Acclaimed Romanian animator Anca Damian has lined up her next live-action feature.
The filmmaker behind Annecy top prizewinner “Crulic: The Path to Beyond” and “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” will write and direct “First People on Earth,” a tragicomic family saga about a biracial woman re-experiencing her native Namibia after decades in Europe.
Returning to her birth country for a family funeral, and bringing her non-verbal, pre-adolescent son in tow, the heroine falls in with a troupe of theatrical Bushmen – an Indigenous tribe, divorced from their historic lands, forced to re-enact ancestral myths for tourist dollars.
Michaël Goldberg, from Belgium’s Daylight Films, will produce, with the filmmakers now scouting for an additional European production partner. Though written and conceived to shoot fast with a principally non-professional cast, Damian has nevertheless eyed an internationally-renowned performer for the lead. Once locked, the filmmaker plans to shoot the project quick order. The film will deal in dreams,...
The filmmaker behind Annecy top prizewinner “Crulic: The Path to Beyond” and “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” will write and direct “First People on Earth,” a tragicomic family saga about a biracial woman re-experiencing her native Namibia after decades in Europe.
Returning to her birth country for a family funeral, and bringing her non-verbal, pre-adolescent son in tow, the heroine falls in with a troupe of theatrical Bushmen – an Indigenous tribe, divorced from their historic lands, forced to re-enact ancestral myths for tourist dollars.
Michaël Goldberg, from Belgium’s Daylight Films, will produce, with the filmmakers now scouting for an additional European production partner. Though written and conceived to shoot fast with a principally non-professional cast, Damian has nevertheless eyed an internationally-renowned performer for the lead. Once locked, the filmmaker plans to shoot the project quick order. The film will deal in dreams,...
- 10/13/2023
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
The 10th edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market, organized as part of the Venice Film Festival’s industry program Venice Production Bridge, has selected 62 projects in the final stages of development and funding.
Filmmakers taking projects to Venice include Jim Sheridan, an Oscar nominee with “In America,” “In the Name of the Father” and “My Left Foot”; Annemarie Jacir, whose credits include Cannes’ “Salt of This Sea,” Berlin’s “When I Saw You” and Locarno’s “Wajib”; Aisling Walsh, who directed “Maudie” with Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, and “Elizabeth Is Missing” with Glenda Jackson; and Kim Mordaunt, who won best debut at Berlin with “The Rocket.”
Also selected are Roberto Minervini, who directed Cannes’ “The Other Side” and Venice’s “What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”; Laurynas Bareisa, who won the Venice Horizons Award for “Pilgrims”; Måns Månsson, who was in Berlin competition with “The Real Estate”; György Pálfi,...
Filmmakers taking projects to Venice include Jim Sheridan, an Oscar nominee with “In America,” “In the Name of the Father” and “My Left Foot”; Annemarie Jacir, whose credits include Cannes’ “Salt of This Sea,” Berlin’s “When I Saw You” and Locarno’s “Wajib”; Aisling Walsh, who directed “Maudie” with Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, and “Elizabeth Is Missing” with Glenda Jackson; and Kim Mordaunt, who won best debut at Berlin with “The Rocket.”
Also selected are Roberto Minervini, who directed Cannes’ “The Other Side” and Venice’s “What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”; Laurynas Bareisa, who won the Venice Horizons Award for “Pilgrims”; Måns Månsson, who was in Berlin competition with “The Real Estate”; György Pálfi,...
- 7/3/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Ron Dyens, the founding CEO of Paris-based company Sacrebleu Productions, has built a reputation as one of Europe’s most original and prolific producers of independent animated features over the course of nearly 25 years.
His company is out in force at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this year.
Its new animated feature Sirocco And The Kingdom Of Air Streams opened the festival on Sunday evening (June 11) and is among 11 animated features in the running for its Cristal prize.
The company is also present in the short film competition with 1942-set Maurice’s Bar by Israeli filmmakers Tzor Edery & Tom Prezman about the memories of a former drag queen around one of Paris’s first queer bars.
Outside the film program, Sacrebleu will participate in the Works in Progress section with Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow. The Latvian director’s second feature after breakout debut Away, it revolves around a loner...
His company is out in force at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this year.
Its new animated feature Sirocco And The Kingdom Of Air Streams opened the festival on Sunday evening (June 11) and is among 11 animated features in the running for its Cristal prize.
