Animated feature ‘Nina And The Hedgehog’s Secret’ inks first sales after Annecy premiere (exclusive)
Film is directed by Academy Award-nominated duo Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli and sold by Les Films du Losange.
Les Films du Losange has inked its first deals in key territories for animated feature Nina And The Hedgehog’s Secret following the film’s premiere on Monday night (June 12) in Annecy.
Directed by Academy Award-nominated duo Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, whose credits inlcude A Cat in Paris and Phantom Boy, the film premiered in the Cannes market and will be released in France via Kmbo and in Benelux by Cineart.
Agora will release the film in Switzerland, Pack Magic in Spain,...
Les Films du Losange has inked its first deals in key territories for animated feature Nina And The Hedgehog’s Secret following the film’s premiere on Monday night (June 12) in Annecy.
Directed by Academy Award-nominated duo Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, whose credits inlcude A Cat in Paris and Phantom Boy, the film premiered in the Cannes market and will be released in France via Kmbo and in Benelux by Cineart.
Agora will release the film in Switzerland, Pack Magic in Spain,...
- 6/13/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Delivery of the French-Luxembourgish project by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol is slated for early 2023. After having worked together on A Cat in Paris and Phantom Boy, filmmakers Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol are continuing their exploration of a cinematic genre that is particularly dear to them: the crime film and, more specifically, the heist film. Tales of the Hedgehog, which has been selected for the upcoming Cartoon Movie (see the news), will follow ten-year-old Nina, whose life has been turned upside down ever since her father lost his job at a factory, after his supervisor embezzled money. Together with her friend Mehdi, the little girl sets off on a life-saving quest that may well lead to the discovery of a treasure hidden in the disused factory… It will therefore be a genre film, tailored for young audiences, which will revel in reusing the codes of Hollywoodian film noir...
Annecy, France — Denis Do’s semi-autobiographical story, set against the Khmer Rouge’s brutal reign-of-terror, took the top Cristal at the 2018 Annecy Intl. Animation Film Festival.
Nora Twomey’s “The Breadwinner,” a moral co-victor, swept three awards, including two key trophies: the Annecy Audience Award, the statue that really counts for distributors and sales agents, and the festival’s Jury Award.
In other top distinctions, Nienke Deutz “Bloeistraat 11,” fruit of the flowering Flanders school of animation, scooped the top Cristal for a short film at a festival which places a large emphasis on briefer formats.
As for TV, two episodes of Tonko House’s “Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems”: “Yellow Flower” and “Hello Nice to Meet You” snagged the Cristal for top TV series.
This year’s preeminent festival awards validate the two biggest artistic trends noticeable at a vibrant 2018 Annecy meet. An increase in the number of feature...
Nora Twomey’s “The Breadwinner,” a moral co-victor, swept three awards, including two key trophies: the Annecy Audience Award, the statue that really counts for distributors and sales agents, and the festival’s Jury Award.
In other top distinctions, Nienke Deutz “Bloeistraat 11,” fruit of the flowering Flanders school of animation, scooped the top Cristal for a short film at a festival which places a large emphasis on briefer formats.
As for TV, two episodes of Tonko House’s “Pig: The Dam Keeper Poems”: “Yellow Flower” and “Hello Nice to Meet You” snagged the Cristal for top TV series.
This year’s preeminent festival awards validate the two biggest artistic trends noticeable at a vibrant 2018 Annecy meet. An increase in the number of feature...
- 6/16/2018
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Annecy, France — We’re not saying these are the best shorts at Annecy this year. Nor the forerunners for prizes. Chosen principally from the shorts in the short film competition, and buzzed up titles hitting Annecy, they are, however, undeniable proof of the huge creativity of contemporary Annecy. If Annecy is about discovery, much is to be found in these sections.
‘Bloeistraat 11’
2D, from Belgium Lumière’s Lunanime, co-producers of “Phantom Boy” and 2018 competition contender “Funan.” But this is 2D with an edge, and psychological observance as two Bbf’s girls sorority is prized apart by the onset of puberty, with one taking up with the other’s brother. Could a man have directed this? Probably yes, but almost certainly not so knowingly.
‘The Cat’S Regret’
Hitchcock in exquisite 2D, from the directors and animation studio behind 2012 Oscar-nominated feature “A Cat in Paris,” Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol and France’s Folimage,...
‘Bloeistraat 11’
2D, from Belgium Lumière’s Lunanime, co-producers of “Phantom Boy” and 2018 competition contender “Funan.” But this is 2D with an edge, and psychological observance as two Bbf’s girls sorority is prized apart by the onset of puberty, with one taking up with the other’s brother. Could a man have directed this? Probably yes, but almost certainly not so knowingly.
‘The Cat’S Regret’
Hitchcock in exquisite 2D, from the directors and animation studio behind 2012 Oscar-nominated feature “A Cat in Paris,” Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol and France’s Folimage,...
- 6/11/2018
- by John Hopewell, Emilio Mayorga and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The thirteenth edition of Santiago International Film Festival, Sanfic (August 20–27, 2017), the largest film festival in Chile, will present more than 100 international and Chilean films, including productions shown and awarded in festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Among the feature films will be 7 world and 14 Latin American premieres.
Sanfic (Santiago International Film Festival) is opening the festival to international press this year with Variety Dailies and important international guests for their Sanfic Industry section. Guest attending include Kim Yutani (Sundance programmer), Javier Martin (Berlinale delegate), Molly O ́Keefe (Tribeca Film Institute — fiction features) and Estrella Araiza (Industry director of Guadalajara Iff), to name a few. Matt Dillon is its special guest along with the renowned director of photography Rainer Klausmann.
The Summit starring Ricardo Darín, Dolores Fonzi and Erica Rivas, with an appearance of Christian Slater and renowned Chilean actors Paulina Garcia and Alfredo Castro
The opening film of the...
Sanfic (Santiago International Film Festival) is opening the festival to international press this year with Variety Dailies and important international guests for their Sanfic Industry section. Guest attending include Kim Yutani (Sundance programmer), Javier Martin (Berlinale delegate), Molly O ́Keefe (Tribeca Film Institute — fiction features) and Estrella Araiza (Industry director of Guadalajara Iff), to name a few. Matt Dillon is its special guest along with the renowned director of photography Rainer Klausmann.
The Summit starring Ricardo Darín, Dolores Fonzi and Erica Rivas, with an appearance of Christian Slater and renowned Chilean actors Paulina Garcia and Alfredo Castro
The opening film of the...
- 7/30/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Simon Brew Jan 19, 2017
Phantom Boy is playing in a limited number of UK cinemas this weekend. It's just the kind of surprise that's hard to find in modern movies.
I’ve written before about my love of Saturday and Sunday morning kids' clubs at multiplexes, where you can take your anklebiters to see a film that’s a couple of months post-its release. Such screenings are a godsend to parents of fidgety children, or those of us trying to introduce our youngsters to the cinema. There’s a kinship in there. Nobody goes in expecting children to be perfectly quiet, and there’s usually a spirit of tolerance and some degree of shared film love. Plus, let’s be honest, it’s not a bad value couple of hours either, given that the price tends to be lowered too.
See related Split review M Night Shyamalan interview: Split, non-conformity, creative freedom
Most of the time,...
Phantom Boy is playing in a limited number of UK cinemas this weekend. It's just the kind of surprise that's hard to find in modern movies.
I’ve written before about my love of Saturday and Sunday morning kids' clubs at multiplexes, where you can take your anklebiters to see a film that’s a couple of months post-its release. Such screenings are a godsend to parents of fidgety children, or those of us trying to introduce our youngsters to the cinema. There’s a kinship in there. Nobody goes in expecting children to be perfectly quiet, and there’s usually a spirit of tolerance and some degree of shared film love. Plus, let’s be honest, it’s not a bad value couple of hours either, given that the price tends to be lowered too.
See related Split review M Night Shyamalan interview: Split, non-conformity, creative freedom
Most of the time,...
- 1/18/2017
- Den of Geek
In the most competitive animated Oscar race ever (with a record 27 entries), indie powerhouse Gkids (with eight nominations since 2009) entered the fray with five contenders for the first time. And, on Monday, its two strongest — the stop-motion “My Life as a Zucchini” and the hand-drawn “Miss Hokusai” — grabbed two Annie nominations for best indie feature and a third for “Zucchini” director Claude Barras.
Read More: How Gkids Shook the Oscar Animated Race with First Latin American Nominee and a New Ghibli Hit
“It’s a feast of animation and the timing was just the luck of the draw,” Gkids co-founder and president Eric Beckman told IndieWire. “The really rich landscape that we see this year is part of a trend and a shift [toward indies] that we’re happy to see exist and take pride in helping propagate it.”
Beckman also prides himself on smart taste and filling a need to help...
Read More: How Gkids Shook the Oscar Animated Race with First Latin American Nominee and a New Ghibli Hit
“It’s a feast of animation and the timing was just the luck of the draw,” Gkids co-founder and president Eric Beckman told IndieWire. “The really rich landscape that we see this year is part of a trend and a shift [toward indies] that we’re happy to see exist and take pride in helping propagate it.”
Beckman also prides himself on smart taste and filling a need to help...
- 11/29/2016
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
This is one of the most competitive Animated Feature Film faces in some time. So competitive that at this time we don’t even have “Finding Dory” making the top five. [Updated Nov. 20]
Top Five
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Moana”
“The Red Turtle”
“Sing”
“Zootopia”
Almost There
“Finding Dory”
“The Little Prince”
“Long Way North”
“Sausage Party”
“The Secret Life of Pets”
Longshots
“The Angry Birds Movie”
“April and the Extraordinary World”
“Bilal”
“Ice Age: Collision Course”
“Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy Xv”
“Kung Fu Panda 3”
“Miss Hokusai”
“Monkey King: Hero Is Back”
“Mune”
“Mustafa & the Magician”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Phantom Boy”
“Snowtime!”
“Storks”
“Trolls”
“25 April”
“Your Name”
Other categories:
Gregory Ellwood’s Current Oscar Predictions:
Best Picture
Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Editing – Coming Soon
Cinematography – Coming Soon
Animated Feature Film
Foreign Language Film – Coming Soon
Documentary Feature – Coming Soon...
Top Five
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Moana”
“The Red Turtle”
“Sing”
“Zootopia”
Almost There
“Finding Dory”
“The Little Prince”
“Long Way North”
“Sausage Party”
“The Secret Life of Pets”
Longshots
“The Angry Birds Movie”
“April and the Extraordinary World”
“Bilal”
“Ice Age: Collision Course”
“Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy Xv”
“Kung Fu Panda 3”
“Miss Hokusai”
“Monkey King: Hero Is Back”
“Mune”
“Mustafa & the Magician”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Phantom Boy”
“Snowtime!”
“Storks”
“Trolls”
“25 April”
“Your Name”
Other categories:
Gregory Ellwood’s Current Oscar Predictions:
Best Picture
Director
Best Actress
Best Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Editing – Coming Soon
Cinematography – Coming Soon
Animated Feature Film
Foreign Language Film – Coming Soon
Documentary Feature – Coming Soon...
