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The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations in the animated feature film category of the European Film Awards.

The nominated films are Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” Kristina Dufková’s “Living Large,” Claude Barras’

“Savages,” Isabel Herguera’s “Sultana’s Dream,” and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player.”

“Flow” won the main jury and audience awards at Annecy, and the award for original music. It played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

“Sultana’s Dream” won Annecy’s Contrechamp Award, while “Living Large” won the Contrechamp Jury Award.

“Savages” played in competition at Annecy and also screened at Locarno. Barras was Oscar nominated for “My Life as a Courgette.”

Mariscal and Trueba were Oscar nominated for “Chico & Rita.” Trueba’s live-action drama “Belle Epoque” won an Oscar for best foreign-language film.

The committee that decided on the nominations was comprised of representatives of the European Film Academy and Cartoon,...

Animation from Spain is attending the Ottawa International Animation Festival’s Tac (The Animation Conference) for the first time this year and has brought with it three of Spain’s hottest up-and-coming animation producers for a roundtable to discuss the current state of Iberian animation and pitch their pipelines to the international and North American markets.

A Spanish government-backed presence at North America’s most important animation festival and the leading indie-dedicated animation event on the global calendar indicates a desire to become a bigger player in Canada and the U.S. while bolstering the country’s global reputation.

International ambitions are being fueled by increased activity in Spain. According to Icex Spain Trade and Investment, the Spanish government body that spearheads this year’s Ottawa involvement, in 2023, Spanish companies produced six animated features, 25 short films and 68 seasons of animated TV series.

Commercial and critically, Spanish animation is also reaching new heights.

“The Other Way Around” from Spanish director Jonás Trueba has won the Europa Cinemas Label for best European film in the Directors’ Fortnight section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The film turns on Ale (Itsaso Arana – who co-wrote the screenplay with Trueba) and Alex (Vito Sanz), who have been together for 15 years. Now, though, the duo is ready to split, but not without throwing a hell of a fiesta to celebrate their time together.

“The idea of a ‘separation party’ can be scary, but I just kept hearing about it,” Trueba told Variety in a recent interview. “I even suggested it to a friend of mine, but every time, people’s faces just drop. You can see fear creeping in. It’s crazy and silly, and at the same time, it could be something beautiful. It’s a great idea for a film, if not for real life.

Spanish director Jonás Trueba wants you to celebrate the endings, not just the beginnings.

That includes the demise of a serious relationship, because Ale and Alex (Itsaso Arana and Vito Sanz) have been together for 15 years. Now, they want only two things: to go their separate ways and to have a proper fiesta.

“The idea of a ‘separation party’ can be scary, but I just kept hearing about it. I even suggested it to a friend of mine, but every time, people’s faces just drop. You can see fear creeping in. It’s crazy and silly, and at the same time, it could be something beautiful. It’s a great idea for a film, if not for real-life.”

In “The Other Way Around,” premiering at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, the couple in question still has a lot of affection for each other.

“It’s a love story, but another kind of love story,...

Deadline for Submissions: May 24, 2024

The 20th Jecheon International Music & Film Festival is set to open its call for entries for domestic and international feature and short films from March 11th, 2024, at 14:00. The submission deadline is May 24th, 2024, at 23:59(Kst).

Eligible submissions must be works completed after January 1st, 2022. Shorts must be less than 60 minutes in running time, while features should be 60 minutes or longer. Qualifying entries include feature films, shorts, dramas, documentaries, animations, and experimental films that primarily involve or are themed around music. Films entered in the ‘International Competition' and ‘Korean Competition' categories must not have been screened anywhere in Korea before the 20th Jimff.

The ‘Made in Jecheon' category is open to both feature and short films of any genre and subject, aimed at invigorating independent cinema based in the Chungcheong region and supporting local filmmakers. To qualify, at least one key staff member must be...

The 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TiDF) is underway in the historic Greek port city, after an opening night ceremony that honored Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba.

Trueba, the Oscar-winning director of Belle Époque, received the festival’s honorary Golden Alexander, recognizing his contributions to cinema and culture. The honor was presented to him by Katerina Sakellaropoulou, president of Hellenic Republic, the first time a Greek head of state has launched the international event.

