Animation Spotlight in Cannes

The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival and Market will take place from May 17 to 28 this year. Since the official selection will be announced after we go to print, you can find out about which animated titles will (possibly) be in the running at the fest by visiting our website after April 14. But here are few items we managed to collect about animated fare that could be making news at the market in May:

Return of a Pixar Player

While Pixar’s much-anticipated movie Lightyear won’t open in theaters until June 17, we’ve been hearing rumors that the film will screen out of competition in Cannes. In years past, the festival premiered two other Pixar titles — Up and Inside Out. This spinoff of Toy Story (1995) follows the adventures of the Space Ranger who inspired the action figure, directed by Angus MacLane (co-director of Finding Dory) and is penned by none other than Pixar CCO Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.; Up; Soul). We wouldn’t be surprised to see voice stars like Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, James Brolin, Uzo Aduba and Efren Ramirez basking in the glamour of the red carpet on the Croisette.

Meet TikTok, Your New Shorts Patron!

Everyone’s favorite spot for insane dance routines, annoying teen influencers and obvious life hacks has become the official partner of the Cannes Film Festival. The popular star-making app is launching its inaugural #TikTokShortFilm contest,led by

BAFTA-nominated Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh (The Missing Picture) and jurors Basma Khalifa, Camille Ducellier, Angele Diabang and Khaby Lame. Eligible short films should be between 30 seconds and three minutes in length. The selection will be done by representatives of TikTok around the world. Three awards will be handed out during the festival at an event attended by Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux. With one billion users around the world, TikTok could be the perfect launching pad for talented and creative shorts directors.

A Doorway to Enchantment

There’s always a lot of excitement when Japanese helmer Makoto Shinkai has a new movie in the works. This year, the acclaimed auteur of Your Name. and Weathering with You is putting the finishing touches on Suzume no Tojimari (Suzume’s Locking-Up the Doors), a mystical tale about a young man and woman who find an old door in an abandoned house in the mountains, which unleashes a series of disasters all over the world. Set to be released in Japan this winter, the movie is produced by CoMix Wave Films and features character designs by Masayoshi Tanaka, animation direction by Kenichi Tsuchiya and art direction by Takumi Tanji. There’s a good chance the film will make special appearances in Cannes and Annecy this year.

Life of a French Master

This year, ON Animation Studios’ ZAGTOON movie Ladybug and Cat Noir Awakening is premiering on Netflix, but the studio has another big project in the works that will probably be making the market rounds pretty soon. ON and What The Prod’s upcoming feature The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol is based on the life of iconic French author/filmmaker and will be directed by none other than Oscar-nominated auteur Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist).

“I have always been a great admirer of Marcel Pagnol’s work, so I was immediately won over by the idea of writing and directing an animated biopic on his life,” says Chomet. “It is through the innocence of Marcel as a child that I have chosen to re-transcribe the profoundly human and universal values of the man, because I am convinced that our era needs to return to this poetry and language of humanity.”

A Surreal Treat

We’ve been covering the development and production of Pierre Földes’s fascinating movie Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman for the past few years — and we hope in 2022 we finally get to enjoy this Haruki Murakami adaptation on the big screen. Using rotoscopy and a mix of 2D and 3D animation techniques, the surreal film brings his short stories to life with “a lost cat, a giant talking frog and a tsunami that help a bank employee, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives!” The film is a co-pro between Cinéma Defacto and Miyu Productions, with The Match Factory handling international sales.

Feline Trouble

Nine lives are simply not enough! A pampered cat who has taken his life for granted learns a big lesion when he is allowed to come back to Earth with a whole new set of lives — each in a variety of different forms! That’s the entertaining premise behind 10 Lives, a new animated feature directed by Chris Jenkins (Duck Duck Goose, writer of Surf’s Up) and produced by GFM Animation and L’Atelier Animation (Leap!). GFM Animation’s other big title Blazing Samurai will hit screens on July 22.

A Magical Realm

To save his missing brother, a young wizard apprentice teams up with a tiny hairy elephant and an outlaw with a mysterious power in Lendarys, a Franco-Canadian production directed by Philippe Duchene (character designer on Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles). The film, which has a $30 million budget, is being launched globally by All Rights Entertainment and is produced by PM S.A. and 2 Minutes Animation (Calamity, Zombillenium). ◆

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You’ve Got a Friend in Spain!