- 11/22/2016
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
A record 27 features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 89th Academy Awards.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“The Angry Birds Movie”
“April and the Extraordinary World”
“Bilal”
“Finding Dory”
“Ice Age: Collision Course”
“Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Kung Fu Panda 3”
“The Little Prince”
“Long Way North”
“Miss Hokusai”
“Moana”
“Monkey King: Hero Is Back”
“Mune”
“Mustafa & the Magician”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Phantom Boy”
“The Red Turtle”
“Sausage Party”
“The Secret Life of Pets”
“Sing”
“Snowtime!”
“Storks”
“Trolls”
“25 April”
“Your Name.”
“Zootopia”
Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process. Depending on the number of films that qualify, two to five nominees may be voted.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“The Angry Birds Movie”
“April and the Extraordinary World”
“Bilal”
“Finding Dory”
“Ice Age: Collision Course”
“Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Kung Fu Panda 3”
“The Little Prince”
“Long Way North”
“Miss Hokusai”
“Moana”
“Monkey King: Hero Is Back”
“Mune”
“Mustafa & the Magician”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Phantom Boy”
“The Red Turtle”
“Sausage Party”
“The Secret Life of Pets”
“Sing”
“Snowtime!”
“Storks”
“Trolls”
“25 April”
“Your Name.”
“Zootopia”
Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process. Depending on the number of films that qualify, two to five nominees may be voted.
- 11/14/2016
- by Melissa Thompson
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
There will be five Oscar nominations for animated feature this year, as a record 27 submissions are up for consideration; 16 or more films must qualify for the five slot maximum.
Here are the submitted features, listed in alphabetical order:
“The Angry Birds Movie”
“April and the Extraordinary World”
“Bilal”
“Finding Dory”
“Ice Age: Collision Course”
“Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Kung Fu Panda 3”
“The Little Prince”
“Long Way North”
“Miss Hokusai”
“Moana”
“Monkey King: Hero Is Back”
“Mune”
“Mustafa & the Magician”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Phantom Boy”
“The Red Turtle”
“Sausage Party”
“The Secret Life of Pets”
“Sing”
“Snowtime!”
“Storks”
“Trolls”
“25 April”
“Your Name.”
“Zootopia”
Several films will need to fulfill their Los Angeles qualifying run in order to be deemed eligible by the Academy. Animated films may also vie for other categories; most often, they are writing and music.
Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday,...
Here are the submitted features, listed in alphabetical order:
“The Angry Birds Movie”
“April and the Extraordinary World”
“Bilal”
“Finding Dory”
“Ice Age: Collision Course”
“Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Kung Fu Panda 3”
“The Little Prince”
“Long Way North”
“Miss Hokusai”
“Moana”
“Monkey King: Hero Is Back”
“Mune”
“Mustafa & the Magician”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“Phantom Boy”
“The Red Turtle”
“Sausage Party”
“The Secret Life of Pets”
“Sing”
“Snowtime!”
“Storks”
“Trolls”
“25 April”
“Your Name.”
“Zootopia”
Several films will need to fulfill their Los Angeles qualifying run in order to be deemed eligible by the Academy. Animated films may also vie for other categories; most often, they are writing and music.
Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday,...
- 11/11/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Zootopia, Kubo And The Two Strings, Finding Dory, The Red Turtle, Sausage Party and My Life As A Zucchini are among those vying for Academy Awards glory.
Announcing the record submissions haul on Friday, Academy staff said between two and five nominees will emerge on January 24 depending on the number of films that qualify. At least 16 films must qualify to trigger five nominees. At this stage, several contenders have not begun their Los Angeles qualifying run.
The submitted features in alphabetical order are:
The Angry Birds Movie
April And The Extraordinary World
Bilal
Finding Dory
Ice Age: Collision Course
Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv
Kubo And The Two Strings
Kung Fu Panda 3
The Little Prince
Long Way North
Miss Hokusai
Moana
Monkey King: Hero Is Back
Mune
Mustafa & The Magician
My Life As A Zucchini
Phantom Boy
The Red Turtle
Sausage Party
The Secret Life Of Pets
Sing
Snowtime!
Storks
Trolls
25 April
Your Name
Zootopia
According to Academy...
Announcing the record submissions haul on Friday, Academy staff said between two and five nominees will emerge on January 24 depending on the number of films that qualify. At least 16 films must qualify to trigger five nominees. At this stage, several contenders have not begun their Los Angeles qualifying run.
The submitted features in alphabetical order are:
The Angry Birds Movie
April And The Extraordinary World
Bilal
Finding Dory
Ice Age: Collision Course
Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv
Kubo And The Two Strings
Kung Fu Panda 3
The Little Prince
Long Way North
Miss Hokusai
Moana
Monkey King: Hero Is Back
Mune
Mustafa & The Magician
My Life As A Zucchini
Phantom Boy
The Red Turtle
Sausage Party
The Secret Life Of Pets
Sing
Snowtime!
Storks
Trolls
25 April
Your Name
Zootopia
According to Academy...
- 11/10/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Zootopia, Kubo And The Two Strings, Finding Dory, The Red Turtle, Sausage Party and My Life As A Zucchini are among those vying for Academy Awards glory.
Announcing the record submissions haul on Friday, Academy staff said between two and five nominees will emerge on January 24 depending on the number of films that qualify. At least 16 films must qualify to trigger five nominees. At this stage, several contenders have not begun their Los Angeles qualifying run.
The submitted features in alphabetical order are:
The Angry Birds Movie
April And The Extraordinary World
Bilal
Finding Dory
Ice Age: Collision Course
Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv
Kubo And The Two Strings
Kung Fu Panda 3
The Little Prince
Long Way North
Miss Hokusai
Moana
Monkey King: Hero Is Back
Mune
Mustafa & The Magician
My Life As A Zucchini
Phantom Boy
The Red Turtle
Sausage Party
The Secret Life Of Pets
Sing
Snowtime!
Storks
Trolls
25 April
Your Name
Zootopia
According to Academy...
Announcing the record submissions haul on Friday, Academy staff said between two and five nominees will emerge on January 24 depending on the number of films that qualify. At least 16 films must qualify to trigger five nominees. At this stage, several contenders have not begun their Los Angeles qualifying run.
The submitted features in alphabetical order are:
The Angry Birds Movie
April And The Extraordinary World
Bilal
Finding Dory
Ice Age: Collision Course
Kingsglaive Final Fantasy Xv
Kubo And The Two Strings
Kung Fu Panda 3
The Little Prince
Long Way North
Miss Hokusai
Moana
Monkey King: Hero Is Back
Mune
Mustafa & The Magician
My Life As A Zucchini
Phantom Boy
The Red Turtle
Sausage Party
The Secret Life Of Pets
Sing
Snowtime!
Storks
Trolls
25 April
Your Name
Zootopia
According to Academy...
- 11/10/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
Indignation (James Schamus)
After helping filmmakers such as Todd Haynes, Ang Lee, and Todd Solondz shape their careers, James Schamus has finally made the leap from producer to director with an adaptation of Philip Roth‘s 2008 novel Indignation. The 1951-set feature follows Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), a Newark-bred Jewish teenager heading to his first semester at a Lutheran college in Ohio. In doing so, he avoids the draft for the Korean War, which is claiming extended family and friends as victims.
Indignation (James Schamus)
After helping filmmakers such as Todd Haynes, Ang Lee, and Todd Solondz shape their careers, James Schamus has finally made the leap from producer to director with an adaptation of Philip Roth‘s 2008 novel Indignation. The 1951-set feature follows Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), a Newark-bred Jewish teenager heading to his first semester at a Lutheran college in Ohio. In doing so, he avoids the draft for the Korean War, which is claiming extended family and friends as victims.
- 11/8/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
A boy being treated for cancer develops superpowers and tackles a supervillain in this engaging animated fantasy adventure
Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol are the French animators who received an Academy award nomination in 2010 for their sparky film A Cat in Paris. Now they are back with Phantom Boy – revoiced for an English-language release – a terrifically entertaining fantasy adventure that doubles up as a superhero origin myth. There’s scope for a sequel, which is good news. Both animation style and script are simpler than the hyper-sophisticated work coming from the Us studios right now. This is a refreshing palate cleanser. Leo (voiced by Marcus D’Angelo) is a New York kid being treated for cancer in hospital who finds that his nearness to death gives him the ability to float out of his body and fly over the city for half an hour or so at a time. He...
Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol are the French animators who received an Academy award nomination in 2010 for their sparky film A Cat in Paris. Now they are back with Phantom Boy – revoiced for an English-language release – a terrifically entertaining fantasy adventure that doubles up as a superhero origin myth. There’s scope for a sequel, which is good news. Both animation style and script are simpler than the hyper-sophisticated work coming from the Us studios right now. This is a refreshing palate cleanser. Leo (voiced by Marcus D’Angelo) is a New York kid being treated for cancer in hospital who finds that his nearness to death gives him the ability to float out of his body and fly over the city for half an hour or so at a time. He...
- 10/20/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Creative duo behind the Oscar nominated ‘A Cat in Paris’, Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol provide us with a mesmerisingly touching narrative, with their latest feature Phantom Boy. This animated fantasy is raw; it isn’t clean cut like Pixar or Aardman even – what we have here is an angular, pop-art surreal quality giving […]
The post Lff 2016: Phantom Boy Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Lff 2016: Phantom Boy Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 10/16/2016
- by Gloria Daniels-Moss
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Keep up with the always-hopping film festival world with our weekly Film Festival Roundup column. Check out last week’s Roundup right here.
Full Lineup Announcements
– The Denver Film Festival (Dff), produced by Denver Film Society (Dfs), has announced its full festival lineup including all feature film selections, short films and complete sidebars. “Our 39th Festival program truly has something for everyone — from the delightful dance-filled comedies of Tribute guests Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon to the diverse slate of works that makes up our country of focus, Spain, from timely and serious documentaries such as ‘Do Not Resist’ and ‘Jackson’ to the always curious and creepy Late Night Showcase,” said Brit Withey, Artistic Director. Other highlights include “I, Daniel Blake,” “The Ornithologist” and “Off the Rails.”
During the 12-day Festival, DFF39 will present more than 200 titles representing local, national and international independent films, as well as industry panels, workshops,...
Full Lineup Announcements
– The Denver Film Festival (Dff), produced by Denver Film Society (Dfs), has announced its full festival lineup including all feature film selections, short films and complete sidebars. “Our 39th Festival program truly has something for everyone — from the delightful dance-filled comedies of Tribute guests Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon to the diverse slate of works that makes up our country of focus, Spain, from timely and serious documentaries such as ‘Do Not Resist’ and ‘Jackson’ to the always curious and creepy Late Night Showcase,” said Brit Withey, Artistic Director. Other highlights include “I, Daniel Blake,” “The Ornithologist” and “Off the Rails.”
During the 12-day Festival, DFF39 will present more than 200 titles representing local, national and international independent films, as well as industry panels, workshops,...
- 10/13/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Distributor adds feature animation to Lff slate that also includes Toni Erdmann and Paterson.
UK distributor Soda Pictures has acquired Claude Barras’s debut feature animation My Life As A Courgette ahead of the film’s berth at the BFI London Film Festival (Lff)
The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight programme, is Switzerland’s submission to this year’s Oscar race.
The acquisition rounds out a strong looking line-up for Soda at this year’s Lff, with the company’s slate also featuring Cannes favourites Toni Erdmann and Paterson, as well as Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion, documentary David Lynch: The Art Life, Marco Bellocchio’s Berenice Bejo-starring drama Sweet Dreams and French fantasy animation Phantom Boy.