“Great documentaries profoundly move us, broaden our understanding of the world, challenge our beliefs, prejudices, or our established assumptions,” President Sakellaropoulou said from the stage at the Olympion cinema. “An artistic portrayal of reality, or a creative handling of an otherwise unseen aspect of it, a poetic depiction of a documented truth, or a subjective documentation of some of its dimensions, documentary is a film genre requiring cultural sensitivity, journalistic integrity, moral rectitude, conceptual purity, and political discernment.

The third episode of this season of Encuentros features:Víctor Gaviria (Colombia), director and poet internationally recognized for the feature films Rodrigo D: No Future (Rodrigo D: No Futuro) and The Rose Seller (La vendedora de rosas), the first films in the history of his country to compete for the Palme d'Or at Cannes in the 1990s. His work has been characterized by his casting of nonprofessional actors and his persistence in portraying, without prejudice or concessions, the most violent realities of life on the margins of Medellín. This has made him an influential and ubiquitous figure in Latin American cinema and a great influence on the newest generations of Colombian filmmakers.Fernando Trueba (Spain), a director and screenwriter, as well as the winner of multiple Goya Awards, an Oscar Award and Spain's National Film Award. His filmography of almost 20 titles has explored subjects as diverse as music, theater, and...

“Chico and Rita” Oscar nominees Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal fuse docudrama, animation, and music once again with their latest film, “They Shot the Piano Player.” Centered around the 1976 disappearance and presumed murder of Brazilian pianist Francisco Tenório Jr., the Sony Pictures Classics release stars Jeff Goldblum as an American journalist looking for answers. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, for the film below.

It’s 2010, and New York journalist Jeff Harris (Goldblum) is working on a book on Bossa Nova after just publishing a piece on its 50th anniversary in The New Yorker. During his research, Harris stumbles upon a pianist previously unknown to him: Francisco Tenório Jr. Realizing Tenório Jr. hasn’t produced or recorded music for over 30 years, Harris travels to Rio de Janeiro to uncover why he vanished from the music scene. He discovers that Tenório Jr., who keeps haunting his Bossa Nova research project, disappeared...

The animated highlights of 2023 thus far: Illumination/Universal’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.36 billion globally, $574.9 million domestically) and Sony’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ($689 million globally, $381 million domestically) were massive box office hits, proving that there is a hungry audience clamoring to see animation in theaters again.

However, Pixar/Disney’s “Elemental” and DreamWorks/Universal’s “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” were major box office flops: Pixar’s immigrant story about the elements trying to co-exist only mustered $154.4 million domestically (placing 20th on the studio’s list of features). However, it grabbed $490 million worldwide and subsequently became Disney+’s most-viewed movie premiere of the year. Meanwhile, DreamWorks’ coming-of-age Kraken comedy had the worst domestic showing in the studio’s history (with $15.7 million). This signaled that original animated content still has theatrical hurdles to overcome compared to franchises.

Fortunately, the animated reboot of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” (Nickelodeon/Paramount) was a hit,...

Jazz and animation make for strong bedfellows in “They Shot the Piano Player,” a film from Spanish directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal that represents an intriguing hybrid in all sorts of ways. It’s a love letter to the bossa nova movement that peaked in the 1960s, while at the same time it’s a sobering procedural that looks into the state murder of a musician that occurred as fascistic regimes rose to power in Latin America in the ’70s. It’s a documentary, or at least more nonfiction than not, although it has a wholly concocted framing device. And above and beyond the movie’s somewhat incongruous mixture of gritty political realism and giddy music appreciation, yes, it’s completely hand-drawn.

So if you like movies that draw outside the lines, so to speak, then “They Shot the Piano Player” will be for you, even if it offers...

When Hayao Miyazaki’s semi-autobiographical fantasy “The Boy and the Heron” had its international premiere Sept. 7, it wasn’t just the first animated film to open TIFF, or the master director’s first in a decade. It is also part of an unexpected resurgence of animated work at major international festivals.

“When we started doing [2017’s] ‘Loving Vincent,’ only one adult animated film every five years got any kind of recognition,” says Hugh Welchman, who directed ”Vincent” and “The Peasants,” which premiered Sept. 8 at TIFF, with wife D.K. Welchman. “Now it seems that every year one kind of breaks out.”

Their Oscar-nominated Vincent van Gogh biopic helped inspire this trend, earning $42.2 million worldwide on a $5.5 million budget. “Heron” is already continuing arthouse animation’s successful run, taking in $50.6 million since July in Japan alone. And prominent fests are increasing their support: in 2019, Cannes launched an Animation Day in partnership with the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The San Sebastián Film Festival has revealed the lineup of Spanish titles that will screen as part of the Official Selection of its latest edition, which is due to unfold from September 22 — 30. Scroll down for the full list.

