Special Edition Cartoon Movie 2017 – Bordeaux
THE ANIMATION GAZETTE drawn by animation
FLANDRIENS SURGE FORWARD AT CARTOON MOVIE The Flandriens are coming to Cartoon Movie. Not the famous cyclists of Flanders, but the region’s animators, the splashes of mud replaced by ink, the spare inner tubes wrapped around their shoulders replaced by computer cables. But the drive to succeed is just the same. Flemish animators can take on any terrain, from 2D (hand-drawn and computer animation), to 3D and stop-motion. “The Flanders region has 22 production companies specialised in animation projects, 10 animation studios, and currently we have 25 feature-length movies in the pipeline and 30 animated series,” says Eric Goossens, vicechairman of animation producers’ association Anim.be and producer at Walking The Dog. And just as Flandriens must also ride for their teams, Flemish animation producers play an important role in international co-productions, adding their drive to Oscar-nominated films such as The Triplets of Belleville, The Secret of Kells and A Cat in Paris. “I’m happy to see that Flemish producers are getting trained in this business area, which is not easy at all,” says Goossens. Flanders has already collected some winning jerseys at Cartoon Movie, with companies such as Grid Animation, Walking The Dog, nWave
The support team for all this activity is the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), whose cash and coaching are always there to drive the Flandriens of animation onwards. In 2016, the VAF/Film Fund gave over 2.1 million EUR to 22 animated projects, including co-productions, and the VAF/ Media Fund channelled 1,260,000 EUR into 11 animated series.
Pictures and Vivi Film all receiving Tributes as Producer of the Year. Projects pitching in 2017 include three features initiated in Flanders: Canaan (produced by Tondo Films), Crazy Island (produced by Grid Animation), and Zooks (produced by Potemkino/Sancta). And there are five co-productions with Flanders: Ploey – You Never Fly Alone (co-produced by Cyborn), The Siren (co-produced by Lunanime), and Hump, Charlotte and Fox & Hare Save the Forest (all coproduced by Walking The Dog).
FLAT’S WHERE IT’S AT In a world dominated by 3D animation, Lunanime is committed to 2D, from hand-drawn to computer animation. “There are a lot of artists that still have something to tell us, and who want to explore, and we want to be there for them, to help them develop new things,” says production head Annemie Degryse.
They call them Flandriens, bad-assed cycle racers who force their machines over the cobbled roads and murderous hills of Flanders, oblivious to the cold and the rain.
the Khmer Rouge regime. The company is also developing several other feature coproductions, including: Tulip by Felicioli and Gagnol, about an eleven year old girl who can see monsters; The Siren by Sepideh Farsi, a story set in South Iran in 1980, which is being pitched at Cartoon Movie this year; I Lost My Body by Jeremy Clapin; and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Pierre Foldes.
Flandrien Briek Schotte See also: the Flandrien Victories
STOP PRESS: STORK OF THE TOWN The producers of Richard the Stork, including Flemish studio Walking The Dog, are in the running to be named European Producer of the Year at Cartoon Movie this year. The film’s producers are Knudsen & Streuber Medienmanufaktur and Ulysses Filmproduktion, both of Germany; Walking the Dog (Flanders); Melusine Productions (Luxembourg) and Den siste skilling (Norway). The nomination follows the feature’s world premiere in the Generation Kplus section of the Berlinale.
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The Siren
What the Flandrien!?
“A Flandrien is passionate, dedicated and hard-working, and he is a team player,” explains Telidja Klaï of kids’ TV channel VRT/Ketnet. “And the Flemish animation scene is also very dedicated, passionate, hardworking and full of team players. No mountain is too high for Flemish animators.” The Flandrien grit and determination drives Flemish animators to climb new heights, using their skills to emerge from the pack and sprint towards glory. “Flemish animators push the boundaries of the genre every day by making things that are unique and of a very high quality, and by working at the highest international level.”
Eric Goossens
As well as producing animation and fiction films, Ghent-based Lunanime has an in-house animation unit, StudioLumière, which previously contributed to Oscar-nominated feature A Cat in Paris and Phantom Boy, both by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol. Its 15 animators are now busy with feature co-production Funan, by Denis Do, about a young woman trying to survive
Telidja Klaï - VRT/Ketnet
ICE, ICE BIRDY It began with a meeting at Cartoon Movie in 2015, where Icelandic company GunHil was looking for a partner for family feature Ploey – You Never Fly Alone. Cyborn, the 3D animation specialist from Antwerp, was on the same creative wavelength, but also impressed with its business agility. Ploey - You Never Fly Alone
STOP SHOP GROWS TOP CROP Beast Animation, the versatile stopmotion studio set up by Steven De Beul and Ben Tesseur in 2004, has a veritable peloton of projects on the road. Able to animate anything from puppets and people to cut-outs and household objects, there is no special Beast style. But each project has a sophisticated sense of movement and rhythm, which complements the storytelling and character development. Two commercials for Danish company LEGO are under way, plus a pilot for a series called Meneer Papier (Mister Paper), and the second season of kids’ series Dimitri. Then there is The Magnificent Cake, the new film from the directors of award-winning short Oh Willy....