The stop-motion feature tells the story of nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, who has to find his way in an orphanage after his mother’s death, eventually being taken in by a policeman.
It is based...
UK distributor Soda Pictures has acquired Claude Barras’s debut feature animation My Life As A Courgette ahead of the film’s berth at the BFI London Film Festival (Lff)
The film, which premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight programme, is Switzerland’s submission to this year’s Oscar race.
The acquisition rounds out a strong looking line-up for Soda at this year’s Lff, with the company’s slate also featuring Cannes favourites Toni Erdmann and Paterson, as well as Terence Davies’ A Quiet Passion, documentary David Lynch: The Art Life, Marco Bellocchio’s Berenice Bejo-starring drama Sweet Dreams and French fantasy animation Phantom Boy.
The stop-motion feature tells the story of nine-year-old Icare, nicknamed Courgette, who has to find his way in an orphanage after his mother’s death, eventually being taken in by a policeman.
It is based...
- 10/7/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
“Long Way North,” the latest animated film from acclaimed filmmaker Rémi Chayé (“The Secret of Kells”) will open theatrically on September 30, 2016 in Los Angeles, New York, and a select group of other major markets. Shout! Factory Films acquired the U.S. rights to the movie in February.
Read More: Shout! Factory Films Nabs U.S. Rights To Reni Chaye’s Animated “Long Way North”
“Long Way North” won the Audience Award at the 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Grand Prize and Governor of Tokyo Award at the 2016 Tokyo Animation Festival. Here’s the official synopsis for the film: Sacha, a young girl from the Russian aristocracy, dreams of the Great North and anguishes over the fate of her grandfather, Oloukine, a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer who has yet to return from his latest expedition to conquer the North Pole. Sacha has always been fascinated by the adventurous...
Read More: Shout! Factory Films Nabs U.S. Rights To Reni Chaye’s Animated “Long Way North”
“Long Way North” won the Audience Award at the 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival and the Grand Prize and Governor of Tokyo Award at the 2016 Tokyo Animation Festival. Here’s the official synopsis for the film: Sacha, a young girl from the Russian aristocracy, dreams of the Great North and anguishes over the fate of her grandfather, Oloukine, a renowned scientist and Arctic explorer who has yet to return from his latest expedition to conquer the North Pole. Sacha has always been fascinated by the adventurous...
- 8/12/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
BBC America has your new favorite comedy premiering this fall. The network released the first look at “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” during their Saturday panel at San Diego Comic-Con.
Stars Elijah Wood, Samuel Barnett, Hannah Marks, Jade Eshete, along with lead writer and executive producer Max Landis and showrunner Robert Cooper, discussed the upcoming series, which is now in production.
Read More: ‘South Park’ Season 20 Trailer: Watch The Twisted Teaser Preparing Us For New Filth
“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” follows Wood as loner Todd who’s life, after the bizarre murder of a millionaire, is thrust into the orbit of Dirk Gently (Barnett), an eccentric detective who believes they’re destined to solve the murder-mystery together. Upon meeting this new pal, his realizes that his life will never be the same. Crossing unlikely paths with a bevy of wild and dangerous characters, each episode lands them...
Stars Elijah Wood, Samuel Barnett, Hannah Marks, Jade Eshete, along with lead writer and executive producer Max Landis and showrunner Robert Cooper, discussed the upcoming series, which is now in production.
Read More: ‘South Park’ Season 20 Trailer: Watch The Twisted Teaser Preparing Us For New Filth
“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” follows Wood as loner Todd who’s life, after the bizarre murder of a millionaire, is thrust into the orbit of Dirk Gently (Barnett), an eccentric detective who believes they’re destined to solve the murder-mystery together. Upon meeting this new pal, his realizes that his life will never be the same. Crossing unlikely paths with a bevy of wild and dangerous characters, each episode lands them...
- 7/23/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
His name is Leo and he has a secret.
In the latest animated outing from the always-charming Gkids, a young boy takes flight in a fantastic adventure that looks to flip the superhero narrative on its head. And, as is the case with so many superheroes, Leo has a very big secret.
Read More: How Animated ‘Phantom Boy’ Conjures a Superhero Noir Hybrid
The newest film from “A Cat in Paris” filmmaking duo Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, the New York City-set feature returns the pair to the big screen with another film about secret identities, bold deeds and unexpected new friends. When a vicious villain takes over the the city, Leo must use his hidden abilities — yes, as a phantom boy — to help fight back and save the inhabitants of Gotham from yet another wacky baddie bent on taking down the world. But there’s more to Leo than meets the eye,...
In the latest animated outing from the always-charming Gkids, a young boy takes flight in a fantastic adventure that looks to flip the superhero narrative on its head. And, as is the case with so many superheroes, Leo has a very big secret.
Read More: How Animated ‘Phantom Boy’ Conjures a Superhero Noir Hybrid
The newest film from “A Cat in Paris” filmmaking duo Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol, the New York City-set feature returns the pair to the big screen with another film about secret identities, bold deeds and unexpected new friends. When a vicious villain takes over the the city, Leo must use his hidden abilities — yes, as a phantom boy — to help fight back and save the inhabitants of Gotham from yet another wacky baddie bent on taking down the world. But there’s more to Leo than meets the eye,...
- 7/22/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
After nabbing an Oscar nomination for the delightful “A Cat in Paris” in 2012, the French team of Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol get more ambitious with “Phantom Boy” (July 22), combining an ethereal superhero with a wacky crime thriller. No wonder Gkids smartly grabbed distribution rights to this one as well.
Leo, a sensitive young New Yorker, undergoes treatment for a serious illness in a hospital, where he discovers the strange ability to leave his body for short periods of time and communicate with some of the unconscious patients. This invisible transport allows him to assist a wounded cop and female reporter in thwarting a mysterious villain from destabilizing the city with a computer virus.
“We prefer working in a context and setting that are realistic but with one fantasy element,” said Gagnol, who wrote the script. Felicioli provided the flat, angular, retro graphic design. “It’s a fantastical, dream image of New York,...
Leo, a sensitive young New Yorker, undergoes treatment for a serious illness in a hospital, where he discovers the strange ability to leave his body for short periods of time and communicate with some of the unconscious patients. This invisible transport allows him to assist a wounded cop and female reporter in thwarting a mysterious villain from destabilizing the city with a computer virus.
“We prefer working in a context and setting that are realistic but with one fantasy element,” said Gagnol, who wrote the script. Felicioli provided the flat, angular, retro graphic design. “It’s a fantastical, dream image of New York,...
- 7/21/2016
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Mid-summer brings the biggest limited opening of 2016, with a return to form by Woody Allen as new distributor Amazon Studios and partner Lionsgate pushed “Café Society” to numbers unseen since last December. It’s not at Allen’s top level, but a huge leap above his last two films as well as anything else so far this year.
For a totally different market, Dinesh D’Souza doc “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” had a limited opening in Middle America with strong front-loaded initial numbers. The political doc goes wider this Friday and could see a better eventual total —via an entirely different audience—than Allen’s film.
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (The Orchard) from New Zealand leads the films in wider release as it continues to build word-of-mouth success. “Captain Fantastic” (Bleecker Street) boasted a decent second weekend expansion and could end up at a...
For a totally different market, Dinesh D’Souza doc “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” had a limited opening in Middle America with strong front-loaded initial numbers. The political doc goes wider this Friday and could see a better eventual total —via an entirely different audience—than Allen’s film.
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (The Orchard) from New Zealand leads the films in wider release as it continues to build word-of-mouth success. “Captain Fantastic” (Bleecker Street) boasted a decent second weekend expansion and could end up at a...
- 7/17/2016
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
For a fifth straight weekend in a row an animated film has taken the #1 spot at the box office as Illumination and Universal's The Secret Life of Pets followed up its record-breaking opening with a chart-topping sophomore session, pushing the launch of Sony's Ghostbusters reboot to second. Meanwhile, Finding Dory has now become the highest grossing animated release of all-time domestically as Warner Bros. adds two new films to 2016's century club with The Legend of Tarzan and The Conjuring 2. The weekend was down 26% from last week and ~17% compared to last year, yet there is still plenty to highlight. The Secret Life of Pets finished #1 for a second weekend in a row with an estimated $50.5 million (51.5% drop), bringing its domestic cume to an impressive $203.1 million after just ten days in release. This already places the animated hit higher than Disney's Tangled and just behind Pixar's Ratatouille on the all-time animated chart.
- 7/17/2016
- by Brad Brevet <mail@boxofficemojo.com>
- Box Office Mojo
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week […]
The post This Week In Trailers: Masters of the Universe: The Curse of the Three Terrors, Phantom Boy, Command and Control, The Young Offenders, Meet the Donors appeared first on /Film.
The post This Week In Trailers: Masters of the Universe: The Curse of the Three Terrors, Phantom Boy, Command and Control, The Young Offenders, Meet the Donors appeared first on /Film.
- 7/16/2016
- by Christopher Stipp
- Slash Film
To help sift through the increasing number of new releases (independent or otherwise), the Weekly Film Guide is here! Below you’ll find basic plot, personnel and cinema information for all of this week’s fresh offerings.
Starting this month, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for July 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, July 15. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Ghostbusters
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Bill Murray, Charles Dance, Elizabeth Perkins, Sigourney Weaver
Synopsis: A paranormal researcher (Melissa McCarthy), a physicist (Kristen Wiig), a nuclear engineer (Kate McKinnon) and a subway worker (Leslie Jones...
Starting this month, we’ve also put together a list for the entire month. We’ve included this week’s list below, complete with information on screening locations for films in limited release.
See More: Here Are All the Upcoming Movies in Theaters for July 2016
Here are the films opening theatrically in the U.S. the week of Friday, July 15. All synopses provided by distributor unless listed otherwise.
Wide
Ghostbusters
Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Bill Murray, Charles Dance, Elizabeth Perkins, Sigourney Weaver
Synopsis: A paranormal researcher (Melissa McCarthy), a physicist (Kristen Wiig), a nuclear engineer (Kate McKinnon) and a subway worker (Leslie Jones...
- 7/15/2016
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
What does it take to be a superhero? A cool costume? A compelling backstory? Extraordinary abilities and access to the best technology contrivance can buy? If you answer yes to any of these then the animated “Phantom Boy” probably isn’t your jam, though its snappy title may fool you at a glance; put together, those […]
The post Animated ‘Phantom Boy’ Serves Up A Magical Adventure [Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Animated ‘Phantom Boy’ Serves Up A Magical Adventure [Review] appeared first on The Playlist.
- 7/13/2016
- by Andrew Crump
- The Playlist
The New York distributor has bought North American rights to Keiichi Hara’s award-winning animated coming-of-age tale.
New York-based Gkids has bought North American distribution rights to Keiichi Hara’s Miss Hokusai and has set the award-winning animated coming-of-age tale for an October release.
The film, the latest feature from Japanese animation house Production I.G (whose A Letter To Momo was also handled by Gkids), will open in New York and Los Angeles on October 14, with a North American expansion to follow.
Miss Hokusai, adapted from Hinako Sugiura’s manga Sarusuberi by Miho Maruo, won the Jury Prize at last year’s Annecy festival and was named best animated feature at the Sitges festival. Set in Edo period Japan, the film tells the story of O-Ei, daughter and artistic collaborator of renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, as she struggles with her identity as an artist and her emerging sexuality.