Selected titles include Un Amor from Isabel Coixet, who competes for the festival’s Golden Shell for the first time with the pic based on the book of the same name by Sara Mesa and starring Laia Costa at the head of a cast also featuring Hovik Keuchkerian, Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo, Ingrid García-Jonsson and Francesco Carril.

Filmmaker Fernando Trueba, of the Oscar-nominated feature Chico & Rita (2012), will present his latest project, They Shot the Piano Player, directed alongside Javier Mariscal in the fest’s Special Screening sidebar. The film, narrated by the voice of Jeff Goldblum, follows the figure of Brazilian musician Tenorio Jr. during the early days of the musical movement known as bossa nova.

Spain’s Revelations showcase has focused on shorts, not features, unveiling the huge breadth of animation talent and techniques in Spain.

Some shorts directors are already stars, such as Alberto Mielgo with the Oscar-winner “The Windshield Wiper.” Diego Porral, director of “Leopoldo From the Bar,” served as animation lead on “Love, Death + Robots” episode “Kill Team Kill.”

Standouts among new projects in Revelations included “Latente,” a Next Lab Generation winner from Carlos Zaragoza and Aurora Jiménez, and Martín Romero’s “To Bird or Not to Bird,” from Uniko and Abano Producións, which is a 2D short made largely in black and white featuring an angst-ridden clock cuckoo and other birds beset by environmental destruction.

Revelations climaxes with a special screening, the first in a cinema, of “Sith,” Rodrigo Blaas’ episode in Disney+’s “Star Wars: Visions.”

As for features, here are 10 toon titles to track. Further international co-productions – Mr.

Sony Pictures Classics announced today they have acquired all rights in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories to Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s upcoming Bossa Nova-themed animated film, “They Shot the Piano Player.”

Sony Classics plans to release the film at the end of the year to qualify for year-end awards consideration.

A true international production, the film is produced by Cristina Huete of Trueba PC (“Chico & Rita”) in Spain, along with Serge Lalou for Les Films d’Ici (“Josep”) in France, Janneke van de Kerkhof for Submarine Sublime (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of Turtles”) in the Netherlands, and Humberto Santana in Portugal. It is executive produced by Nano Arrieta of Atlantika and Fabien Westerhoff of Film Constellation.

From Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, who previously directed the Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita,...

Director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal previously collaborated on Oscar-nominated ‘Chico & Rita’.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in the US and key territories around the world to They Shot The Piano Player, the highly-anticipated animation from Spanish director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal, who previously collaborated on the Oscar-nominated Chico & Rita.

In a deal with Film Constellation, SPC has also secured all rights for Canada, Latin America, Scandinavia, India, Middle East, Turkey, Southeast Asia (excluding Taiwan and South Korea) and airlines within those territories. The distributor plans to qualify the film for year-end awards.

Gkids has snapped up North American rights to Toei Animation’s film The First Slam Dunk, an adaptation of the hugely popular Takehiko Inoue manga, which Inoue wrote and directed for the screen. The film which has already proven a smash hit in other territories, grossing over $212M globally, will hit theaters in the U.S. and Canada in both its original Japanese language and an all-new English-language dub later this summer.

Marking Inoue’s directorial debut, The First Slam Dunk follows Shohoku High School’s “speedster” point guard, Ryota Miyagi, who always plays with brains and lightning speed, running circles around his opponents while feigning composure. Born and raised in Okinawa, Ryota had a brother who was three years older. And following in the footsteps of his older brother, who was a famous local player from a young age, Ryota also became addicted to basketball.

In his second year of high school,...

Gkids has snapped up North American rights to Keiichi Hara’s Lonely Castle in the Mirror, after serving as the distributor in the territory for his past animated features Summer Days with Coo and Miss Hokusai. The film based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Mizuki Tsujimura, featuring animation from A-1 Pictures, is slated for a theatrical release in both its original Japanese language and an all-new English dub this summer.

Reuniting Hara with collaborators including screenwriter Miho Maruo, composer Harumi Fuuki and artist Ilya Kuvshinov, Lonely Castle in the Mirror follows shy outcast Kokoro, who has been avoiding school for weeks when she discovers a portal in her bedroom mirror. She reaches through and finds herself transported to an enchanting castle where she is joined by six other students. And when a girl in a wolf mask explains that they have been invited to play a game,...

