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.
Director Ari Folman recently joined the production company in Brussels to brief them on the project. 'We're now going into an insane journey of finishing the animation in 10 months, in five different countries: here, in Jaffa, Poland, Belgium, Germany and Luxemburg,' Folman told the blog Cinemascopian. 'After that, post-production. The movie should be done by January 2013.' (Read the news on Indiewire here).
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).
With its nomination for a César for Best Animation, A Monster in Paris is up against some stiff competition. The other nominees are Joann Sfar en Antoine Delesvaux’s Le chat du rabbin, Nicolas Brault’s Le cirque, Benjamin Renner’s La queue de la souris and Jean-François Laguionie’s Le tableau. On Friday 24 February, the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma will announce the winners of this year’s Césars at the Award Ceremony in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
In its home territory, where the film was distributed by uDream, A Monster in Paris attracted over 115,000 cinemagoers. Bibo Bergeron’s film takes us back to Paris in 1910 where a monster lives in a garden and is in love with a beautiful, young singer.
Walking The Dog (read an article about Walking The Dog here) is a production company and independent animation studio founded by Anton Roebben and Erico Goossens in 2000. Since then the studio has produced a number of prestigious titles such as Tomm moore’s The Secret of Kells (Oscar nominee for Animation in 2010, Flemish co-producer: Vivi Films) and The Triplets of Belleville (Oscar nominee for Animation & Music in 2003, Flemish co-producer: Vivi Films).
Belgian co-producer for The Congress is Entre Chien et Loups (Time of My Life, The Barons), Walking The Dog is working on the project as animation studio.