Gkids is set...
New York-based Gkids has bought North American distribution rights to Keiichi Hara’s Miss Hokusai and has set the award-winning animated coming-of-age tale for an October release.
The film, the latest feature from Japanese animation house Production I.G (whose A Letter To Momo was also handled by Gkids), will open in New York and Los Angeles on October 14, with a North American expansion to follow.
Miss Hokusai, adapted from Hinako Sugiura’s manga Sarusuberi by Miho Maruo, won the Jury Prize at last year’s Annecy festival and was named best animated feature at the Sitges festival. Set in Edo period Japan, the film tells the story of O-Ei, daughter and artistic collaborator of renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, as she struggles with her identity as an artist and her emerging sexuality.
Gkids is set...
- 7/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
The New York distributor has bought North American rights to Keiichi Hara’s award-winning animated coming-of-age tale.
New York-based Gkids has bought North American distribution rights to Keiichi Hara’s Miss Hokusai and has set the award-winning animated coming-of-age tale for an October release.
The film, the latest feature from Japanese animation house Production I.G (whose A Letter To Momo was also handled by Gkids), will open in New York and Los Angeles on October 14, with a North American expansion to follow.
Miss Hokusai, adapted from Hinako Sugiura’s manga Sarusuberi by Miho Maruo, won the Jury Prize at last year’s Annecy festival and was named best animated feature at the Sitges festival. Set in Edo period Japan, the film tells the story of O-Ei, daughter and artistic collaborator of renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, as she struggles with her identity as an artist and her emerging sexuality.
Gkids is set...
New York-based Gkids has bought North American distribution rights to Keiichi Hara’s Miss Hokusai and has set the award-winning animated coming-of-age tale for an October release.
The film, the latest feature from Japanese animation house Production I.G (whose A Letter To Momo was also handled by Gkids), will open in New York and Los Angeles on October 14, with a North American expansion to follow.
Miss Hokusai, adapted from Hinako Sugiura’s manga Sarusuberi by Miho Maruo, won the Jury Prize at last year’s Annecy festival and was named best animated feature at the Sitges festival. Set in Edo period Japan, the film tells the story of O-Ei, daughter and artistic collaborator of renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, as she struggles with her identity as an artist and her emerging sexuality.
Gkids is set...
- 7/7/2016
- ScreenDaily
There’s something inherently remarkable about the field of animation: that, with just a paper and pen, one can use infinite imagination to create a world unbound by physical restrictions. Of course, in today’s age it goes far beyond those simple tools of creation, but it remains the rare patience-requisite medium in which a director’s vision can be perfected over years until applying that final, necessary touch.
With Pixar’s 17th feature arriving in theaters, we’ve set out to reflect on the millennium thus far in animation and those films that have most excelled. In picking our 50 favorite titles, we looked to all corners of the world, from teams as big as thousands down to a sole animator. The result is a wide-ranging selection, proving that even if some animation styles aren’t as prevalent, the best examples find their way to the top.
To note: we only stuck with feature-length animations of 60 minutes or longer — sorry, World of Tomorrow, and even Pixar’s stunning Piper — and to make room for a few more titles, our definition of “the 21st century” stretched to include 2000. We also stuck with films that don’t feature any live-action (for the most part) and that have been released in the U.S. thus far, so The Red Turtle and Phantom Boy will get their due on a later date. Check out our top 50 below and let us know your favorites in the comments.
50. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
Admit it: When The Lego Movie was announced, you did not expect it to wind up any best-of-the-year lists. But, against all odds, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s first smash hit of 2014 is an unadulterated pleasure. This bold, original film has a wildly clever script (by the directors) with a message of creativity that made it a glorious surprise. It is also well-cast: Lego is the first movie to fully make use of Chris Pratt’s essential sweetness, and offered Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman their freshest parts in years. It is not often that a “kids” film entertains adults as much as their children, but The Lego Movie is far more than a piece of entertainment for the young ones. What could have been a headache-inducing, cynical creation is instead a pop treat. Everything is, indeed, awesome. – Christopher Schobert
49. 5 Centimetres per Second (Makoto Shinkai)
Makoto Shinkai’s emotional tour de force is the embodiment of the Japanese term “mono no aware,” which describes a wistful awareness of life’s transience. In the way its characters are haunted by bygone moments in the face of a vast and shapeless future, 5 Centimetres per Second could function as a spiritual companion to the oeuvre of Wong Kar-wai, but whereas Wong’s lovelorn protagonists are stuck in the past, Shinkai’s move forward, steadily, in a state of melancholic acceptance. Time is itself a character here, a fact brought to our attention by shots of clocks, the evolution of technology alongside the characters’ aging, and scenes where narrative stakes ensure that the passing of each second is palpably felt. And yet it is precisely the ephemerality of these seconds that lends them elevated significance —fittingly, the film’s animation is breathtakingly detailed and tactile, allowing us to identify with the characters by having us inhabit each, vivid moment before it vanishes. – Jonah Jeng
48. The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg)
Leave it to Steven Spielberg to eke more thrills out of an animated feature than most directors could with every live-action tool at their disposal. The Adventures of Tintin is colored and paced like a child’s fantastical imagining of how Hergé’s comics might play in motion, and the extent to which viewers buy it depends largely on their willingness to give themselves over to narrative and technical flights of fancy. Me? Four-and-a-half years later, I’m still waiting for a follow-up with bated breath. – Nick Newman
47. Titan A.E. (Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Art Vitello)
It’s the movie that took down Don Bluth, netted Fox a $100 million loss, and starred the young voices of Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore. From a script by Joss Whedon, John August, and Ben Edlund, Titan A.E. is a swashbuckle-y tale with stirring visuals and moments of sheer originality that now feels like a more-accomplished precursor to something such as Guardians of the Galaxy. If you’re going to go down, this is an impressive picture to sink with. – Dan Mecca
46. Metropolis (Rintaro)
Metropolis has more than a little in common with the apocalyptic orgy of violence of 1988 anime touchstone Akira, as the story follows the tragic inevitability of mans’ relationship with overwhelming power. But Rintaro’s Metropolis — which is based on Osama Tezuka’s manga and Fritz Lang’s canonical film — is also a story of overwhelming kindness in its central relationship between Kenichi, a well-intentioned and naïve child, and Tima, a cyborg capable of immense destruction. Distinguished by its washed-out watercolor character designs and its inventive cast of characters, Metropolis is a distinctly lighter take on the characteristically dreary dystopia genre. – Michael Snydel
45. Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore)
Animation has never shied away from grief. It’s the bedrock of everything from Grave of the Fireflies to the majority of Pixar’s filmography, but it’s rarely been as unbearably beautiful as in 2014’s unfairly overlooked Song of the Sea. Animated with a mythic tableau style, steeped in Celtic folklore, and filled with a cast of characters worthy of Hayao Miyazaki, Tomm Moore’s work is the rare heartwarming family film that knows it doesn’t need to compromise genuine emotion with fake-outs or Hollywood endings. – Michael Snydel
44. The Secret World of Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
While much of Studio Ghibli’s popularity focuses on the adored writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, some works from other directors deserve equal praise. One of them — which, yes, cheats a bit because Miyazaki scripted it — is The Secret World of Arrietty by first-time helmer Hiromasa Yonebayashi. The film follows a little boy’s fascination with the Borrowers — small humans that live in our world — and weaves the story of him and his family with Arrietty, one of the Borrowers. There are intensely dramatic moments as the Borrowers are constantly striving to survive amidst this world of luxury and easy life that the larger humans enjoy. Much like some of the best of Ghibli’s work, the film works on multiple levels and layers and thus becomes one of the studio’s most beautiful, enjoyable, and enduring works. – Bill Graham
43. ParaNorman (Chris Butler and Sam Fell)
A story of bullies and the bullied, Laika Studios’ second stop-motion film, ParaNorman, was unfortunately overshadowed by their astounding previous effort, Coraline. But time has been kind, and ParaNorman feels ahead of its time in both the exploration of darker themes (witch hunts, child murder, bigotry) and its juxtaposition of a Puritan New England ghost story and a vividly supernatural present. Buoyed by Jon Brion’s characteristically thoughtful score and an inventive reconfiguration of horror movie iconography, ParaNorman is a coming-of-age story that recognizes that even the “bad guys” have their reasons. – Michael Snydel
42. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit (Nick Park and Steve Box)
Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, Aardman Animation’s second feature collaboration with DreamWorks, brings Nick Park‘s brilliant claymation series about an absentminded inventor and his mute canine companion to the big screen. Working as humane pest removal specialists, Wallace and Gromit have hatched a plan to brainwash every hungry rabbit in town to dislike vegetables, preventing Gromit’s prized melon from being ruthlessly devoured. But the experiment backfires and the Were-Rabbit, a monstrous beast with an unquenchable appetite for veggies, is unleashed on the lush gardens of Tottington Holl. On par with the most uproarious shorts of Park’s career (working this time out with co-director Steve Box), the film slyly evokes fond memories of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in never treating its goofy leads as seriously as its surprisingly effective scares. It’s a shame that Park has announced the titular duo are likely retired, due to the failing health of voice actor Peter Sallis. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit is a light-hearted and whimsically clever gem that also works as a charming introduction to the horror genre for young cinema-lovers. – Tony Hinds
41. Lilo & Stitch (Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois)
What other film can pull off starting with an all-out sci-fi adventure and transition into a heartful ode to culture and family? Before they delivered an even more impactful variation on a similar sort of creature-human bond with How to Train Your Dragon, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois created this touching tale. Featuring a return to watercolor-painted backgrounds for Disney, as well as a reliance on 2D animation, it’s one of the company’s last in this era to have that long-missed tangibility. As often repeated in the film, “Family means nobody gets left behind,” and, by the end credits, you’ll feel like you’ve added a few new members to your own. – Jordan Raup
Continue >>...
With Pixar’s 17th feature arriving in theaters, we’ve set out to reflect on the millennium thus far in animation and those films that have most excelled. In picking our 50 favorite titles, we looked to all corners of the world, from teams as big as thousands down to a sole animator. The result is a wide-ranging selection, proving that even if some animation styles aren’t as prevalent, the best examples find their way to the top.
To note: we only stuck with feature-length animations of 60 minutes or longer — sorry, World of Tomorrow, and even Pixar’s stunning Piper — and to make room for a few more titles, our definition of “the 21st century” stretched to include 2000. We also stuck with films that don’t feature any live-action (for the most part) and that have been released in the U.S. thus far, so The Red Turtle and Phantom Boy will get their due on a later date. Check out our top 50 below and let us know your favorites in the comments.