The Spain AVS Bureau offers convenient services for international content producers.

Last year, the Spanish government launched a new audiovisual plan called the Spain AVS Hub to promote and support the country’s fast-growing array of entertainment and art content. This plan included the creation of a new Spain Audiovisual Bureau, which according to Elisa Garcia Grande, the executive director of ICEX-Invest in Spain “was conceived as a one-stop shop to centralize the support related to the internationalization of the audiovisual industry, both for attracting investment and projects to Spain [Implementation, filming, production] as well as assisting Spanish audiovisual companies and productions to develop their projects abroad.” She adds, “With this service, we want to provide foreign producers with a customized service that will help land their projects in Spain and coordinate their contacts with all the Spanish entities involved in the process.”

According to Grande, the bureau will give support to the full range of activities related to the creation, production, and distribution of animation, including technologies closely linked to this activity. Through this service any foreign producer can solve issues related to establishment and growth in the country and learn about the services that ICEX-Invest in Spain and the rest of Spanish public bodies offer to foreign producers. “At ICEX Invest in Spain, we will provide soft landing services, networking services and start-up attraction programs,” she notes. “We will also assist you during the process, explaining the legislation and regulatory frameworks as well as finding the proper locations, studios and infrastructures, crews, equipments and suppliers for post-production. We’ll identify the funds and aid programs for co-production and co-production agreements with third countries that suit you best and will look for your best partners.” In addition to highlighting funding and incentives, the bureau will help clients get in touch with Spanish firms—offering company directories, business contact for companies and advice on production service companies. “We’ll share with you our directories of creators, professionals and training centers which offer postgraduate studies in audiovisual,” she adds. “We’ll highlight new business models, with an emphasis on the opportunities opened up by digital transformation and new forms of distribution.”

Grande points out that Spanish artists and animation studios are internationally recognized for their creativity when it comes to generating content. “It is a sector with a great diversity in its array of talent and types of producers, from 2D children’s animation to 3D family cinema, as well as experimental hybrid projects or adult animation,” she notes. “It is not by chance that, among the last four films that have won the award for best European animated film, three are Spanish or co-productions with Spanish companies—Another Day of Life (2018), a co-production of Kanaki Films; Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles (2019), a co-production of Dragoia Films, and Josep (2020), -co-production of Imagic TV.”

Another key attraction is overall the improvement in Spanish tax incentives, both for national production and for services abroad (with a special mention to the Canary Islands incentives, which reaches 50% of the eligible cost in the territory) which allow an excellent relationship between high-quality and production costs. As Grande explains, this very appealing framework stimulates the relocation of foreign productions in our country, optimizing bureaucratic processes and facilitating their access to the entire European market. Among the top-notch animated features and TV series to keep an eye out for in 2022 are: Tad the Explorer 3 (director: Enrique Gato) Lightbox Entertainent. Momios (dir: Juan Jesús García Galocha) 4 Cats Pictures Unicorn Wars (dir: Alberto Vázquez) UniKo Studio They Shoot The Piano Player (dir: Fernando Trueba) Estudio Mariscal Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow (dir.: Julio Soto) The Thinklab Media, Tripictures Jasmine & Jambo (Teidees Audiovisuals, TV3) Mya go 2nd season (Motion Pictures, TV3) The Happy Farm (La Granja Feliz) (Motion Pictures, TVE) Polinopolis (Mago Production, TV3 y TVE) Momonsters’ 2nd season (Big Bang Box, 3 Doubles Producciones, Antaviana Films y TVE) MiBots Universe’ 1st season (Wise Blue Studios, Filmax, A Punt, TVG)

The strength of the Bureau is to serve as a centralized point of information in which all the Spanish entities related to the internationalization of the audiovisual sector are involved. As Grande mentions, “At the level of the Spanish public administration, several ministries work together with ICEX-Invest in Spain: The Ministries of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation; Finances; Migrations, Foreign Affairs, and Culture among others. In addition, the regional investment attraction agencies and the extensive network of film commissions and film offices, led by the Spain Film Commission, are involved too. The bureau will add other partners as its activity evolves and the needs of the audiovisual companies become more complex.” ❤

To learn more, please visit investinspain.org.