Gkids has snapped up U.S. rights to Ernest & Celestine: A Trip To Gibberitia — the sequel to the acclaimed Ernest & Celestine, which landed a Best Animated Feature Oscar nom in 2014. The decorated producer and distributor of animation, celebrating its 15th anniversary, will put both the original French-language version of Gibberitia and a new English dub in theaters this year.

Related Story Laura Linney Comedy ‘The Miracle Club’ Acquired By Sony Pictures Classics Related Story 'Inu-Oh' Director Masaaki Yuasa On Exploring Undocumented Possibilities For A "Modern Interpretation Of Old Tales" Related Story As The Best Animated Feature Competition Heats Up, Can Netflix Or Another Newcomer Bring Home The Oscar?

Both Ernest & Celestine films are based on the children’s book series by Belgian author-illustrator Gabrielle Vincent. The original helmed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner examines the unlikely friendship between a bear, Ernest (Lambert Wilson...

Gkids has acquired North American rights to Unicorn Wars — the latest genre-bending animated feature from Goya and Annecy Cristal-winning director Alberto Vázquez (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children) — ahead of its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest. The horror-comedy will be released in theaters by Gkids in early 2023, following its domestic release in Spain this fall.

Billed as Bambi meets Apocalypse Now, Unicorn Wars‘ logline is as follows:

For ages, teddy bears have been locked in an ancestral war against their sworn enemy, the unicorns, with the promise that victory will complete the prophecy and usher in a new era. Aggressive, confident teddy bear Bluet and his sensitive, withdrawn brother Tubby could not be more different. As the rigors and humiliation of teddy bear bootcamp turn to the psychedelic horrors of a combat tour in the Magic Forest, their complicated history and increasingly strained relationship will come to determine the fate of the entire war.

Gkids has acquired North American rights to New Gods: Yang Jian, the latest feature from renowned Chinese animation studio Light Chaser Animation. The producer and distributor of award-winning animated features has slated Yang Jian for theatrical release in both its original Mandarin-language form and an all-new English language dub early next year. The deal marks the latest collaboration between Gkids and Light Chaser Animation, following the former’s local distribution of the 2019 feature White Snake.

Helmed by Ji Zhao, New Gods: Yang Jian is the second installment of the studio’s New Gods series of animated action-fantasy epics inspired by Chinese mythological figures, following the 2021 feature New Gods: Nezha Reborn, also directed by Zhao. It picks up 13 years after Yang Jian (known to some as Erlang Shen) imprisoned his sister beneath a mountain, with the once powerful god now scraping by as a penniless bounty hunter.

They were all so incredibly young. Caetano Veloso opened Salvador’s Vila Velha Theater, a milestone event for the city, at the age of 21. Pianist Francisco Tenório Jr., the subject of Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player,” recorded one record as band leader, in March 1964, when he was 23 years old.

But he played piano on some of the greatest samba jazz records of all time, some with Raul de Sousa on trombone and J.T. Meirelles on tenor sax.

“These guys were the geniuses of Brazil music and they were only 23 years old,” Oscar winning writer-director Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”) told Variety at Annecy.

If Tenório isn’t better known, it is partly because he was murdered, “desaparecido,” in 1976 in Argentina while on tour, a full life suddenly annulled at the age of 35, as a military coup d’etat took hold of the country.

Nobody...

Gkids today announced that its upcoming animated feature The Deer King, from directors Masashi Ando and Masayuki Miyaji, will hit theaters nationwide in July. Fan preview events of the Japanese-language version will be put on in cinemas nationwide on July 13th, in partnership with Fathom Events, with previews of the English-language version to take place the following day.

In addition to the full feature, preview audiences will view a special introduction from Ando, exclusive to the Fathom Events screenings. These events will be followed by a limited theatrical release in select markets nationwide starting July 15th.

The Deer King is a fantasy epic marking the directorial debut of veteran animator Ando, whose work on such landmark films as Spirited Away, Paprika and Your Name helped shape the world of modern animation. It’s set in the aftermath of a brutal war and follows former soldier Van, who toils in a...

France’s Les Film d’Ici and Netherlands’ Submarine have boarded “They Shot the Piano Player,” the much-awaited new animated project from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal after their 2012 Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita.” The producers join existing producers Trueba PC, Mariscal Studios and Peru’s Tondero production team.