50. The Lego Movie (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
Admit it: When The Lego Movie was announced, you did not expect it to wind up any best-of-the-year lists. But, against all odds, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s first smash hit of 2014 is an unadulterated pleasure. This bold, original film has a wildly clever script (by the directors) with a message of creativity that made it a glorious surprise. It is also well-cast: Lego is the first movie to fully make use of Chris Pratt’s essential sweetness, and offered Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Liam Neeson, and Morgan Freeman their freshest parts in years. It is not often that a “kids” film entertains adults as much as their children, but The Lego Movie is far more than a piece of entertainment for the young ones. What could have been a headache-inducing, cynical creation is instead a pop treat. Everything is, indeed, awesome. – Christopher Schobert
49. 5 Centimetres per Second (Makoto Shinkai)
Makoto Shinkai’s emotional tour de force is the embodiment of the Japanese term “mono no aware,” which describes a wistful awareness of life’s transience. In the way its characters are haunted by bygone moments in the face of a vast and shapeless future, 5 Centimetres per Second could function as a spiritual companion to the oeuvre of Wong Kar-wai, but whereas Wong’s lovelorn protagonists are stuck in the past, Shinkai’s move forward, steadily, in a state of melancholic acceptance. Time is itself a character here, a fact brought to our attention by shots of clocks, the evolution of technology alongside the characters’ aging, and scenes where narrative stakes ensure that the passing of each second is palpably felt. And yet it is precisely the ephemerality of these seconds that lends them elevated significance —fittingly, the film’s animation is breathtakingly detailed and tactile, allowing us to identify with the characters by having us inhabit each, vivid moment before it vanishes. – Jonah Jeng
48. The Adventures of Tintin (Steven Spielberg)
Leave it to Steven Spielberg to eke more thrills out of an animated feature than most directors could with every live-action tool at their disposal. The Adventures of Tintin is colored and paced like a child’s fantastical imagining of how Hergé’s comics might play in motion, and the extent to which viewers buy it depends largely on their willingness to give themselves over to narrative and technical flights of fancy. Me? Four-and-a-half years later, I’m still waiting for a follow-up with bated breath. – Nick Newman
47. Titan A.E. (Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Art Vitello)
It’s the movie that took down Don Bluth, netted Fox a $100 million loss, and starred the young voices of Matt Damon and Drew Barrymore. From a script by Joss Whedon, John August, and Ben Edlund, Titan A.E. is a swashbuckle-y tale with stirring visuals and moments of sheer originality that now feels like a more-accomplished precursor to something such as Guardians of the Galaxy. If you’re going to go down, this is an impressive picture to sink with. – Dan Mecca
46. Metropolis (Rintaro)
Metropolis has more than a little in common with the apocalyptic orgy of violence of 1988 anime touchstone Akira, as the story follows the tragic inevitability of mans’ relationship with overwhelming power. But Rintaro’s Metropolis — which is based on Osama Tezuka’s manga and Fritz Lang’s canonical film — is also a story of overwhelming kindness in its central relationship between Kenichi, a well-intentioned and naïve child, and Tima, a cyborg capable of immense destruction. Distinguished by its washed-out watercolor character designs and its inventive cast of characters, Metropolis is a distinctly lighter take on the characteristically dreary dystopia genre. – Michael Snydel
45. Song of the Sea (Tomm Moore)
Animation has never shied away from grief. It’s the bedrock of everything from Grave of the Fireflies to the majority of Pixar’s filmography, but it’s rarely been as unbearably beautiful as in 2014’s unfairly overlooked Song of the Sea. Animated with a mythic tableau style, steeped in Celtic folklore, and filled with a cast of characters worthy of Hayao Miyazaki, Tomm Moore’s work is the rare heartwarming family film that knows it doesn’t need to compromise genuine emotion with fake-outs or Hollywood endings. – Michael Snydel
44. The Secret World of Arrietty (Hiromasa Yonebayashi)
While much of Studio Ghibli’s popularity focuses on the adored writer-director Hayao Miyazaki, some works from other directors deserve equal praise. One of them — which, yes, cheats a bit because Miyazaki scripted it — is The Secret World of Arrietty by first-time helmer Hiromasa Yonebayashi. The film follows a little boy’s fascination with the Borrowers — small humans that live in our world — and weaves the story of him and his family with Arrietty, one of the Borrowers. There are intensely dramatic moments as the Borrowers are constantly striving to survive amidst this world of luxury and easy life that the larger humans enjoy. Much like some of the best of Ghibli’s work, the film works on multiple levels and layers and thus becomes one of the studio’s most beautiful, enjoyable, and enduring works. – Bill Graham
43. ParaNorman (Chris Butler and Sam Fell)
A story of bullies and the bullied, Laika Studios’ second stop-motion film, ParaNorman, was unfortunately overshadowed by their astounding previous effort, Coraline. But time has been kind, and ParaNorman feels ahead of its time in both the exploration of darker themes (witch hunts, child murder, bigotry) and its juxtaposition of a Puritan New England ghost story and a vividly supernatural present. Buoyed by Jon Brion’s characteristically thoughtful score and an inventive reconfiguration of horror movie iconography, ParaNorman is a coming-of-age story that recognizes that even the “bad guys” have their reasons. – Michael Snydel
42. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit (Nick Park and Steve Box)
Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit, Aardman Animation’s second feature collaboration with DreamWorks, brings Nick Park‘s brilliant claymation series about an absentminded inventor and his mute canine companion to the big screen. Working as humane pest removal specialists, Wallace and Gromit have hatched a plan to brainwash every hungry rabbit in town to dislike vegetables, preventing Gromit’s prized melon from being ruthlessly devoured. But the experiment backfires and the Were-Rabbit, a monstrous beast with an unquenchable appetite for veggies, is unleashed on the lush gardens of Tottington Holl. On par with the most uproarious shorts of Park’s career (working this time out with co-director Steve Box), the film slyly evokes fond memories of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein in never treating its goofy leads as seriously as its surprisingly effective scares. It’s a shame that Park has announced the titular duo are likely retired, due to the failing health of voice actor Peter Sallis. Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit is a light-hearted and whimsically clever gem that also works as a charming introduction to the horror genre for young cinema-lovers. – Tony Hinds
41. Lilo & Stitch (Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois)
What other film can pull off starting with an all-out sci-fi adventure and transition into a heartful ode to culture and family? Before they delivered an even more impactful variation on a similar sort of creature-human bond with How to Train Your Dragon, Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois created this touching tale. Featuring a return to watercolor-painted backgrounds for Disney, as well as a reliance on 2D animation, it’s one of the company’s last in this era to have that long-missed tangibility. As often repeated in the film, “Family means nobody gets left behind,” and, by the end credits, you’ll feel like you’ve added a few new members to your own. – Jordan Raup
Continue >>...
- 6/16/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The Ringer "X-Men Apocalypse Self-Loathing Index" funny stuff on which actors want to be there and which are embarassed by it
Variety Peter Shaffer the man behind the classic plays turned classic movies Amadeus and Equus has died at 90 because 2016 is the worst (The Grim Reaper must want to make his bonus this year or something)
The Playlist Splash is getting a remake (with an unnamed twist). Good luck trying to beat Daryl Hannah as Madison. They'll need it.
Seventh Row "Matthias Schoenaerts and the art of not speaking"
The Economist Why does The Shining have such cross media cultural staying power?
Variety wonders if its time for Emmys to bring back blue ribbon panels and divvy up the voting with so much acclaimed television coming from such unlikely places. Why not do it like Oscar's foreign film committees to narrow things down before final nomination voting?
Comics Alliance investigates...
Variety Peter Shaffer the man behind the classic plays turned classic movies Amadeus and Equus has died at 90 because 2016 is the worst (The Grim Reaper must want to make his bonus this year or something)
The Playlist Splash is getting a remake (with an unnamed twist). Good luck trying to beat Daryl Hannah as Madison. They'll need it.
Seventh Row "Matthias Schoenaerts and the art of not speaking"
The Economist Why does The Shining have such cross media cultural staying power?
Variety wonders if its time for Emmys to bring back blue ribbon panels and divvy up the voting with so much acclaimed television coming from such unlikely places. Why not do it like Oscar's foreign film committees to narrow things down before final nomination voting?
Comics Alliance investigates...
- 6/7/2016
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Directors Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol previously collaborated on the Oscar-nominated animated film A Cat in Paris, and now they’re back with their latest cartoon effort, Phantom Boy. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, and while it would be easy to say this is just another superhero movie, this looks […]
The post ‘Phantom Boy’ Teaser Trailer: A Boy with Cancer is New York City’s Newest Superhero appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Phantom Boy’ Teaser Trailer: A Boy with Cancer is New York City’s Newest Superhero appeared first on /Film.
- 6/3/2016
- by Ethan Anderton
- Slash Film
"Terror in the city!" GKids has debuted an enjoyable teaser trailer for the animated film Phantom Boy, the latest from French filmmakers Jean-Loup Felicioli & Alain Gagnol, who previously made the Oscar-nominated animated film A Cat in Paris. Inspired by the classic gangster stories of the 40's and 50's, this film is about an 11-year-old hospitalized boy who has the ability to leave his physical body and float around the city. This teaser is more of an introduction, and I'm sure the next trailer will get into more of the actual story. The film features the voices of Edouard Baer, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Audrey Tautou. This actually looks damn good, charming but also an edge to it with the gangster story. Looking forward to this. Here's the teaser trailer for Jean-Loup Felicioli & Alain Gagnol's Phantom Boy, from GKids' YouTube: Leo has a secret. A mysterious illness has transformed him into a phantom boy,...
- 6/3/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
After earning an Oscar nomination a few years back for their animated feature A Cat in Paris, directors Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol are back with Phantom Boy. Following its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, we named it one of our favorites of the festival and thankfully Gkids have picked it up for a summer release. Today they’ve debuted the first U.S. trailer for the film, which follows a boy who is able to explore his city in a supernatural way.
We said in our review, “The much-anticipated follow-up to their Oscar-nominated animation A Cat in Paris was five years in the making and well worth the wait. With its vibrant colors muted for a NYC noir aesthetic and every 2D field shaded by roughly textured shadows in constant motion, the frames literally flicker off the screen to leave a lasting impression. The story...
We said in our review, “The much-anticipated follow-up to their Oscar-nominated animation A Cat in Paris was five years in the making and well worth the wait. With its vibrant colors muted for a NYC noir aesthetic and every 2D field shaded by roughly textured shadows in constant motion, the frames literally flicker off the screen to leave a lasting impression. The story...
- 6/3/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The third annual Ajyal Youth Film Festival presented by the Doha Film Institute (November 29 to December 5) showcases feature films from 20 countries and a series of short film programs in Katara, Qatar.
Fatma Al Remaihi, Festival Director and CEO of the Doha Film Institute, says: “By providing young people with access to international cinema, filmmakers from around the world, and the space to discuss their ideas and develop critical thinking, Ajyal empowers the youngest members of our community and develops their understanding of the world around them.”
Academy Award nominated director, Hany Abu-Assad and Arab Idol champion Mohammed Assaf, whose life story "The Idol" is based on, will attend the Opening Night and will participate in a special ‘In Conversation’ session about bringing Assaf’s life story to the big screen and highlight the power of combining music and cinema and the challenges facing Arab artists today.
Read more about "The Idol" and an interview with Hany Abu-Assad at its debut at Tiff 2015.
Aside from the daily public screenings of local and international films other events are the popular "Made in Qatar"; Sony Cinema Under the Stars; Family Weekend; the Doha Giffoni Youth Media Summit ; special events and exhibitions; the Sandbox interactive digital playground; school screenings; and the Ajyal Competition, where hundreds of young jurors between the ages of 8 and 21 will watch and discuss shorts and features and decide on the winning films. competition line-up.
