical numbers uplift the story with joy, pathos, and truths about parenting woven into the notes.

Visually, thick brushstrokes and splashes of vibrant color bring the characters to life. Scenes feel plucked from a storybook,...

In a sign of Folivari’s widening ambitions, the French animation powerhouse will handle world sales of the Sherlock Holmes spinoff “The Baker Street Four” through its newly launched distribution branch Folivari International.

Adapted from a local comic book series that pairs Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective with four streetwise urchins, the title was developed in-house, with Folivari and Blue Spirit (“Blue Eye Samurai”) tackling creative duties and Canal+ set as commissioning broadcaster.

Headed by Melissa Vega – former acquisitions and international sales manager at Dandelooo – Folivari International has picked up three additional titles, among them Folivari originals “Nino Dino” and “Kiki & Ailen” and the Chilean/Brazilian preschool series “Guitar & Drum,” co-produced by Hype Animation and Punkrobot.

That Vega and Folivari founding partner Damien Brunner both share Franco-Spanish backgrounds lends the upstart distributor a desire to look for projects from further afield.

“What works in Latin America often works just...

How now, what news: the Criterion Channel’s July lineup is here. Eight pop renditions of Shakespeare are on the docket: from movies you forgot were inspired by the Bard (Abel Ferrara’s China Girl) to ones you’d wish to forget altogether (Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing), with maybe my single favorite interpretation (Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet) alongside Paul Mazursky, Gus Van Sant, Baz Luhrmann, Derek Jarman, and (of course) Kenneth Branagh. A neonoir collection arrives four months ahead of Noirvember: two Ellroy adaptations, two from De Palma that are not his neonoir Ellroy adaptation, two from the Coen brothers (i.e. the chance to see a DVD-stranded The Man Who Wasn’t There in HD), and––finally––a Michael Winner picture given Criterion’s seal of approval.

Columbia screwballs run between classics to lesser-seens while Nicolas Roeg and Heisei-era Godzilla face off. A Times Square collection brings The Gods of Times Square,...

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...

Indie Sales has acquired Japanese director Momoko Seto’s “Dandelion’s Odyssey,” an ecological fable animated by Guionne Leroy (“Toy Story”) and scored by Nicolas Becker (“Sound of Metal”) and Quentin Sirjacq.

Shot from Japan to Iceland, “Dandelion’s Odyssey” is an adventure set in a dystopian world and is reminiscent of “Microcosmos,” with plants and animals as the main characters. The feature boasts a mix of timelapse photography, as well as live-action shooting and 3D animation. Most of the production is being done in France, where Seto is based. Seto is best known for her shorts “Planet A,” “Planet Z” and “Planet ∑,” which played at Locarno and the Berlin Film Festival, respectively.

“Dandelion’s Odyssey” is produced by Miyu Productions and Ecce Films, and co-produced by Arte Cinéma and U Media in Belgium. It received the support of the French Gan Cinema Foundation.

“Dandelion’s Odyssey” follows the journey of four friends,...

With the likes of Maciek Hamela’s documentary In the Rearview and Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s animated film Chicken for Linda!, 2023 turned out to be an epic edition for the Acid (Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema) section. Both of those films rocked the Croisette and landed international accolades with their fest runs. so with a more watchful eye on yesterday’s announcement. A firm line-up of nine feature films includes the surprise sophomore item by James White filmmaker Josh Mond — his It Doesn’t Matter stars Christopher Abbott and Jay Will in a drama revolving around the redemptive relationship between a lost man from Staten Island and a young filmmaker.…...

A throwback, of sorts, to the kinds of animated kids flicks that existed before the advent of Pixar and CGI, Chicken for Linda! (Linda veut du poulet !) is a lovingly hand-drawn ode to the whims and wills of capricious children: specifically, one very stubborn little French girl who won’t take no for an answer when it comes to her favorite meal.

This new collaboration from directors Chiara Malta (Simple Women) and Sébastien Laudenbach (The Girl Without Hands) is a simple and even silly story on the surface, following an action-packed day in the life of its titular heroine as she tries to get her mom to cook a family poultry recipe for dinner. But as the plot — or is that the sauce? — thickens, the film begins to probe deeper, exploring how kids and adults can be affected by the death of a loved one, and how they can eventually try to move on.