Sold internationally by Films Constellation, the animated feature is a celebratory evocation of the eruption of world-renowned Latino musical movement Bossa Nova in the ’60s and ’70s through the personal story of a young Brazilian piano virtuoso, Tenorio Jr, whose disappearance is being researched by a journalist – Jeff Goldblum attached to voice.

“Fernando and Javier have developed a powerful and moving film combining a unique artistic, political and humanistic approach. It is an important story, given the film’s many layers that will entertain audiences worldwide,” Serge Lalou at Les Films D’ici told Variety.

The French company – always stimulated by genre hybridization,...

Gkids has nabbed North American rights to Takayuki Hirao’s indie anime pic Pompo the Cinephile, and will release both the original Japanese-language film (titled Eiga Daisuki Pompo-san) and a new English-language version in U.S. theaters early next year.

Hirao’s ode to filmmaking centers on Pompo, a talented and gutsy producer in the world’s movie-making capital, “Nyallywood.” Although she’s known for B-movies, Pompo one day tells her assistant Gene that he will direct her next script: a delicate drama about an aging and tormented creative genius. But when the production heads towards chaos, can Gene rise to Pompo’s challenge, and succeed as a first-time director?

Pompo the Cinephile hails from the new animation studio, Clap. Its Japanese voice cast includes Hiroya Shimizu, Konomi Kohara, Ai Kakuma, Aiko Otsuka, and Rinka Ōtani. The film was an official selection of the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival and was released in Japan in June.

Upcoming features from Margarethe Von Trotta and Fernando Trueba also receive support.

Co-productions from Belgian director Lukas Dhont, Canada’s Brandon Cronenberg and UK filmmaker Fyzal Boulifa are among 49 selected for support in the latest Eurimages funding round.

Dhont, whose transgender dancer drama Girl won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2018, received €300,000 toward his anticipated second feature, Close.

The Belgium-France-Netherlands co-production centres on two 13-year-old boys who have always been incredibly close but drift apart after their relationship is questioned by schoolmates. When tragedy strikes, one is forced to confront why he distanced himself from his closest friend.

German...

Upcoming features from Margarethe Von Trotta and Fernando Trueba also receive support.

Co-productions from Belgian director Lukas Dhont, Canada’s Brandon Cronenberg and UK filmmaker Fyzal Boulifa are among 49 selected for support in the latest Eurimages funding round.

Dhont, whose transgender dancer drama Girl won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2018, received €300,000 toward his anticipated second feature, Close.

The Belgium-France-Netherlands co-production centres on two 13-year-old boys who have always been incredibly close but drift apart after their relationship is questioned by schoolmates. When tragedy strikes, one is forced to confront why he distanced himself from his closest friend.

German...

London-based sales firm Film Constellation has boarded international sales rights to Natalie Erika James’ well-received Sundance Midnight debut Relic, whose producers include Agbo and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories.

Scheduled for theatrical release in the U.S. in Q4, 2020, with IFC Midnight, the film was to play at the cancelled SXSW this month, also in the Midnight section.

More from DeadlineIFC Midnight Lands Sundance & SXSW Thriller 'Relic'Film Constellation & Endeavor Content Team For Sales Rights To Sundance Film 'Farewell Amor'Jeff Goldblum To Voice Musical Animation 'They Shot The Piano Player' From 'Chico & Rita' Directors; Film Constellation Financing - Afm

Film Constellation has launched private online portal relicscreening.biz as a destination for buyers to see the film and view marketing materials.

Starring Emily Mortimer (Shutter Island), Robyn Nevin (The Matrix Trilogy), and Bella Heathcote (The Neon Demon), the all-female genre title was co-written by Natalie Erika James and Christian White,...

Remi Chayé’s “Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” Benoît Chieux’ “Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds” and “They Shot the Piano Player,” from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, were among projects which caught attention at this week’s 22nd Cartoon Movie, which ran March 3-5 in the French port city of Bordeaux.

The presentation of “Calamity.” the awaited second feature by Chayé (“Long Way North”), registered the highest attendance of any pitch at the animation co-production and sales forum. Produced by France’s Maybe Movies and Denmark’s Nørlum and sold by Paris-based Indie Sales, “Calamity” tells the story of Martha Jane Cannary, a 12-year-old girl caring for her siblings in a wagon train heading West to Wyoming. A coming-of-age feature, it is also an origins story of the young woman would become the legendary Calamity Jane.