The popular "Made in Qatar" section features 17 films -- nine narrative shorts and eight documentaries by local talent.
More than 500 young people from the ages of 8 to 21 make up the Ajyal Competition Jury which will watch and analyze a dynamic program of films in three competitive sections followed by discussions and events including panels, workshops and Q&A sessions with filmmakers.
Each of the three Ajyal Juries are made of 24 international jurors from 12 countries including Australia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Serbia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The jury awards a Best Film prize to their favorite short and feature-length film, for a total of six awards. The directors of the winning films are awarded funding toward their next film, so jurors are empowered to support and promote future content that is relevant and important to them in a proactive way.
Mohaq means ‘New Moon’ in Arabic, and these are Ajyal’s youngest jurors, aged 8 to 12. These jurors will watch one program of short films and four feature-length films, marking the first year that competitive feature films are included in this category. They are: "Celestial Camel" (Russia) by Yury Feting about a young sheepherder living in the desolate Kalmyk Steppe, who sets off on an epic journey after his father is forced to sell the family’s beloved camel calf; "The Greatest House in the World" (Guatemala, Mexico) by Ana V. Bojórquez and Lucía Carreras - a film about the never-ending circle of life told through the story of a young girl in the isolated highlands of Guatemala; "Paper Planes"(Australia) by Robert Connolly - a tale of friendship, creativity and the bonds of family which centers around an 11-year-old boy with an exceptional talent for creating paper airplanes; and "Phantom Boy" by Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol (France, Belgium) an animated film about an 11-year-old boy whose illness allows him to have out-of-body experiences and mysterious powers.
Ajyal’s jurors aged 13 to 17 are the Hilal jury – the term means ‘Crescent Moon’ in Arabic. Five feature films and a program of shorts make up this jury’s film selection. The feature films competing in this section are: "Lamb" (France, Ethiopia, Germany, Norway, Qatar) by Yared Zeleke, a portrait of a young Ethiopian boy trying to find his way in the world; "Landfill Harmonic" (U.S.) directed by Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley and recent audience award winning documentary at Napa Valley Film Festival, that tracks the astounding rise of a Paraguayan youth orchestra whose members live next to one of South America's largest landfills and make their instruments from recycled materials; "Mina Walking" (Canada, Afghanistan), a multiple award winning documentary by Yosef Baraki, a powerful tale of a 12-year-old girl in war-torn Afghanistan struggling to make ends meet for her family; "Scarecrow " (The Philippines) by Zig Madamba Dulay which explores the complicated relationship of social injustice and familial expectations through the story of a young mother in a rural town; and " Wolf Totem" (China, France) by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Set against the backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution 1967, it is the story of a two young Chinese students who are sent on a research assignment with the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia and become fascinated by the wolves that roam the plains.
The most mature of Ajyal’s juries, Bader (Arabic for ‘Full Moon’) jurors are aged 18 to 21 and will select their favorite films from five features and two programs of short films. The feature films vying for top honors in this section are: "An" (Japan, France, Germany) by Naomi Kawase is a drama about a lonely baker whose life is reinvigorated when he hires an elderly woman with a special culinary skill; "The Second Mother " (Brazil's submission for Oscar nomination) by Anna Muylaert which is an exploration of the bond between mothers and their children told through the story of a housekeeper in Sao Paulo (Read review and interview with director Anna Muylaert here); "Taxi" (Iran), winner of Fipresci and Golden Bear Awards in Berlin 2015, by Jafar Panahi in which the celebrated Iranian director places himself in the driver’s seat of a cab, taking fares to their destinations in a wonderful portrait of contemporary Iran; "Very Big Shot" (Lebanon, Qatar), a bold and insightful dark comedy by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya that skewers political corruption and the media circus that goes with it; and "Walls" (Spain) - a documentary by Pablo Iraburu and Migueltxo Molina that follows several subjects on both sides of three contemporary international borders, demonstrating that the people on each side of the barriers are not as different as they may believe.
In addition to the three competitive sections, the Festival’s youngest audiences under the age of 8 years will also vote for their favorite film with the help of their parents who will determine the Parents’ Choice Award in the Bariq program. Bariq films are selected to satisfy the excitement and curiosity of young children and are suitable for the whole family. This year’s program features a collection of eight short films and will also include a special outdoor cine-concert on the Katara esplanade by the Festival Tout-Petits Cinéma from Paris, with four films accompanied by live music by pianist Anthony Boulc’h and saxophonist Fanch Minous.
A senior jury of three eminent figures from the local and regional industry will determine the winners of the competitive section comprising feature films from 20 countries and a series of short film program with two awards being presented for Best Short Narrative Film and Best Short Documentary Film. The 2015 jury members are film producer Bassam Al Ibrahim (Qatar), who is the CEO of Innovation Films and co-founder of ILoveQatar.net; film actress, director and producer, Ahd (Saudi Arabia), internationally renowned for her performance in Haifaa al-Mansour’s " Wadjda;" and respected veteran journalist and media personality, Marcel Ghanem (Lebanon).
Fatma Al Remaihi said: “It has been another productive and inspiring year for filmmaking in Qatar and this year’s Made in Qatar selection indicates the rapid growth and diversity that we are witnessing in the Qatari film industry."
The films in the 2015 Ajyal Youth Film Festival Made in Qatar section are:
Made in Qatar Program 1, Wednesday 2nd December
"To My Mother" by Amina Al Bloshi
"Light Sounds" by Karem Kamel
"Her Majlis" by Najla Al Khulaifi, Dana Al Mesnad and Nayla Al Thani
"The Palm Tree" by Jassim Al-Rumaihi
"Yellow Nights" by Abdulla al Mulla
"If They Only Knew" by Sana Al-Ansari
"Heart of the House" by Gabrielle Sol
"The Notebook" by Amna Albinali
Made in Qatar Program 2, Friday 4th December
"Charlie" by Ali Ali
"Immortalizing Memories" by Mostafa Sheshtawy
"Asfoora" by Mayar Hamdan
"Good as New" by Jaser Alagha
"I Choose Islam" by Noor Al-Tamimi, Silma Suba and Zac J. Hollo
"Mariam" by Zainab Ayon
"Time" by Yassine Ouahrani
"Man of the House" by Khalifa AlMarri
"Veganize It!" by Khalid Salim
Closing night will be the world premiere of animated feature film "Bilal" (UAE/2015), a new animated feature film made with funding from the Doha Film Institute and produced by Dubai-based Barajoun Studios. Involving creative talents from 22 countries, "Bilal " by Directors Ayman Jamal and Khurram Alavi is an inspiring adventure story of faith, hope and self-discovery. Inspired by the real-life story of Bilal Bin Rabah, the film's cutting edge animation technology, impeccable research and high production values will resonate with audiences across generations. The cast and crew of the film will be in attendance for the premiere including the directors of the film and cast members Andre Robinson ("Despicable Me 2") and Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje ("Lost", "The Bourne Identity", "Game of Thrones") who voice the young and adult Bilal respectively.
The Ajyal Family Weekend will feature the regional premiere of Marking the Un International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Ajyal 2015 will present in a regional first, an inclusive cinema experience specially ‘transadapted’ to suit audiences with different abilities, a special screening of Al Rayyan Productions animated short "Hero and the Message" (Qatar/2012). Guests will be able to view the film through sound alone, with special subtitles for people who have difficulty understanding speech. This inclusive version of the film has been developed with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and is the result of a collaboration between the Doha Film Institute and the Translation and Interpreting Institute at Hamad Bin Khalifa University who are spearheading the development of transadapted content in the Gulf region.
Fatma Al Remaihi, “Since our first edition, animated films have formed a core part of the Ajyal program and I am delighted that this year, we will premiere three incredibly diverse examples of the artform... from three corners of the globe.”
"Bilal" (UAE/2015) In a dreamlike vision, mysterious dark riders mounted on demonic black horses bear down upon a village. Nearby, little Bilal dreams of being a great warrior as he gallops along on his hobbyhorse. The riders come closer – are they real? Or are they just a figment of the youngster’s extraordinary imagination? Suddenly, Bilal’s dream becomes a nightmare. The men on horseback kill his mother and take him captive along with Ghufaira, his sister, and they are soon sold as slaves to Umayya, the wealthiest merchant in all of Arabia. Bilal never forgets this terrible day, which haunts his sleep for years to come. But the echoes of his mother’s gentle voice stay with him, a constant reminder that to break free of the chains that enslave him, he must forge his own destiny.
"The Good Dinosaur" (USA/2015), the latest feature from the award-winning Pixar Animation Studios and the team behind beloved Pixar classics "Finding Nemo" and "Inside Out" and will feature a special ‘kids red carpet’ for all families and young people from the community to participate and to be transported to a world where dinosaurs walk the Earth. Directed by Peter Sohn, the film screens on December 4th and presents an alternate history where the asteroids that wiped out these ancient reptiles never hit our planet.
"Hero and the Message" (Qatar/2012) tells the fantastic tale of a Qatari brother and sister who travel back in time to witness the founding events of the State of Qatar. Produced by Al Rayyan Productions, the top-notch animated short directed by Pawel Borowski was created to celebrate Qatar’s National Day in 2012, and screens on December 3rd.
"When Marnie Was There" (Japan/2014), screening on December 4 is one of the final anime sensations from Ghibli Studios and is based on the novel When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the film is about a young girl Anna who explores a long- abandoned villa and meets a mysterious blonde girl only she can see.
Fatma Al Remaihi, Festival Director and CEO of the Doha Film Institute, says: “By providing young people with access to international cinema, filmmakers from around the world, and the space to discuss their ideas and develop critical thinking, Ajyal empowers the youngest members of our community and develops their understanding of the world around them.”
Academy Award nominated director, Hany Abu-Assad and Arab Idol champion Mohammed Assaf, whose life story "The Idol" is based on, will attend the Opening Night and will participate in a special ‘In Conversation’ session about bringing Assaf’s life story to the big screen and highlight the power of combining music and cinema and the challenges facing Arab artists today.
Read more about "The Idol" and an interview with Hany Abu-Assad at its debut at Tiff 2015.
Aside from the daily public screenings of local and international films other events are the popular "Made in Qatar"; Sony Cinema Under the Stars; Family Weekend; the Doha Giffoni Youth Media Summit ; special events and exhibitions; the Sandbox interactive digital playground; school screenings; and the Ajyal Competition, where hundreds of young jurors between the ages of 8 and 21 will watch and discuss shorts and features and decide on the winning films. competition line-up.
The popular "Made in Qatar" section features 17 films -- nine narrative shorts and eight documentaries by local talent.
More than 500 young people from the ages of 8 to 21 make up the Ajyal Competition Jury which will watch and analyze a dynamic program of films in three competitive sections followed by discussions and events including panels, workshops and Q&A sessions with filmmakers.
Each of the three Ajyal Juries are made of 24 international jurors from 12 countries including Australia, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Serbia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. The jury awards a Best Film prize to their favorite short and feature-length film, for a total of six awards. The directors of the winning films are awarded funding toward their next film, so jurors are empowered to support and promote future content that is relevant and important to them in a proactive way.
