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Subscribe to the RSS feedAnimation talent invited to Anima
Five animated shorts from Flanders are running in the national competition of Anima (17-26 February), the annual animation celebration that takes place in Brussels. Five more films are screening in a Belgian panorama, while co-production The Monster of Nix by Rosto receives a special screening.
Anima is showcasing a wide variety of animation talent from Flanders this year. In the national competition, there's Bruno Wouters' Daddy, Don’t Forget Your Glasses, Roman Klochkov's Natasha, Boris Sverlow's VAF Wildcard-winning Shattered Past, Yves Bex's The Appointment and Tristan Morelle's The Secret Child.
New Flanders pair to meet industry at Cartoon Movie
Two concepts for animated features from Flanders, Jan Bultheel's Cafard and Sancta Media's ZOOks, will be presented at this year's Cartoon Movie (7-9 March) in Lyon, France. Flemish production companies are also involved in three international co-productions. With a total of five projects in Lyon, the Flemish animation industry is very much putting its talent on display this year.
Jan Bultheel's Cafard is a historical drama set during World War I about the true and improbable odyssey around the world of the first Belgian armoured vehicles division. Sancta Media is working with Editions Dupuis and Flemish broadcaster VRT to start production on ZOOks, a transmedia adventure film developed using the rotoscope technique. At the heart of ZOOks is the story of a wilful young girl who braves a forbidden forest to find her missing mother.
Walking the Dog embarks on Folman's Congress
Brussels-based production company Walking the Dog started working on The Congress, the new feature by Walz With Bashir-director Ari Folman. Walking The Dog is also co-producer of Bibo Bergeron’s 3D Animation pic A Monster in Paris which was recently nominated for two Césars (Best Animation, Best Original Score), the most prestigious Film Awards in France.
The Congress, based on the short story "The Futurological Congress" by Stanislaw Lem, follows an aging, out-of-work actress (Robin Wright) who accepts one last job so she can make ends meet to care for her disabled son (Kodi Smit-McPhee). In the end, her decision affect her in ways she didn't see coming. The film will be part live action (70 minutes), part animation (50 minutes).
Toon’s top dogs
Eric Goossens and Anton Roebben go back a long way. The two principals of Walking The Dog, now one of Belgium’s leading animation companies, grew up in the same region and both got their start in the film business more than 20 years ago. And now, 20 years on, they’ve racked up an impressive list of credits, working as line producers and co-producers on hits such as EuropaCorp’s smash, A Monster In Paris. At Walking The Dog, business savvy, innovation and creativity go hand in hand.
In the early 1990s, Little Big One was a fertile breeding ground for top Belgian animation talent. As Roebben recalls, one of his colleagues at the company was Ben Stassen (Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage) with whom Roebben made the the first CGI 3D ‘thrill ride’ movie, The Devil’s Mine, which became a huge success in theme parks all over the world as well as winning numerous awards at animation festivals.
At Trix (owned by D&D), they worked on more simulation ride movies, commercials and visual effects for feature films. Goossens however eventually grew tired of the repetitive nature of the work and left to set up his own documentary company, Off World. A short time later, he bumped into Roebben and together they founded a brand new animation company, Walking The Dog. ‘The main reason we started together on our own was that we’d be able to select our own projects and to embark on new challenges,’ says Roebben.
Cinequest features five from Flanders
Guy Lee Thys’ new feature Mixed Kebab and Geoffrey Enthoven’s award-winning Come As You Are have been selected for the Cinequest Film Festival (28 February-11 March) in California. Three shorts also made it to the pioneering fest's final line-up: Kevin Meul’s The Extraordinary Life of Rocky, Boris Sverlow’s Shattered Past and Nicolas Daenens’ 27.