A buzz title in Bordeaux, sold by Film Constellation and...

New projects from Fernando Trueba, ‘Loving Vincent’ filmmakers and a ”Nordic Sex Education”.

Screen has been on the ground at animation pitching event Cartoon Movie in Bordeaux this week, hearing about 66 feature film projects at various stages of concept, development and production.

Here are five which generated particular buzz among attendees:

Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary (Fr-Den)

With Cartoon Movie tracking the attendance of its delegates to each pitch, the most popular – by a decent 10% margin – was this France-Denmark co-production with 316 audience members from the 800 people at the event. The second feature from French director Rémi Chayé, it...

Bordeaux-based animation event to showcase 66 international projects.

They Shot The Piano Player, the new animation from Spanish director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal, who previously collaborated on the Oscar-nominated Chico & Rita, is one of the projects being showcased at Cartoon Movie 2020, the annual European feature animation co-production forum.

It will take place in Bordeaux, France, from March 3-5.

Cartoon Movie will showcase 66 animated feature films in the works to some 900 potential buyers and partners. They are comprised of six in production, 27 in development and 28 in concept. There will also be sneak previews of five completed films.

They Shot...

France animation event to showcase 66 features in Bordeaux.

Cartoon Movie has unveiled the 66 projects from 20 countries that will be pitched at Europe’s leading animation co-production event.

Highlights of this year’s event, which runs March 3-5 in Bordeaux for the fourth consecutive year, include They Shot the Piano Player, which marks the second collaboration of director Fernando Trueba and artist Javier Mariscal, who were Oscar-nominated for Chico & Rita in 2012.

It is expected to attract around 900 buyers and potential partners who will consider animation features in different stages of development, comprising five sneak previews, six in production, 27 in development and 28 in concept.

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...

El olvido que seremos

Spain’s Fernando Trueba is on the verge of one of his most prolific periods it seems, and we’ll next seem him with Caracol TV’s produced El Olvido que Seremos, starring Javier Camara. Based on the popular novel by Hector Abad Faciolince, the project is lensed by Sergio Ivan Castano. Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner (Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy and The Double Life of Veronique) provides the score.

The well-traveled Trueba scored an international breakthrough in 1992 when Belle Epoque took home the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and his 2010 film Chico & Rita received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.…...

Buenos Aires — New York-based Ammo Content, a technology-oriented film-tv distributor has acquired rights to two Spanish modern classics – “Chico and Rita” and “Historias para no dormir” – as it expands into Europe and Latin America, and also explores ever more licensing to new markets such as rising Avod players.

Directed by Academy Award-winning Fernando Trueba (“Belle Epoque”), Javier Mariscal and Tono Errondo, “Chico and Rita” yoked broad strike flamboyant animation and a Latin Jazz score by legendary Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés in a love story set between Cuba, New York and Europe in the 1940s and 1950s which was acquired by Gkids for the U.S. and nominated for an Academy Award as best animated feature film.

Created and presented by Narciso Ibanez Serrador, “Historias para no dormir” is an pioneering Spanish TV series, adapting classics from Ray Bradbury and Edgar Allen Poe. First aired by public broadcaster Tve in 1966, it...

The Best Animated Feature Oscar race is starting to take shape, but first we have the various precursors to separate the wheat from the chaff. A win at the Golden Globes can arguably be the biggest boost an animated film can receive before the Oscars. In the 13 years of its existence at the Globes, the winner of Best Animated Feature has matched up 10 times with the Academy Awards, only differing in 2006, 2011 and 2014. As for nominations, the Globes Animated Feature lineup often includes at least three films that would go on to earn Oscar noms. The past two years have found the two organizations completely in sync, indicating a Golden Globe nomination in Best Animated Feature is more important than ever for future Oscar glory.

SEEOscar flashback: ‘Toy Story 3’ director thanks fans for embracing ‘talking toys’ during Best Animated Feature speech [Watch]

The Golden Globes have traditionally been much friendlier to...

Jeff Goldblum will voice the lead in ’They Shot The Piano Player’, about the birth of Bossa Nova

London-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has come on board to finance the new musical animation feature They Shot The Piano Player from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, Oscar nominees in 2012 for Chico & Rita.

Jeff Goldblum is attached to voice the lead character, a New York music journalist on a quest to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr.