Mohaq means ‘New Moon’ in Arabic, and these are Ajyal’s youngest jurors, aged 8 to 12. These jurors will watch one program of short films and four feature-length films, marking the first year that competitive feature films are included in this category. They are: "Celestial Camel" (Russia) by Yury Feting about a young sheepherder living in the desolate Kalmyk Steppe, who sets off on an epic journey after his father is forced to sell the family’s beloved camel calf; "The Greatest House in the World" (Guatemala, Mexico) by Ana V. Bojórquez and Lucía Carreras - a film about the never-ending circle of life told through the story of a young girl in the isolated highlands of Guatemala; "Paper Planes"(Australia) by Robert Connolly - a tale of friendship, creativity and the bonds of family which centers around an 11-year-old boy with an exceptional talent for creating paper airplanes; and "Phantom Boy" by Jean-Loup Felicioli, Alain Gagnol (France, Belgium) an animated film about an 11-year-old boy whose illness allows him to have out-of-body experiences and mysterious powers.
Ajyal’s jurors aged 13 to 17 are the Hilal jury – the term means ‘Crescent Moon’ in Arabic. Five feature films and a program of shorts make up this jury’s film selection. The feature films competing in this section are: "Lamb" (France, Ethiopia, Germany, Norway, Qatar) by Yared Zeleke, a portrait of a young Ethiopian boy trying to find his way in the world; "Landfill Harmonic" (U.S.) directed by Brad Allgood and Graham Townsley and recent audience award winning documentary at Napa Valley Film Festival, that tracks the astounding rise of a Paraguayan youth orchestra whose members live next to one of South America's largest landfills and make their instruments from recycled materials; "Mina Walking" (Canada, Afghanistan), a multiple award winning documentary by Yosef Baraki, a powerful tale of a 12-year-old girl in war-torn Afghanistan struggling to make ends meet for her family; "Scarecrow " (The Philippines) by Zig Madamba Dulay which explores the complicated relationship of social injustice and familial expectations through the story of a young mother in a rural town; and " Wolf Totem" (China, France) by Jean-Jacques Annaud. Set against the backdrop of the Chinese Cultural Revolution 1967, it is the story of a two young Chinese students who are sent on a research assignment with the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Mongolia and become fascinated by the wolves that roam the plains.
The most mature of Ajyal’s juries, Bader (Arabic for ‘Full Moon’) jurors are aged 18 to 21 and will select their favorite films from five features and two programs of short films. The feature films vying for top honors in this section are: "An" (Japan, France, Germany) by Naomi Kawase is a drama about a lonely baker whose life is reinvigorated when he hires an elderly woman with a special culinary skill; "The Second Mother " (Brazil's submission for Oscar nomination) by Anna Muylaert which is an exploration of the bond between mothers and their children told through the story of a housekeeper in Sao Paulo (Read review and interview with director Anna Muylaert here); "Taxi" (Iran), winner of Fipresci and Golden Bear Awards in Berlin 2015, by Jafar Panahi in which the celebrated Iranian director places himself in the driver’s seat of a cab, taking fares to their destinations in a wonderful portrait of contemporary Iran; "Very Big Shot" (Lebanon, Qatar), a bold and insightful dark comedy by Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya that skewers political corruption and the media circus that goes with it; and "Walls" (Spain) - a documentary by Pablo Iraburu and Migueltxo Molina that follows several subjects on both sides of three contemporary international borders, demonstrating that the people on each side of the barriers are not as different as they may believe.
In addition to the three competitive sections, the Festival’s youngest audiences under the age of 8 years will also vote for their favorite film with the help of their parents who will determine the Parents’ Choice Award in the Bariq program. Bariq films are selected to satisfy the excitement and curiosity of young children and are suitable for the whole family. This year’s program features a collection of eight short films and will also include a special outdoor cine-concert on the Katara esplanade by the Festival Tout-Petits Cinéma from Paris, with four films accompanied by live music by pianist Anthony Boulc’h and saxophonist Fanch Minous.
A senior jury of three eminent figures from the local and regional industry will determine the winners of the competitive section comprising feature films from 20 countries and a series of short film program with two awards being presented for Best Short Narrative Film and Best Short Documentary Film. The 2015 jury members are film producer Bassam Al Ibrahim (Qatar), who is the CEO of Innovation Films and co-founder of ILoveQatar.net; film actress, director and producer, Ahd (Saudi Arabia), internationally renowned for her performance in Haifaa al-Mansour’s " Wadjda;" and respected veteran journalist and media personality, Marcel Ghanem (Lebanon).
Fatma Al Remaihi said: “It has been another productive and inspiring year for filmmaking in Qatar and this year’s Made in Qatar selection indicates the rapid growth and diversity that we are witnessing in the Qatari film industry."
The films in the 2015 Ajyal Youth Film Festival Made in Qatar section are:
Made in Qatar Program 1, Wednesday 2nd December
"To My Mother" by Amina Al Bloshi
"Light Sounds" by Karem Kamel
"Her Majlis" by Najla Al Khulaifi, Dana Al Mesnad and Nayla Al Thani
"The Palm Tree" by Jassim Al-Rumaihi
"Yellow Nights" by Abdulla al Mulla
"If They Only Knew" by Sana Al-Ansari
"Heart of the House" by Gabrielle Sol
"The Notebook" by Amna Albinali
Made in Qatar Program 2, Friday 4th December
"Charlie" by Ali Ali
"Immortalizing Memories" by Mostafa Sheshtawy
"Asfoora" by Mayar Hamdan
"Good as New" by Jaser Alagha
"I Choose Islam" by Noor Al-Tamimi, Silma Suba and Zac J. Hollo
"Mariam" by Zainab Ayon
"Time" by Yassine Ouahrani
"Man of the House" by Khalifa AlMarri
"Veganize It!" by Khalid Salim
Closing night will be the world premiere of animated feature film "Bilal" (UAE/2015), a new animated feature film made with funding from the Doha Film Institute and produced by Dubai-based Barajoun Studios. Involving creative talents from 22 countries, "Bilal " by Directors Ayman Jamal and Khurram Alavi is an inspiring adventure story of faith, hope and self-discovery. Inspired by the real-life story of Bilal Bin Rabah, the film's cutting edge animation technology, impeccable research and high production values will resonate with audiences across generations. The cast and crew of the film will be in attendance for the premiere including the directors of the film and cast members Andre Robinson ("Despicable Me 2") and Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje ("Lost", "The Bourne Identity", "Game of Thrones") who voice the young and adult Bilal respectively.
The Ajyal Family Weekend will feature the regional premiere of Marking the Un International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Ajyal 2015 will present in a regional first, an inclusive cinema experience specially ‘transadapted’ to suit audiences with different abilities, a special screening of Al Rayyan Productions animated short "Hero and the Message" (Qatar/2012). Guests will be able to view the film through sound alone, with special subtitles for people who have difficulty understanding speech. This inclusive version of the film has been developed with the support of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and is the result of a collaboration between the Doha Film Institute and the Translation and Interpreting Institute at Hamad Bin Khalifa University who are spearheading the development of transadapted content in the Gulf region.
Fatma Al Remaihi, “Since our first edition, animated films have formed a core part of the Ajyal program and I am delighted that this year, we will premiere three incredibly diverse examples of the artform... from three corners of the globe.”
"Bilal" (UAE/2015) In a dreamlike vision, mysterious dark riders mounted on demonic black horses bear down upon a village. Nearby, little Bilal dreams of being a great warrior as he gallops along on his hobbyhorse. The riders come closer – are they real? Or are they just a figment of the youngster’s extraordinary imagination? Suddenly, Bilal’s dream becomes a nightmare. The men on horseback kill his mother and take him captive along with Ghufaira, his sister, and they are soon sold as slaves to Umayya, the wealthiest merchant in all of Arabia. Bilal never forgets this terrible day, which haunts his sleep for years to come. But the echoes of his mother’s gentle voice stay with him, a constant reminder that to break free of the chains that enslave him, he must forge his own destiny.
"The Good Dinosaur" (USA/2015), the latest feature from the award-winning Pixar Animation Studios and the team behind beloved Pixar classics "Finding Nemo" and "Inside Out" and will feature a special ‘kids red carpet’ for all families and young people from the community to participate and to be transported to a world where dinosaurs walk the Earth. Directed by Peter Sohn, the film screens on December 4th and presents an alternate history where the asteroids that wiped out these ancient reptiles never hit our planet.
"Hero and the Message" (Qatar/2012) tells the fantastic tale of a Qatari brother and sister who travel back in time to witness the founding events of the State of Qatar. Produced by Al Rayyan Productions, the top-notch animated short directed by Pawel Borowski was created to celebrate Qatar’s National Day in 2012, and screens on December 3rd.
"When Marnie Was There" (Japan/2014), screening on December 4 is one of the final anime sensations from Ghibli Studios and is based on the novel When Marnie Was There by Joan G. Robinson. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the film is about a young girl Anna who explores a long- abandoned villa and meets a mysterious blonde girl only she can see.
- 11/21/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Titles in competition include animation Phantom Boy [pictured], Ethiopian drama Lamb, Brazilian Oscar submission The Second Mother and Jafar Panahi’s Berlinale winner Taxi Tehran.
The Doha Film Institute has announced the competition line-up for the third edition of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Nov 29 - Dec 5), comprising feature films from 20 countries as well as a series of short film programmes.
The jury will be made up of more than 500 young people, aged 8-21, who will watch a programme of films under three competitive sections - Mohaq, Hilal, and Bader - followed by discussions and events including panels, workshops and Q&A sessions with filmmakers.
Each of the three Ajyal Juries will award a Best Film prize to their favourite short and feature-length films, for a total of six awards. The directors of the winning films are awarded funding toward their next film.
The jury includes 24 international jurors who will travel to Doha for the event from 12 countries...
The Doha Film Institute has announced the competition line-up for the third edition of the Ajyal Youth Film Festival (Nov 29 - Dec 5), comprising feature films from 20 countries as well as a series of short film programmes.
The jury will be made up of more than 500 young people, aged 8-21, who will watch a programme of films under three competitive sections - Mohaq, Hilal, and Bader - followed by discussions and events including panels, workshops and Q&A sessions with filmmakers.
Each of the three Ajyal Juries will award a Best Film prize to their favourite short and feature-length films, for a total of six awards. The directors of the winning films are awarded funding toward their next film.
The jury includes 24 international jurors who will travel to Doha for the event from 12 countries...
- 11/9/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Benelux distributor Lumiere has been on an acqusition drive, ramping up its release slate for next year.
One major Lumiere pre-buy is Nicole Garcia’s post-war drama From the Land of the Moon (Mal De Pierres), starring Marion Cotillard, which it acquired from French producers Les Productions du Trésor.
Another is Terrence Malick’s mind-bending, long-gestating documentary about the “birth and death of the known universe”, Voyage Of Time, sold by Wild Bunch.
The company has also taken Cristian Mungiu’s latest feature, Family Photos, also sold by Wild Bunch.
Lumiere recently swooped to pre-buy News From Planet Mars, the new family drama by French director Dominik Moll, which stars noted Flemish actress Veerle Baetens. Sales are handled by Memento Films International.
Speaking in Venice, company CEO Jan de Clercq confirmed that Lumiere has acquired the new, as-yet-untitled film from Hirokazu Kore-eda. The company has released several Kore-eda titles in the past.
Meanwhile, the company...
One major Lumiere pre-buy is Nicole Garcia’s post-war drama From the Land of the Moon (Mal De Pierres), starring Marion Cotillard, which it acquired from French producers Les Productions du Trésor.