When Adam Changes, a Canadian animated film about an awkward teenager in suburban Quebec, won the Grand Prix at the Niigata International Animation Film Festival (Niaff).

The festival, now in its second year, ran from March 15-20 in Niigata, a port city two hours north of Tokyo.

Written and directed by Joël Vaudreuil, When Adam Changes premiered at last year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival. “Coming here and meeting so many people, and being able to meet and talk with the other competition directors was a gift in itself,” said Vaudreuil, acceping the award at Niaff’s closing ceremony.

The official jury for the New York International Children’s Film Festival (Nyicff) has been unveiled, with “Passages” director Ira Sachs, “Broad City” co-creator Ilana Glazer, “Into the Spider-Verse” producer Peter Ramsey, and actress Uma Thurman among the A-listers presiding over the 2024 festival.

IndieWire exclusively reveals the full jury lineup, as well as the jurors’ personal favorite films from growing up. The 2024 installment of Nyicff boasts Cannes-premiered animated film “Chicken for Linda!” and buzzy Neon release “Robot Dreams” among its program, as well as anime film “The Concierge” and sequel “Dounia – The Great White North.” The Oscar-qualifying festival will take place March 2 through 17. See the full lineup here.

The full jury committee includes Ilana Glazer, Uma Thurman, Sony Pictures Animation head of story Guillermo Martinez, Matthew Modine, “Doc McStuffins” creator Chris Nee, “Migration” director Benjamin Renner, filmmaker Ira Sachs, Phillipa Soo, head of artistic recruiting at Titmouse Animation Ellen Su,...

"You're chickening out, aren't you?" GKids has revealed the full US trailer for a French animated film titled Chicken for Linda!, set for a US release in theaters in April. This hand-painted animation first premiered in the Acid sidebar at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year, with stops at the Annecy, Thessaloniki, and Torino Film Festivals last year as well. A loving mom, Paulette, who feels guilty after unfairly punishing her daughter Linda and would do anything to make it up to her. She sets off to make a "chicken with peppers", even though she doesn't know how to cook. The two talented directors on this film "unleash a unique visual marvel of hand-painted animation with bright, color-blocked characters, and a story that is an intoxicating blend of slapstick comedy, musical, and family drama, as Paulette and Nina ultimately confront the grief of an unspoken tragedy, and the meal that...

The César Awards are always the biggest night of the year for French cinema, but the massive award season impact of “Anatomy of a Fall” ensured that this year’s event took on additional importance for Oscar watchers around the globe. When the 49th César Awards took place in Paris on Friday night, all eyes were on Justine Triet and her Palme d’Or-winning film.

Predictably, “Anatomy of a Fall” swept many of the night’s biggest categories. In addition to winning the top prize of Best Film, Triet was honored with Best Director and shared Best Screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari. Stars Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.

The night’s other big winner was Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which won awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Sound.

Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 César Awards.

The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.

The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.

Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.

The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...

Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom topped the nominations for France’s César Awards, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday.

The drama picked up 12 nominations with Justine Triet’s Oscar hopeful Anatomy Of A Fall coming in second with 11 nominations, followed by Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces, which nine, and The Goldman Case, with eight.

Set in a world where human beings start transmuting into animals, The Animal Kingdom world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023 and went on to make $8.5M at the box office last fall.

The Animal Kingdom and Anatomy of a Fall are competing in eight categories spanning Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Male Revelation, Editing, Sound, Cinematography and Production Design.

The high nomination count for Herry’s ensemble drama All Your Faces was thanks to the fact it dominated the Supporting Actress category with separate nominations for cast members Leila Bekhti,...

Justine Triet’s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall was the big winner at the 29th Lumiere Awards, France’s equivalent of the Golden Globes, picking up three trophies, including best film and best actress for star Sandra Hüller.

Triet missed out on the best director trophy, losing to Thomas Cailley for his supernatural family drama The Animal Kingdom but picked up the best screenplay honor for Anatomy of a Fall, sharing it with co-writer Arthur Harari. The mystery thriller premiered in Cannes last year, where it won the Palme d’Or. Anatomy of a Fall won two Golden Globes, for best foreign-language film and best screenplay, and is nominated for seven BAFTAs, including best film.

Arieh Worthalter won best actor for his starring role in Cédric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case. Iris Kaltenbäck took best first film for her debut The Rapture. Best documentary honors went to...

