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. Bultheel, who previously worked on the animation series International Hareport (read here the interview in our Flanders (i) magazine on page 20-21), has teamed up with production company Panache on the project.
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. Against all she’s been taught, she puts her trust in a feral boy, who seems to know about her mum. If this odd couple succeeds, both their families will be reunited and harmony will be restored. If they don’t, nature will be destroyed forever.
Just last year Skyline Entertainment finished work on international co-production Santa's Magic Crystal. Now the company returns to Cartoon Movie with an equally ambitious project, Luis & his Friends from Outer Space. Luis is an eight-year-old whose only real friends are a group of crazy alien kids who crash-landed on earth. And when he has to help them get home to their families, he has to jump over his shadow and the adventure really begins…
Production company and animation studio Walking The Dog is involved in Le Jour des Corneilles, which will be pitched in Lyon. In early February, the Brussels-based company 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 French Film Awards. Click here to read the interview with Walking The Dog's Eric Goossens and Anton Roebben.
Finally, Lunanime continues its partnership with directors Alain Gagnol & Jean-Loup Felicioli and French production company Folimage. The joint venture has already proved worthwhile as their previous co-production, A Cat in Paris, was recently nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. At Cartoon Movie they're presenting new project Phantom Boy, which stays true to the animation style of A Cat in Paris.
This year's edition of Cartoon Movie, the leading European co-production forum, will host 50 projects from 17 countries. Since 1999, some 185 projects with a total budget of €1.3 billion have obtained full financing thanks to this annual forum aimed at strengthening the production and distribution of animated feature films in Europe.