Another is Terrence Malick’s mind-bending, long-gestating documentary about the “birth and death of the known universe”, Voyage Of Time, sold by Wild Bunch.
The company has also taken Cristian Mungiu’s latest feature, Family Photos, also sold by Wild Bunch.
Lumiere recently swooped to pre-buy News From Planet Mars, the new family drama by French director Dominik Moll, which stars noted Flemish actress Veerle Baetens. Sales are handled by Memento Films International.
Speaking in Venice, company CEO Jan de Clercq confirmed that Lumiere has acquired the new, as-yet-untitled film from Hirokazu Kore-eda. The company has released several Kore-eda titles in the past.
Meanwhile, the company...
- 9/7/2015
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
While the Toronto International Film Festival looks around the world and in all genres to find features for its annual incarnation, one area that receives focus is films aimed at children. With the understanding both that quality cinema is not dependent on its target audience, and that cinephiles can begin at any age, the festival’s Kids Programme highlights such features.
The Discovery Programme, on the other hand, brings together films from first and second time directors, with an eye on emerging talent. The festival has now announced the lineups for both Programmes in the 2015 incarnation of the event, along with further additions to the Cinematheque and Vanguard lineup. The Discovery lineup joins previously announced Canadian features. The films, with their official synopses, can be seen below.
Tiff Kids
The Boy and the Beast, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, making its International Premiere
A young boy in modern-day Tokyo stumbles into...
The Discovery Programme, on the other hand, brings together films from first and second time directors, with an eye on emerging talent. The festival has now announced the lineups for both Programmes in the 2015 incarnation of the event, along with further additions to the Cinematheque and Vanguard lineup. The Discovery lineup joins previously announced Canadian features. The films, with their official synopses, can be seen below.
Tiff Kids
The Boy and the Beast, directed by Mamoru Hosoda, making its International Premiere
A young boy in modern-day Tokyo stumbles into...
- 8/26/2015
- by Deepayan Sengupta
- SoundOnSight
Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 10-20) has completed its line-up with the Discovery, New Wave Tiff Kids and In Conversation With… strands and has confirmed the return of Festival Street.
Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, Salma Hayek, Sarah Silverman and Matthew Weiner will take place in separate on-stage conversations as part of the In Conversation With… series, which replaces the Mavericks programme.
For the second year, the Festival Street initiative will see the closure of King Street West between Peter and University Streets, from Sept 10-13.
Events will include Questival, a walking interactive quiz designed by Frontier Design & Innovation; the NewCanadianMusic.ca music stage featuring the world premiere of Titicut Follies – The Ballet inspired by Frederick Wiseman’s 1967 documentary; cinema-inspired installations; magicians; the Slaight Family Zone; and food trucks.
In total, the festival will screen 399 films, of which 289 are features and 110 shorts. Last year’s festival screened 392 in total comprising 284 features and 108 shorts.
Programmers sifted...
Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, Salma Hayek, Sarah Silverman and Matthew Weiner will take place in separate on-stage conversations as part of the In Conversation With… series, which replaces the Mavericks programme.
For the second year, the Festival Street initiative will see the closure of King Street West between Peter and University Streets, from Sept 10-13.
Events will include Questival, a walking interactive quiz designed by Frontier Design & Innovation; the NewCanadianMusic.ca music stage featuring the world premiere of Titicut Follies – The Ballet inspired by Frederick Wiseman’s 1967 documentary; cinema-inspired installations; magicians; the Slaight Family Zone; and food trucks.
In total, the festival will screen 399 films, of which 289 are features and 110 shorts. Last year’s festival screened 392 in total comprising 284 features and 108 shorts.
Programmers sifted...
- 8/25/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The animation specialist has picked up North American rights to A Cat In Paris directors’ Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol’s latest work.
Phantom Boy will premiere on Friday at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Gkids plans a spring 2016 theatrical release.
The story follows a boy with a special ability and an injured police officer who team up to thwart a villain’s plans to plunge the city into chaos.
Daniela Elstner of Doc & Film International, Annemie Degryse of Lumière Publishing and Eric Beckman of Gkids brokered the deal.
Jacques-Remy Girerd and Annemie Degryse produced the Folimage, Lunanime, France 3 Cinéma and Rhône-Alpes Cinéma co-production.
Gkids distributed Oscar-nominated A Cat In Paris.
In other news, Paladin has acquired Us rights to Brad Coley’s northern Gothic Frank The Bastard starring Rachel Miner and plans a limited July 24 release ahead of expansion. FilmBuff handles worldwide digital rights and will start the roll-out this summer.
Phantom Boy will premiere on Friday at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Gkids plans a spring 2016 theatrical release.
The story follows a boy with a special ability and an injured police officer who team up to thwart a villain’s plans to plunge the city into chaos.
Daniela Elstner of Doc & Film International, Annemie Degryse of Lumière Publishing and Eric Beckman of Gkids brokered the deal.
Jacques-Remy Girerd and Annemie Degryse produced the Folimage, Lunanime, France 3 Cinéma and Rhône-Alpes Cinéma co-production.
Gkids distributed Oscar-nominated A Cat In Paris.
In other news, Paladin has acquired Us rights to Brad Coley’s northern Gothic Frank The Bastard starring Rachel Miner and plans a limited July 24 release ahead of expansion. FilmBuff handles worldwide digital rights and will start the roll-out this summer.
- 6/18/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Gkids has landed North American rights to Phantom Boy, an animated crime thriller from Oscar-nominated A Cat In Paris‘ writers-directors Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol. The move comes ahead of the film’s premiere tomorrow at the Annecy International Film Festival. Gkids is planning a theatrical release in spring 2016. Phantom Boy is set in a noir New York and centers on Leo, a boy who has become a phantom — hence the title. Due to a strange illness, Leo is able slip…...
- 6/18/2015
- Deadline
Exclusive: Companies are currently in post production on second feature Phantom Boy [pictured].
Here in Berlin, it has emerged Belgium’s Lunanime is to make its third feature with French animation powerhouse Folimage.
Lunamine and Folimage first collaborated on international box office hit, A Cat In Paris (2010). They are now in post production on their second feature together, Phantom Boy.
Now, here at the Efm, Lunamine’s Annemie Degryse confirmed the two companies will be working on a third project.
Lunamine (the animation arm of leading Belgian distributor) and Folimage will partner on Tulip. This will again be directed by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli. It will be shot in the same carefully crafted style, using hand drawn animation, as its two predecessors.
Tulip tells the story of an 11-year old girl who sees monsters - at first she is terrified of these visions, but she soon learns they are actually a gift she inherited from her grandmother...
Here in Berlin, it has emerged Belgium’s Lunanime is to make its third feature with French animation powerhouse Folimage.
Lunamine and Folimage first collaborated on international box office hit, A Cat In Paris (2010). They are now in post production on their second feature together, Phantom Boy.
Now, here at the Efm, Lunamine’s Annemie Degryse confirmed the two companies will be working on a third project.
Lunamine (the animation arm of leading Belgian distributor) and Folimage will partner on Tulip. This will again be directed by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli. It will be shot in the same carefully crafted style, using hand drawn animation, as its two predecessors.
Tulip tells the story of an 11-year old girl who sees monsters - at first she is terrified of these visions, but she soon learns they are actually a gift she inherited from her grandmother...
- 2/9/2015
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Ghibli to give master-class at lakeside Annecy International Animation Festival.
Japanese animator Isao Takahata will make a rare international appearance this week at the 38th Annecy International Animation Festival which opens today [June 9] with The Tale of Princess Kaguya, the first feature overseen by the Studio Ghibli co-founder in more than a decade.
The 78-year animator will give a master-class at the festival on Tuesday in which he will discuss his 50-year career that began at Toei Animation in the 1970s where he met long-time collaborator and Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki.
The master-class is part of a packed programme of talks and conferences at the lakeside animation festival, running June 9-14, a key date in the calendar for professionals and students from across the animation world.
Other highlights include a sneak preview of by Monsters Inc. director Pete Docter of his upcoming Pixar-produced Inside Out. The film, probing inside the human mind, is set for...
Japanese animator Isao Takahata will make a rare international appearance this week at the 38th Annecy International Animation Festival which opens today [June 9] with The Tale of Princess Kaguya, the first feature overseen by the Studio Ghibli co-founder in more than a decade.
The 78-year animator will give a master-class at the festival on Tuesday in which he will discuss his 50-year career that began at Toei Animation in the 1970s where he met long-time collaborator and Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki.
The master-class is part of a packed programme of talks and conferences at the lakeside animation festival, running June 9-14, a key date in the calendar for professionals and students from across the animation world.
Other highlights include a sneak preview of by Monsters Inc. director Pete Docter of his upcoming Pixar-produced Inside Out. The film, probing inside the human mind, is set for...
- 6/9/2014
- ScreenDaily
Former Oscar winner Mike van Diem’s The Surprise and BBC backed series The White Queen [pictured] are among the recipients in the first funding round from the new Screen Flanders economic fund.
A total amount of €4,995,000 ($6,678,685) is to be distributed in the fund’s inaugural call.
The next call for projects closes on 28 June. The final call for 2013 opens from Sept 1 and closes on Oct 25. Another €5 million will be divided among applicants in both remaining calls.
Sitting alongside the Belgian Tax Shelter, the new fund is bound to boost the region’s appeal for coproduction and inward investment yet further. The aim of the selective system is to support (co-) productions that are made, in part or entirely, in the Flanders region. One of the conditions is that the project spends a minimum of €250,000 ($334,205) in the region. The 20 supported titles together stand for well over €20 million ($26,7m)of audiovisual expenses in the Flanders region.
The Screen...
A total amount of €4,995,000 ($6,678,685) is to be distributed in the fund’s inaugural call.
The next call for projects closes on 28 June. The final call for 2013 opens from Sept 1 and closes on Oct 25. Another €5 million will be divided among applicants in both remaining calls.
Sitting alongside the Belgian Tax Shelter, the new fund is bound to boost the region’s appeal for coproduction and inward investment yet further. The aim of the selective system is to support (co-) productions that are made, in part or entirely, in the Flanders region. One of the conditions is that the project spends a minimum of €250,000 ($334,205) in the region. The 20 supported titles together stand for well over €20 million ($26,7m)of audiovisual expenses in the Flanders region.
The Screen...
- 6/13/2013
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Audrey Tautou, Edouard Baer, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Patrick Ridremont and Patrick Descamps have joined the voice cast of the animated feature "Phantom Boy" for Folimage, Lunanime, France 3 Cinéma, and Rhône-Alpes Cinéma.
Oscar-nominated "A Cat In Paris" directors Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli helm the project which follows a seriously ill 11-year-old who has the ability to leave his body at will.
Thanks to him, an injured police officer and an intrepid journalist can both assume the roles of guardian angels when a disfigured gangster is threatening the city. A 2015 release is planned.
Source: Screen Daily...
Oscar-nominated "A Cat In Paris" directors Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli helm the project which follows a seriously ill 11-year-old who has the ability to leave his body at will.
Thanks to him, an injured police officer and an intrepid journalist can both assume the roles of guardian angels when a disfigured gangster is threatening the city. A 2015 release is planned.
Source: Screen Daily...
- 5/18/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
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