Flandrien Victories
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GREG VAN AVERMAET IN 2016 Greg van Avermaet is the first Belgian cyclist to wear Olympic gold since 1952. At the Rio Olympics in 2016 he barely rated his chances of winning the men’s individual road race, but he kept up with the leaders and didn’t lose his nerve when two crashed out on the perilous final descent. It came down to three men, with van Avermaet winning the sprint at Copacabana beach.
Also in pre-production is Coppelia, a featurelength film combining animation and ballet which Beast is developing with the Dutch National Ballet. In development, meanwhile, are a feature about the legendary horse Bayard and a new series.
The Magnificent Cake
Vivi Film grabs squirrel’s tale Vivi Film has acquired Toon Tellegen’s The Squirrel’s Birthday with plans to turn it into a mid-length film. The charming, sometimes surreal story involves a squirrel who invites every animal imaginable to a party. Wouter Bongaerts and Karolien Raeymaekers team to write and direct. Raeymaekers won international attention with her short Oma, while Bongaerts is known for the magical Mia. The film should debut in 2019. Bongaerts will also direct Abracadabra for Vivi Film, set in a city of rabbits, hidden inside a magician’s hat. The company’s pipeline also features the TV series Bo’s Bazaar, about an energetic girl Bo, who has strange adventures when she finds weird objects in her grandparents’ curiosity shop.
“What was really nice was that Cyborn had, in a short time, already secured 80% of their part of the financing via the Tax Shelter, and also Screen Flanders quickly identified the possibilities of the project, which meant we could close the deal,” recalls Hilmar Sigurdsson, the producer at GunHil. “Ploey is about a small bird who hasn’t learned to fly and who will have to survive the winter when his family migrates to the south,” explains Iris Delafortry, associate producer at Cyborn. That means facing threats from nature, but also his own fears. While the co-production is financed 5050%, the bulk of the animation work is being done in Antwerp. “At Cyborn we’re doing most of the 3D production, which means that we are doing the 3D modelling, the animation, the rigging, the compositing, the lighting and the rendering,” says Delafortry. The film will be presented at Cartoon Movie’s ‘in production’ section.
Flandrien Victories
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EDDY MERCKX IN 1972 Eddy Merckx was known as The Cannibal, such was his appetite for defeating other riders. But it was his performance against the clock that made him a legend. In 1972 he rode 49.431km in one hour, a distance beaten only 12 years later thanks to better bike technology. It wasn’t until 2000 that another rider went further on a similar bike, and then just 10 metres more.
LAMB HACKS PACK, SHOCKS FLOCK Joeri Christiaen is set to develop his first animated feature film. The CG movie, entitled Mêh, flips convention on its head. “It’s about a lamb who doesn’t want to follow the herd like every other sheep. Instead he wants to be brave, like a wolf,” Christiaen explains. “But when he’s captured by wolves, it’s being a sheep that will help him save his wool, and his own kind.”
Mêh
The project is being developed by Thuristar, the Flemish production company and creative studio Christiaen founded in 2008, in co-production with La Cabane in France. Christiaen’s other credits include TV series My Knight and Me, which is co-produced with TeamTO (France) for Canal+/TéléTOON+ (France), VRT-Ketnet, RTBF-Ouftivi (Belgium) and Super RTL (Germany). Created and directed by Christiaen, the show has been sold globally by CAKE Entertainment to Turner’s channels. It is now available on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in over a hundred countries, including in the US. Joeri Christiaen is also developing his next TV show, Roger Flambé: animated actor, co-produced by Thuristar and La Cabane (France), currently in development with Disney Channel EMEA.
Canaan
After exploring the horrors of the First World War in Cafard, Jan Bultheel is turning his attention to another upheaval in European history: the mass migration to North America in the 19th Century. Canaan, his second feature, will tell the story of Roza, a young novice who leaves her convent in Bruges in 1840 to follow a charismatic priest across the Atlantic, and into the Far West to find her true destiny among the Lakota Indians. The film will use the same combination of motion-capture and facial tracking that gave Cafard its striking atmosphere, winning it festival berths around the world. The film will be presented at Cartoon Movie by producer Tondo Films.
FUNDING DUO BREAKS FROM PACK
Caviar makes tasty dish with Danish Leading Flemish drama producer Caviar has started development on The Street Party, its first animated feature co-production. The 2D/3D film is based on the darkly comic WUMO universe created by Anders Morgenthaler and Mikael Wulff. Their satirical comic strips appear in newspapers across the world, from their native Denmark to Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. Caviar will co-produce the project with Wulff and Morgenthaler’s shingle New Creations and Zentropa, which it partnered in co-producing Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac. Production is scheduled throughout 2017, with release pencilled in for 2018.
