News

Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels’s Oh Willy… recently won two awards in as many days. The animated short won the Jury Award at the Brussels Short Film Festival (27 April-6 May) and Best Animated Short Film at the International Festival of Animated Films (Anifilm, 3-8 May) in Trebon, Czech Republic.

After the selections at Clermont-Ferrand and Annecy earlier this year, Oh Willy... is definitely on a roll. The short already has two more festivals lined up in Italy and Germany and even more impressive, the film is currently on tour in Japan. Oh Willy… was invited by director Atsushi Wada, who won a Golden Bear at the Berlinale with The Great Rabbit, to join the Japanese tour. The screenings are organised by CALF, a newly established indie label promoting animated shorts by independent filmmakers.

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The Flanders government has announced the creation of Screen Flanders, a €5 million fund aimed at attracting international co-productions to the Flemish region. As an incentive to local spending, producers will be able to apply for up to €400,000. The new initiative is compatible with already existing support mechanisms such as the Belgian tax shelter.

With Screen Flanders, the Flanders government aims to provide additional financial support to productions with large expenditures in the Flemish region. This should encourage a rise in the number of co-productions shot and developed in Flanders and benefit the local film industry both in economic impact and cultural prestige.

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Four Flemish productions entered the official competition at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Orange County, California (26 April-3 May). The Spring of Cesar, Land of the Heroes and Swimsuit 46 screen in the shorts section, while A Cat in Paris will be showcased as part of a limited collection of animation features.

Before its Newport Beach outing, The Spring of Cesar screened at the International Short Film Festival Leuven, where it received an honourable mention. Sahim Omar Kalifa’s Land of the Heroes, Wannes Destoop’s Swimsuit 46 and the 2012 Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris are no strangers to the international festival circuit either.

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Wouter Bongaerts’ Mouse for Sale has been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival Kids (TIFF Kids, 10-22 April). The screening is part of the festival’s Loot Bag programme featuring ‘international animated adventures’. The public section offers a collection of imaginative stories showcasing a diverse range of animation styles.

In Mouse For Sale, directed and produced by Wouter Bongaerts, Snickers, a lonely mouse in a petshop, desperately wants someone to buy him. But he’s got one big problem: his huge ears. The kids entering the store keep laughing at him. Bongaerts graduated cum laude with Mouse For Sale at the Media, Arts & Design Academy in Genk, Belgium.

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Studio 100 Media has announced the sale of 52 x 10' animated series Florrie's Dragons to German children's channel Ki.KA. The deal gives Ki.KA exclusive German TV rights for the series for five and a half years.

Based on the immensely popular children's books by show creator and director An Vrombaut (64 Zoo Lane), and targeted at three-to-six-year-olds, Florrie's Dragons had previously sold to Disney for the UK. Producers are Wish Films UK, Clockwork Zoo and Studio 100 Animation.

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Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels’s Oh Willy… has won the Grand Prix HAFF Shorts at the Holland Animation Film Festival (28 March-1 April). The Belgian-French-Dutch co-production was in the limelight earlier this year at the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival and this summer the film will screen at the International Animation Film Festival of Annecy (4-9 June). Besides Oh Willy, Arjan Wilschut's Farmer Jack also grabbed the fest's Audience Award.

The jury of the Dutch festival praised Oh Willy… for its cinematographic quality and ‘strong direction with a complete atmosphere and a strong sense of design’. In the short-stop motion animation film, fifty-something Willy returns to the naturist community where he spent his youth to visit his dying mother. When she dies shortly after he arrives, Willy is confronted with the choices he made in his life.

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Hisko Hulsing’s Junkyard and Oh Willy… by artisan animators Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels have been added to the Short Films section at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival (4-9 June). In addition, a commercial clip for public transport company De Lijn by digital effects artist Gerrit Bekers was selected for the Commercials competition of the French festival.

Oh Willy… is directed by Emma De Swaef and Marc Roels who developed their distinctive style with Zachte Planten, De Swaef's graduation film from the Sint-Lukas academy in Brussels. The 17-minute film is produced by Ben Tesseur for Flemish stop- motion studio Beast Animation (A Town Called Panic), in collaboration with France and the Netherlands. Before making the Annecy bill, Oh Willy… premiered internationally at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in January.

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Bibo Bergeron’s newest animated feature, A Monster in Paris, scooped the Best Feature Film Award at the Los Angeles Animation Festival (7-11 March). The fest called the film one of the highlights of its programme. Monster had already been nominated twice for the French Oscar equivalents, the Césars. Flanders partner in the film is Brussels-based animation studio Walking The Dog.

Part musical, part action, all comedy, A Monster in Paris is a fun animated feature written by director Bergeron and Stephane Kazandjian. The plot follows the excitable Raoul, the unconfident Emile and the courageous Lucille, along with their monkey friend, Charles, as they attempt to protect the monster from the police, all while exposing him to song and dance.

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Lumière has added Peter Monsaert's debut feature Offline to its international sales line-up. Offline is the second title confirmed for the Benelux distributor's brand new world sales arm. At Cartoon Movie in Lyon, Lumière VP Annemie Degryse announced that international rights to the animated Phantom Boy would also be sold by the new sales agency.

Starring Wim Willaert and Anemone Valcke, Offline tells the story of Rudy, who after a seven-year prison sentence, returns to society. He has set himself two clear objectives: get back to work as a repairman, and – more importantly – become reconciled with the family he had left behind. But just when a reunion eventually comes within sight, the past gets the upper hand again, and Rudy has to take the toughest decision of his life. DOP is Ruben Impens while Alain Dessauvage is responsible for the editing. A theatrical release is set for this fall. Lumière's subsidiary Lunanime produced the film.

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Ghent-based distributor Lumière is to launch an international sales division that will also operate under the Lumiere banner. A first title that the company is to sell internationally will be the animated Phantom Boy by the team responsible for the Oscar nominated A Cat In Paris. The news was announced by Lumière's vice president Annemie Degryse at Cartoon Movie in Lyon (7-9 March).

The first in the new division's sales catalogue is Phantom Boy, the new animated feature by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, the directors team behind the Oscar nominated A Cat in Paris. Their new film will be co-produced by Lumiere’s production branch Lunanime. Phantom Boy is about an 11-year-old boy in a hospital who can fly over the city and pass through walls like a phantom, using his powers to help a wheelchair-bound police officer hunt down a mob kingpin. The film will be made as a mix of traditional 2D animation on paper and computer painting.

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