Mixed Kebab, which will premiere internationally in the Global Landscapes Competition of the festival, is praised by Cinequest’s Terra Wood for the way the ‘electrifying and multicultural cast brilliantly captures courage, tolerance and the beauty of love conquering hate’. Geoffrey Enthoven returns to Cinequest after his previous feature The Over the Hill Band was presented as part of the 2010 edition of the fest.
Fantasporto features four filmmakers from Flanders
The 32nd Oporto International Film Festival (24 Febr – 3 March) has invited works from no less than four Flemish filmmakers for its line-up. Frank van Passel’s Madonna’s Pig, Jakob Verbruggen’s Code 37, Nuru, a short by Michael Palmaers, and Christophe Van Rompaey's Lena have been selected for Fest.
Code 37 became an instant box office hit in its home territory when released last fall. The film was running alongside Madonna’s Pig and Geoffrey Enthoven’s Come As You Are in theatres and together the films even managed to register over 80,000 admissions during one weekend. The film is to receive its market première at this year's European Film Market in Berlin. Code 37 director Jakob Verbruggen is now also set to direct the BBC mini-series The Fall, written by the BAFTA nominated Alan Cubitt.
Oh Willy...
Texture has a special role in the animated short film Oh Willy..., which was selected to compete at the Clermont-Ferrand international short film festival in January. The puppets and sets are made of wool, felt and other fabrics, from fine llama fleece to old couch stuffing. This gives the film a soft, tactile atmosphere that complements its strange and touching story.
Fifty-something Willy, plump and ill-at-ease, returns to the naturist community where he grew up to visit his dying mother. This brings back memories, not all of them pleasant, which build into an emotional crisis when his mother finally passes away. Distraught, he wanders in the woods at night, coming face to face with his fears, but also finding an unusual source of comfort. (trailer)
Bullhead and A Cat in Paris pick up Oscar nominations
Michaël R Roskam’s feature film debut Bullhead, representing Belgium at the Oscars, is among the five films nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Academy Award. Bullhead is Belgium’s sixth Oscar nomination in this category. Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol’s A Cat in Paris also grabbed a nomination in the Best Animated Feature category. The winners of the 84th Academy Awards will be announced in Hollywood on 26 February.
Bullhead is an emotionally driven tale of revenge, redemption and fate set against the backdrop of the Belgian bovine growth hormone mafia. The story starts with young cattle farmer Jacky (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious beef trader. But the assassination of a federal policeman and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from Jacky’s past set in motion a chain of events with far-reaching consequences.
Production houses continue quality Animation
The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) confirmed support for eight animation projects in its recent subsidy round. The list might not be endless, the projects are promising with several new titles from production outfit Lunanime, known for their work on A Cat in Paris, and a big-budget sequel to Sammy’s Adventures by nWave.
Kris Mergan and Geert Vandenbroele, who created the creative animated short Good News, are to receive funding to start producing their next animated short Diamond. Production outfit Lunanime can also start on two of its projects: Bram Mondy’s Rapsodie en rose and Rémi Vandenitte’s Betty Blues. Finally, Ben Stassen of nWave (Fly Me to the Moon) directs and produces the sequel to his animated b.o. hit Sammy’s Adventures: the Secret Passage, titled Sammy’s Adventures: Flight From Paradise.
Clermont-Ferrand selects shorts from Flanders
The Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival (27 January-4 February) has selected Nicolas Provost’s Moving Stories, Michael Palmaers’s Nuru and Marc Roels and Emma de Swaef’s Oh Willy for its 34th edition. The minority co-production The Monster of Nix by Dutch artist Rosto also received a spot in the fest’s programme. According to the fest, ‘a selection for Clermont-Ferrand is participating in the biggest adventure a film can experience.’ The selections at the prestigious French short fest once again put shorts from Flanders in the international limelight.
Provost is now something of an old hand at Clermont-Ferrand after picking up a Special Jury Award for his short Plot Point in 2008. Last year, the festival even presented an overview of Provost’s major works and invited two of his shorts, Stardust and Storyteller, for competition.