When a pair of riders breaks away from the pack they often switch positions, back and forth, the slipstream of one helping the other. Together they go further, faster. It’s the same with Screen Flanders and the Belgian Tax Shelter. Screen Flanders supports audiovisual productions that spend part of their budget within the region, providing an average of 912,000 EUR to animation projects annually. If spending is eligible for the Fund, then it also counts for the Tax Shelter. That match makes it simple to combine the two. “The Belgian Tax Shelter is a governmentapproved, efficient and transparent tax incentive for audiovisual productions,” explains Isabelle Molhant, chief executive of Casa Kafka Pictures, which works extensively with the shelter. “It encourages Belgian companies
Fab Fantastique gets grumpy Fabrique Fantastique is prepping its studio for Heinz, its first 2D coproduced animated feature. The film is an adaptation of the Windig & De Jong comic books about a grumpy scrounging cat who saves the world from disaster while searching for his kitten. Heinz is scripted and directed by Piet Kroon, with Dutch company BosBros leading the production. Fabrique Fantastique will start drawing backgrounds in April 2017, and also do 2D FX, compositing, editing, sound design, mix, rendering and mastering. The company prides itself on being versatile. “At the heart of Fabrique Fantastique we
EUROPEAN PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
to 400,000 EUR more from the Screen Flanders economic fund. Since its launch in 2012, the Screen Flanders fund has supported 19 animation projects, including international features Asterix and the Mansion of the Gods, Ooops! Noah is Gone, Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart and Richard the Stork.
CARTOON 2017 PICKS THURSDAY 9 MARCH morning 10:30 Fox and Hare Save the Forest (CO-PRODUCED BY Walking The Dog) - AMPHI B 11:30 Hump (CO-PRODUCED BY Walking The Dog) - AMPHI B afternoon 14:30 The Siren (CO-PRODUCED BY Lunanime) - AMPHI A 16:00 Canaan (PRODUCED BY Tondo) - AMPHI A 17:00 ZOOks (PRODUCED BY Potemkino / Sancta) - AMPHI B
FRIDAY 10 MARCH
Heinz
have this artistic core team that can easily adapt to different animation styles,” says founder Tom Van Gestel. “We tend to get very involved in projects and we really want to leave a big creative footprint in the projects we collaborate on.” Heinz is expected to be released in February 2018.
Flandrien Victories
Flandrien Victories TOM BOONEN IN 2005
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Tom Boonen is famous for his sprints, but he also has the steel to dominate whole races and, in 2005, an entire season. That was the year he became the first rider to win the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, and the World Cycling Championship in the same season.
DOG TAKES THE LEAD
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In 1998 Johan Museeuw won three Flemish classics, including a record equalling third victory in the Tour of Flanders. But a week later ‘The Lion of Flanders’ fell on a punishing cobbled section of the Paris–Roubaix race and shattered his kneecap. Gangrene followed and a threat of amputation. But he fought back, winning Paris–Roubaix in 2000. As he crossed the line, he raised the reconstructed knee to the crowd.
Walking The Dog is presenting no less than three ambitious new co-productions at this year’s Cartoon Movie. “We’re a boutique studio trying to focus on very challenging projects, challenging on the artistic level, on the technical level and also on a narrative level,” explains producer Eric Goossens. The first is Charlotte, which renews the studio’s collaboration with director Bibo Bergeron following A Monster in Paris. The film recounts the life of Charlotte Salomon, a German Jewish artist whose work took on the turmoil of 1930s Berlin and a family history of suicide. Then there is Hump, the first animated feature by Pixar veteran Rob Gibbs (Up, Toy Story 2). It follows a timid but kindly camel on a quest across the Arabian desert, in search of the 10-year-old Bedouin boy who used to lead him. Finally there is Fox and Hare Save the Forest, directed by Dutch stop-motion specialist Mascha Halberstad from books written by Sylvia Vanden Heede and illustrated by Thé Tjong-Khing. An animated series based on the same characters is also in the pipeline.
Fox and Hare Save the Forest
For the future, Walking The Dog is reuniting with Ari Folman (The Congress) for Where Is Anne Frank?, a historical quest after the celebrated diarist.