The company is also present in the short film competition with 1942-set Maurice’s Bar by Israeli filmmakers Tzor Edery & Tom Prezman about the memories of a former drag queen around one of Paris’s first queer bars.
Outside the film program, Sacrebleu will participate in the Works in Progress section with Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow. The Latvian director’s second feature after breakout debut Away, it revolves around a loner...
- 6/12/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The Annency International Animation Film Festival announced Saturday evening the winners of its major awards.
Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s hand-drawn animation telling the true story of a man’s extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan, won top honors by nabbing the Annency Cristal for a feature film. Deadline’s Todd McCarthy said Rasmussen “puts you through it in a way that illustrates, instructs, makes you look inward and ask whether you’d have what it takes, if you could tough it out and survive in a cold, hostile world.”
Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will voice the lead roles in an English language version of the film, which will debut later this year, and the pair are also executive producers on the pic.
My Sunny Maad, the debut feature of Oscar-nominated director Michaela Pavlátová, won this year’s Jury Award. The film follows a young Czech woman...
Flee, Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s hand-drawn animation telling the true story of a man’s extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan, won top honors by nabbing the Annency Cristal for a feature film. Deadline’s Todd McCarthy said Rasmussen “puts you through it in a way that illustrates, instructs, makes you look inward and ask whether you’d have what it takes, if you could tough it out and survive in a cold, hostile world.”
Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will voice the lead roles in an English language version of the film, which will debut later this year, and the pair are also executive producers on the pic.
My Sunny Maad, the debut feature of Oscar-nominated director Michaela Pavlátová, won this year’s Jury Award. The film follows a young Czech woman...
- 6/19/2021
- by Brandon Choe
- Deadline Film + TV
Sébastien Onomo, producer of 2018 Annecy Crystal winner “Funan,” has teamed with Romanian animator Anca Damian to co-produce her new project “Starseed.” Damian’s first feature, “Crulic,” similarly topped Annecy, in 2011. Her most recent film, “Marona’s Fantastic Tale,” took both best feature and audience awards at Bucheon in 2019.
“Starseed” will be co-produced by Damian’s label Aparte Film and Onomo at France’s Special Touch Studios and Creative Touch Studios.
Set at a Zimbabwe school, “Starseed” follows Geekisde, a special but lonely girl with albino features. Bullied by other children and feeling different to the rest of her schoolmates, she finds strength in the love of her mother and learns that she might be from a different planet.
“Starseed” will be pitched as a project at concept stage at next week’s Cartoon Movie, where Damian will also present another title at a more advanced stage of development, “The Island,” a modern Robinson Crusoe musical.
“Starseed” will be co-produced by Damian’s label Aparte Film and Onomo at France’s Special Touch Studios and Creative Touch Studios.
Set at a Zimbabwe school, “Starseed” follows Geekisde, a special but lonely girl with albino features. Bullied by other children and feeling different to the rest of her schoolmates, she finds strength in the love of her mother and learns that she might be from a different planet.
“Starseed” will be pitched as a project at concept stage at next week’s Cartoon Movie, where Damian will also present another title at a more advanced stage of development, “The Island,” a modern Robinson Crusoe musical.
- 3/5/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
“Sorya,” “Starseed,” and “Caramel’s Words” are among 55 projects from 16 countries set to be pitched at this year’s Cartoon Movie, Europe’s leading animated feature co-production event.
The 23rd edition will move totally online, running March 9-11.
Part of an In Development showcase, “Sorya” is directed by Denis Do, an Annecy Fest best feature film winner for “Funan.” That debut depicted the brutality of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime. In “Sorya,” in contrast, he takes a more intimate approach, following a Cambodian teen woman arriving in Phnom Penh to work in a textile factory, flirting with dreams of becoming a singer, flirting with singing stardom and finally trying to find some stability in her life. Special Touch Studios’ Sébastien Onomo produces. “Funan” composer Thibault Kientz Agyeman will create the film’s the score.
French highlights also take in Pierre Földes’ “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” (produced by Cinema Defacto), Sarah Van Den Boom...
The 23rd edition will move totally online, running March 9-11.
Part of an In Development showcase, “Sorya” is directed by Denis Do, an Annecy Fest best feature film winner for “Funan.” That debut depicted the brutality of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime. In “Sorya,” in contrast, he takes a more intimate approach, following a Cambodian teen woman arriving in Phnom Penh to work in a textile factory, flirting with dreams of becoming a singer, flirting with singing stardom and finally trying to find some stability in her life. Special Touch Studios’ Sébastien Onomo produces. “Funan” composer Thibault Kientz Agyeman will create the film’s the score.