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall continued its prize-winning run on Monday at France’s 29th Lumière Awards clinching Best Film and Best Screenplay, while its German star Sandra Hüller won Best Actress.

The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.

The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.

In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.

Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.

The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...

Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning “Anatomy of a Fall” picked up top accolades at the 29th Lumiere Awards, France’s equivalent to the Golden Globes, at a ceremony held Monday at the Forum des Images in Paris.

While Triet lost the best director nod to Thomas Cailley for his supernatural family drama “The Animal Kingdom,” “Anatomy of a Fall” won best film, actress for Sandra Huller, and screenplay for Triet and Arthur Harari. The movie is nominated for seven BAFTA awards, and won two Golden Globes (for screenplay and foreign-language film) earlier this month. While on stage to receive the best screenplay award, Triet and her partner Harari delivered the ceremony’s highlight, debating whether they’re collaborate again on a project. Triet admitted that the writing process had been complicated and said, “I don’t think he’s accept to work again with me but one time was already great.

Paris-based sales company is bringing eight new titles to Rendez-Vous.

Julie Delpy’s immigration-themed comedy Meet The Barbarians (Les Barbares) is among eight new titles Paris-based sales company Charades is launching at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema this month.

The event takes place from January 16-23 in Paris.

Charades extensive Rendez-Vous line-up also includes 3D animation Flow, romantic comedy Just A Couple of Days starring Camille Cottin, Jeremie Sein’s Olympic sports comedy Game Changers, Antoine Raimbault’s political thriller Smoke Signals, Gustave Kervern’s revenge story Enough Is Enough!, dark comedy Plastic Guns plus recently announced adaptation And...

France’s awards season has officially kicked off with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” landing six nominations at the Lumières Awards, including best film and director.

The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.

Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.

“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...

The 36th European Film Awards took place in Berlin on Saturday, honoring the best cinema to emerge from Europe in 2023. The nominations, which were selected by the European Film Academy, were heavy on arthouse hits that emerged from the Cannes Film Festival including Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” The results played out similarly to those from Cannes, with Triet’s Palme d’Or-winner taking the top prize of Best European Film.

“Anatomy of a Fall” additionally won the European Director award for Triet, who also shared the European Screenwriter award with Arthur Harari. Sandra Hüller was nominated twice in the European Actress category for her performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest,” ultimately winning for the former.

The results mirrored those of the 2022 European Film Awards, when “Triangle of Sadness” followed...

Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest leads the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards (EFAs), picking up five nominations, including for best film and best director, in nominations announced via video on Tuesday.

Zone of Interest, the U.K. official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category, also scored Efa nominations for best screenwriter, for Glazer, and best actress and best actor noms for leads Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel.

Hüller will be competing against herself in the best actress category, having picked up a second Efa nom for her starring role in Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. The Palme d’Or winner recieved four Efa noms, including for best European Film, best director for Triet and best screenplay for Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari.

Other best European film nominees include Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano from Italy,...

Indie feature Chicken For Linda!, directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, claimed the grand prize and audience award for the sixth edition of the Animation Is Film Festival, which wrapped last weekend in Hollywood.

Also announced on Wednesday, Robot Dreams, which will be released by Neon, took home the special jury prize. For the shorts section, Letter to a Pig won the Grand Prize and Wild Summon earned the Special Jury Prize.

From indie distributor Gkids, Chicken for Linda! tells the story of Paulette, who feels guilty after unjustly punishing her daughter Linda. When her daughter then asks for a meal of chicken, the request quickly leads to an outrageous series of events.

“With Chicken for Linda, Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta honor the challenges and rewards of being a single parent in a hectic world, employing a visually original artistic style through which lively brush strokes and daubs...

Animation Is Film has announced the 2023 winners of its annual film festival, with “Chicken for Linda!,” directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, winning the grand prize. The film also took home the audience award.

The special jury prize went to Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams.” In the short categories, “Letter to a Pig,” directed by Tal Kantor, won the grand prize. “Wild Summon,” directed by Karni Arieli and Saul Freed, won the special jury prize.

The in-competition feature films included “Art College 1994,” “Chicken for Linda!,” “The Concierge,” “Mars Express,” “Phoenix: Reminiscence of Flower,” “Robot Dreams” and “Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds and the Summer.”