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AND GET FREE BEER AT THE FAREWELL COCKTAIL
to invest part of their profits in audiovisual projects.” An average of 14 million EUR flows into animation in Flanders every year thanks to the Tax Shelter. International projects qualify through their Belgian co-producers. And if the qualifying expenditure occurs in the Flanders region, co-productions can also apply for up
morning 09:30 Crazy Island (PRODUCED BY Grid Animation) - AMPHI A 10:00 Charlotte (CO-PRODUCED BY Walking The Dog) - AMPHI A afternoon 16:00 Ploey - You Never Fly Alone (CO-PRODUCED BY Cyborn) - AMPHI A
JOHAN MUSEEUW IN 2000
VOTE RICHARD FOR EUROPE
Asterix and the Mansion of the Gods
FLANDRIENS OF ANIMATION TOUR 1st-day Cyborn
ANTWERP Sancta Media
BRUGES De Hofleveranciers GHENT Creative Conspiracy
Haptic
A Private View
Beast Productions
Thuristar Lunanime nWave Pictures
Hoaxland Animation
Potemkino Vivi Film BRUSSELS Magicworlds Productions
Cyborn
ANIMATION PRODUCTION COMPANY
Lunanime
Eyeworks Film & TV Drama drama.belgium@eyeworks.tv eyeworksfilm.be
PRESENT AT CARTOON MOVIE 1st-day zino@1st-day.com 1st-day.com
De Hofleveranciers info@de-hofleveranciers.be de-hofleveranciers.be
info@cyborn.be cyborn.be
Beast Animation info@beastanimation.be beastanimation.be
Magicworlds Productions doosterlynck@magicworlds.be magicworlds.be
Grid Animation
nWave Pictures info@nwave.com nwave.com
Caviar
coproductions@caviar.tv caviar.tv
Haptic haptic.eu@gmail.com
Creative Conspiracy info@cc.be cc.be
Hoaxland Animation info@hoaxland.be hoaxland.be
Tondo S.O.I.L.
Sancta Media
REPRESENTATIVES PRESENT AT CARTOON MOVIE
info@sancta.eu sancta.eu
Screen Flanders - screenflanders.com Jan Roekens - Head of Production jroekens@vaf.be
Thuristar
info@thuristar.com thuristar.com
Katrien Maes - Film Commission kmaes@vaf.be
Tondo
Flanders Audiovisual Fund / VAF vaf.be
arielle@tondofilms.be cafard.eu
Vivi Film
lize@potemkino.com potemkino.com
info@vivifilm.be vivifilm.be
Karla Puttemans - Head of Production Chairwoman Selection Committees kputtemans@vaf.be
A Private View info@aprivateview.be aprivateview.be
Walking The Dog
Karen Van Hellemont Project Manager Animation & Games kvanhellemont@vaf.be
Potemkino
ANIMATION PUZZLE 1
BRUSSELS AIRPORT
info@soilart.be
Fabrique Fantastique
info@grid-vfx.com grid-vfx.com
HASSELT
Eyeworks Film & TV Drama
S.O.I.L.
mail@lunanime.be lunanime.be
info@fabriquefantastique.be fabriquefantastique.be
Walking The Dog
Caviar
Grid Animation
IN-HOUSE ANIMATION STUDIO
Fabrique Fantastique
2 3 4 5
info@walkingthedog.be walkingthedog.be
WEATHER FORECAST
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Storm warning! The rain that flattened Flanders is coming to Bordeaux. No grape vine survives it, but the cartoon crop is fantastic. Take shelter with us and we’ll show you inspiring work in progress and pitches so good you’ll feel the warmth of the sun again.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
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Name of the grumpy cat featuring in the first 2D animated feature co-produced by Fabrique Fantastique. New animated feature by Flemish director Jan Bultheel, presented at Cartoon Movie. A passionate, dedicated, hard-working and bad-assed cycle racer from Flanders. Regional economic fund supporting international co-productions with Flanders. Name of the small bird starring in a 50-50 Flanders-Iceland co-production.
DOWN 1. 2. 3. 7. 8. 11.
Name of the Belgian federal incentive for audiovisual production. Name of the Flanders based animation studio, awarded European Producer of the Year for the co-production Ooops! Noah is Gone... Ghent-based animation studio, committed to 2D animation. Title of the new animated feature by Bibo Bergeron, co-produced by Walking The Dog. Famous Flandrien cyclist also known as ‘The Cannibal’. The animal which will star in Joeri Christiaen’s first animated feature.
CREDITS CONTENT IAN MUNDELL - EDITORIAL BOARD KATRIEN MAES, JAN ROEKENS, CHRISTIAN DE SCHUTTER ART DIRECTION KARIN PAYS - CARTOON P.4 GILLES DESCHAMPS LOGO & DESIGN FLANDRIENS OF ANIMATION EUGENE AND LOUISE - PRINT WILDA.BE PUBLISHED BY SCREEN FLANDERS / VAF ALL STILLS COPYRIGHTED BY THE RESPECTIVE PRODUCERS THE SPOTLIGHT ON ANIMATION FROM FLANDERS IS POWERED BY
concept and design: Team Flanders
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ACROSS