French highlights also take in Pierre Földes’ “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” (produced by Cinema Defacto), Sarah Van Den Boom...
- 2/1/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – Both the Music Box Theatre and the Gene Siskel Film Center have continued their at-home screenings, due to the physical theaters staying closed for now. Below are the updates to their current offerings.
Music Box Theatre Presents Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I Am Not Your Negro, Whose Streets?, The Grey Fox, Mysteries Of Lisbon, Mystery Of Chess Boxing, Mr. Topaze and Sometimes Always Never
One Night Only: June 12th, 2020
Photo credit: MusicBoxTheatre.com
The Music Box Theatre will get a percentage of the proceeds from any screening. Click site link below for details.
Scheduled: Now until the theater re-opens.
Description: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I Am Not Your Negro, Whose Streets? is three Magnolia Studios documentaries that are biographical (Morrison & James Baldwin in I Am Not) and activist. One price can get all three and a portion of the box office will go towards a Small Business Relief Fund.
Music Box Theatre Presents Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I Am Not Your Negro, Whose Streets?, The Grey Fox, Mysteries Of Lisbon, Mystery Of Chess Boxing, Mr. Topaze and Sometimes Always Never
One Night Only: June 12th, 2020
Photo credit: MusicBoxTheatre.com
The Music Box Theatre will get a percentage of the proceeds from any screening. Click site link below for details.
Scheduled: Now until the theater re-opens.
Description: Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, I Am Not Your Negro, Whose Streets? is three Magnolia Studios documentaries that are biographical (Morrison & James Baldwin in I Am Not) and activist. One price can get all three and a portion of the box office will go towards a Small Business Relief Fund.
- 6/9/2020
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
"I fell in love with my human's scent." GKids has unveiled the new official Us trailer for the indie animated film titled Marona's Fantastic Tale, made by Romanian filmmaker Anca Damian with graphic design by Brecht Evens. This French feature premiered at the Annecy Film Festival last year (here's the first trailer), and is finally getting a virtual release this summer. The film is about a little dog who, at the end of her life, looks back on her life and tells the story of her various owners. She has loved them all unconditionally, but of course life hasn't always been easy. The film is beautiful not only because it's told from the perspective of a dog, but also due to the strange, entrancing, imaginative animation style that mixes techniques to create something unique. Featuring the voice of Lizzie Brocheré as Marona. It's a rather lovely one-of-a-kind film that I'll...
- 5/22/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Charades, the Paris-based sales company behind the Oscar-nominated “I Lost My Body” and “Mirai,” has closed a raft of deals on high-profile animated features, including “Little Nicholas” and “Marona’s Fantastic Tale.”
Anca Damian’s “Marona’s Fantastic Tale,” which world premiered in competition at last year’s Annecy Film Festival and was nominated at the European Film Awards, portrays a dog who, reflecting back on her life, reminisces about her different homes and owners after being hit by a car.
Set for a North American release later this year with Gkids, “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” has been acquired by Japan (Riskit), Spain (Pack Magic), the Baltics (Scanorama), Taiwan (Sky Digi), China (Legend Film), Poland (New Horizons), South Korea (Challan), Sweden (Triart) and Netherlands (Windmill). Damian’s followup to “Crulic: The Path to Beyond,” “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” is made with a range of styles, from expressionistic sketches to crayon drawings.
Anca Damian’s “Marona’s Fantastic Tale,” which world premiered in competition at last year’s Annecy Film Festival and was nominated at the European Film Awards, portrays a dog who, reflecting back on her life, reminisces about her different homes and owners after being hit by a car.
Set for a North American release later this year with Gkids, “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” has been acquired by Japan (Riskit), Spain (Pack Magic), the Baltics (Scanorama), Taiwan (Sky Digi), China (Legend Film), Poland (New Horizons), South Korea (Challan), Sweden (Triart) and Netherlands (Windmill). Damian’s followup to “Crulic: The Path to Beyond,” “Marona’s Fantastic Tale” is made with a range of styles, from expressionistic sketches to crayon drawings.
- 2/22/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Barcelona – Rémi Chayé’s “Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” Anca Damian’s “The Island,” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player,” and Enrique Gato’s “Tad the Lost Explorer and the Curse of the Mummy” are among the sixty-six projects from twenty countries to be pitched at the 22nd Cartoon Movie, Europe’s leading animated movie co-production event. Cartoon Movie will take place in the French port city of Bordeaux, kicking off March 3rd.