Opening night film “The Boy and the Heron” and closing night film “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” screened out of competition and were not eligible for prizes.

“Chicken for Linda!” follows a mother, Paulette, who goes to extreme lengths to make...

“Chicken for Linda!” (GKids), the French/Italian 2D comedy from the husband-and-wife animation team of Sébastien Laudenbach and Chiara Malta, won the Grand Jury Prize at the sixth annual Animation Is Film Festival. “Robot Dreams” (Neon), the bittersweet Spanish/French hand-drawn dramedy from Pablo Berger, earned the Special Jury Prize.

For the Shorts section, Tal Kantor’s “Letter to a Pig,” a mixed media short about a Holocaust survivor who writes a thank-you letter to a pig that saved his life, won the Grand Prize, and the Special Jury Prize went to “Wild Summon” (from Saul Freed and Karni Arieli), which follows the dramatic life cycle of the wild salmon in human form.

The Aif win for “Chicken for Linda!” comes on the heels of taking the Annecy Cristal top prize. The film combines an imaginative hand-drawn style (color-coded characters with watercolor backgrounds) with a wacky premise concerning a frustrated...

The trailer marking the sixth edition of the Animation Is Film Festival in Hollywood (October 18-22) dropped Monday morning, highlighting the opening night premiere of Hayao Miyazaki’s acclaimed “The Boy and the Heron” (Studio Ghibli/GKids) at the Tcl Chinese Theater IMAX. This marks an IMAX first for the festival, produced by GKids in partnership with the Annecy International Animation Festival.

Aardman/Netflix’s “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,” the long-awaited sequel to the most successful stop-motion feature in history, will close Aif, followed by a Q&a with director Sam Fell and executive producer Peter Lord.

Aif programming from the previous two years boasted nine of the eventual animated feature Oscar nominees. This season they’ve scheduled several Oscar contenders: “The Boy and the Heron,” “Dawn of the Nugget,” DreamWorks’ “Trolls Band Together” (special screening), and Neon’s Annecy award-winning “Robot Dreams” (in feature competition). Plus, early...

Charades has sold key territories on Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s hand-painted animation “Chicken for Linda!” (“Linda veut du poulet!”) that won dual honors at the Annecy Animation Festival.

The film follows loving mom, Paulette, who feels guilty after unfairly punishing her daughter Linda and would do anything to make it up to her. She sets off to make a chicken with peppers, even though she doesn’t know how to cook – on the day of a general strike when poultry is in short supply.

“Chicken for Linda!” won Annecy’s top prize, the Cristal Award for best feature, as well as the Gan Foundation award for distribution.

Asmik Ace has acquired the title for Japan where it will play at the Tokyo International Film Festival and the New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival. Other key territories sold by Charade include Benelux (Le Parc), China (DDDream), Spain (La Aventura...

Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” will open Animation Is Film on Oct. 18 at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in the festival’s first IMAX premiere, the organization announced Thursday.

The Animation Is Film Festival, with Variety as one of the sponsors, will run from Oct. 18-22 in Hollywood. Sam Fell’s “Chicken Run” sequel “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” will close out the programming in a Q&a with Fell and executive producer Peter Lord, hosted by Netflix.

At this year’s festival, Aif is continuing to prioritize animation while recognizing its contribution to film around the world. “Robot Dreams” and “Chicken For Linda!” join the feature film lineup, with both making their West Coast and U.S. debuts, respectively.

“‘Animation Is Film’ is not just the name of our festival, it is its mission,” said Matt Kaszanek, executive director of Aif. “New films from Studio Ghibli...

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.

Lately, in the overwrought majority of Hollywood blockbusters, nothing less than the fate of the planet hangs in the balance, as some natural disaster or dastardly supervillain threatens to annihilate life as we know it. Such impossibly large stakes may be necessary to justify the CG spectacle of certain Marvel movies, but instead of inspiring excitement, they mostly leave me ambivalent and bored. But focus in on something as simple as whether a young girl can have the chicken dish that reminds her of her late dad, and I’m riveted. Bonus points if said cartoon feels more realistic than most live-action fare.

A uniquely styled and all-around delightful hand-drawn family drama, “Chicken for Linda!” premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, programmed practically out of sight in the Acid, a sidebar dedicated to low-budget independent productions that’s easily overlooked (despite having launched the career of “Anatomy of a Fall...