The film tells the story of the emergence of Bossa Nova in Brazil, at...

Production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has come on board to finance musical animation film “They Shot the Piano Player,” directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, Oscar-nominated for their 2012 animation “Chico & Rita.”

Jeff Goldblum is attached to voice the lead character, a New York music journalist on a quest to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr.

Film Constellation describes the film as “a celebratory origin story” of the Bossa Nova movement that “captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the 60s and 70s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes.”

The pic features a who’s who of the best of Brazilian music, including João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes and Paulo Moura.

Trueba, whose credits include music films “Calle 54,” “Bebo Y Cigala” and “The Miracle of Candeal,...

Jeff Goldblum is attached to voice the lead in musical animation They Shot The Piano Player, the latest project from Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, the directors of Oscar-nominated feature Chico & Rita.

UK outfit Film Constellation has come on board to finance the project, which is in pre-production.

Goldblum will voice a New York music journalist on a quest to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of young Brazilian piano virtuoso Tenorio Jr.

An origin story of the world-renowned Latino musical movement Bossa Nova, the movie will capture a fleeting time of creative freedom in Latin American history in the 1960s and 70s, before parts of the continent were engulfed by oppressive regimes.

The film will include music from João Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Vinicius de Moraes, and Paulo Moura.

Spanish director Trueba and illustrator Mariscal are re-teaming after their Oscar-nominated 2010 animation Chico & Rita, which chronicled a...

Tale of troubled student who flees to Tokyo to receive awards-qualifying run.

Gkids has unveiled its latest Japanese anime acquisition, concluding a deal in Cannes for North American rights to Makoto Shinkai’s follow-up to his box office smash Your Name., Weathering With You.

The distributor has set an awards-qualifying run in 2019 ahead of the theatrical release proper in early 2020 in both the original Japanese and a new English-language version.

Weathering With You follows a troubled high school student who runs away to Tokyo where he finds work on a remote island and eventually meets a girl who changes his outlook on life.

Heads up on what's newly available to you this week. Links go to previous coverage / reviews here at Tfe.

DVD/Blu-Ray

• Bel Canto -Julianne Moore as an opera singer. It was barely released

• BlacKkKlansman - Spike Lee's best in ages. We think it might be competitive for Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing nominations. Do you?

• Christopher Robin - Ewan McGregor stars as the boy all grown up revisited by Pooh, Tigger, and the Hundred Acre Woods gang.

• Incredibles 2 - The year's fourth biggest hit globally with 1.2 billion in the bank

• Loving Pablo - Penelope Cruz & Javier Bardem star in this drama about a journalist and a drug lord.

• Papillon - Rami Malek and Charlie Hunnam remake the Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen prison drama

• Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood - a salacious documentary about a man who allegedly secured same-sex sex for the movie stars of Old Hollywood.

London – If Chico & Rita wins the Oscar for best animated feature Sunday night, it will be a real long-shot victory – especially since the movie is up against big-budget features like Paramount’s Rango and DreamWorks Animation’s Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2. But then Chico & Rita already has a long history of overcoming the odds. Oscar-winning Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba – his Belle Epoque was named best foreign-language film in 1994 – and artist and designer Javier Mariscal, along with U.K.-based animation production label Magic Light Pictures, have been

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Admitting to limited interest in the Academy Awards, per se, I am, however, very interested in Best Foreign Language Film, Best Documentary and Best Animated Feature this year because I Love Chico & Rita (Isa:  HanWay) by Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque and Calle 54) and can't wait to see A Cat in Paris (Isa: Films Distribution) by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Ferlicioli.  Both of these are being distributed by GKids a multi-platform distributor of prestige entertainment for children and teens, specializing in titles that cross over between art house and youth audiences and also runs N.Y. Children's International Film Festival, though Chico & Rita is not a kid or...

Production forum Cartoon Movie will take place March 2-4 in Lyon, France. The conference is a place for European animated films to find financing for the in-progress movies and distributors for the completed ones. Among the films unspooling at the forum this year are Tim Ollive’s “1884,” Patrice Leconte’s “The Suicide Shop” and Fernando Trueba’s “Chico and Rita.” “1884” is a futuristic fantasy, and though it’s directed by Tim Ollive, the film is getting recognition because of its producer, presenter and creative adviser, Terry Gilliam (the two have worked frequently together in the past on films like “The Life of…...