Projects will be accessible for buyers and potential partners and will be pitched in different stages of production: 28 in concept, 27 in development, six in production and five sneak previews. The five projects at the sneak preview showcase and the six in production have previously been to Cartoon Movie in preliminary production stages. Twenty-three projects are co-productions.
A family adventure, Rémi Chayé’s (acclaimed “Long Way North”) sophomore feature depicts the...
Projects will be accessible for buyers and potential partners and will be pitched in different stages of production: 28 in concept, 27 in development, six in production and five sneak previews. The five projects at the sneak preview showcase and the six in production have previously been to Cartoon Movie in preliminary production stages. Twenty-three projects are co-productions.
A family adventure, Rémi Chayé’s (acclaimed “Long Way North”) sophomore feature depicts the...
- 1/21/2020
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
With her awards-contending animated film Marona’s Fantastic Tale, director Anca Damian aimed to capture the world, as experienced by a dog.
In part, Damian says, the goal was to “get the perception of empathy and love without limits that a dog can give.” At the same time, the director adds, the film had a lot to say about human beings, who “have more dreams, more thoughts, more wishes, and more sense-blocking obstacles to feel real love and empathy for the world around us.”
Written by the director’s son, Anghel Damian, the Gkids drama picks up with a dog after an accident, as she recalls all the masters she’s lived with over the years. For the director of Marona’s Fantastic Tale, the concept for the visuals emerged simultaneously with the script—connected fundamentally to the themes she was exploring and the story she was telling.
“I have...
In part, Damian says, the goal was to “get the perception of empathy and love without limits that a dog can give.” At the same time, the director adds, the film had a lot to say about human beings, who “have more dreams, more thoughts, more wishes, and more sense-blocking obstacles to feel real love and empathy for the world around us.”
Written by the director’s son, Anghel Damian, the Gkids drama picks up with a dog after an accident, as she recalls all the masters she’s lived with over the years. For the director of Marona’s Fantastic Tale, the concept for the visuals emerged simultaneously with the script—connected fundamentally to the themes she was exploring and the story she was telling.
“I have...
- 1/1/2020
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Now in their 32nd year, the European Film Awards unfold Saturday in Berlin, and here’s where you can live-stream the ceremony. With some titles controversial (Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy”) and others at least a year old for those of us stateside (“The Favourite”), this year’s ceremony is sure to be a fun romp.
Leading the pack is director “An Officer and a Spy,” the Dreyfus affair drama that picked up a top prize at Venice back in September, tied for four nominations alongside Pedro Almodóvar’s self-reflective “Pain and Glory,” Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Favourite.” While released in the fall of 2018 in the United States, the latter film’s international release window made it eligible for the European Film Awards this year. “The Favourite” won star Olivia Colman, who plays a gout-stricken Queen Anne, a Best Actress Academy Award earlier...
Leading the pack is director “An Officer and a Spy,” the Dreyfus affair drama that picked up a top prize at Venice back in September, tied for four nominations alongside Pedro Almodóvar’s self-reflective “Pain and Glory,” Marco Bellocchio’s “The Traitor,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Favourite.” While released in the fall of 2018 in the United States, the latter film’s international release window made it eligible for the European Film Awards this year. “The Favourite” won star Olivia Colman, who plays a gout-stricken Queen Anne, a Best Actress Academy Award earlier...
- 12/7/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles, I Lost My Body, Marona's Fantastic Tale and The Swallows of Kabul are vying for the European Animated Feature Film award. The European Film Awards have announced the nominations for the award category European Animated Feature Film 2019. The nominations were determined by a committee comprised of Efa Board Deputy Chairman Antonio Saura (Spain), Efa Board Member Graziella Bildesheim (Italy) and producer Paul Young (Ireland) as well as, representing Cartoon, the European Association of Animation Film, film critic Stéphane Dreyfus (France), producer Kristine Mi Knudsen (Germany) and director Janno Põldma (Estonia). The nominees are: European Animated Feature FilmBuñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles - Salvador Simó (Spain/Netherlands)I Lost My Body - Jérémy Clapin (France)Marona's Fantastic Tale - Anca Damian (Romania/France/Belgium)The Swallows of Kabul - Zabou Breitman, Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec (France/Luxembourg/Switzerland) The nominated films will soon be...
- 10/16/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
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