During the Quirino Awards’ Ibero-American co-production forum in Tenerife, Terremoto AIE (Spain) and Vivement Lundi ! (France) announced the addition of new partners for the puppet animation feature film Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake: Co-producers Panique ! Productions (Belgium) and Pájaro (Chile), as well as distributor KMBO (France).
Terremoto AIE, the Spanish group formed by the animation studio Citoplasmas Stop Motion, Cornelius Films and Bígaro Films, developed Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake, which is being directed by Irene Iborra. The film is adapted from the best-selling children’s book La Pelicula de la vida (The Film of Our Life) by Maite Carranza, which sold more than 24,000 copies in Spain and has been translated and published in seven languages. The character designs were crafted by French artist Morgan Navarro.
Olivia is a 12-year-old girl whose life is turned upside down when her family is evicted from their home and forced to live in a squatted apartment. Her mother Ingrid, a cheerful and optimistic person, can’t cope with the situation anymore. To protect her little brother Tim, Olivia imagines that their life is a movie…
Vivement Lundi !, an Oscar nominated French company renowned for producing stop-motion films and series, joined the production of the film in 2022 after discovering the project during Cartoon Movie 2020.
The film’s budget is estimated at €5 million and several Spanish partners are already committed: RTVE, Televisió de Catalunya, À Punt, ICAA (Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts), ICEC (Catalan Institute for Cultural Enterprises), IVAC (Valencian Institute of Culture), Ibermedia and the City of Barcelona.
In France, Bretagne Cinéma has given a first support to the film through its international co-development support. The Breton regional fund has just supported the project again, this time through its production support. KMBO, which handled the successful French releases of The Amazing Maurice and Mavka. The Forest Song, will distribute the film in France.
The new co-production partners, Panique ! Productions (Belgium) and Pájaro (Chile), join the project with a pre-buy from the Belgian TV RTBF and the support of the Chilean government in tow.
The co-producers plan to complete the financing plan for the film during 2023. Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake will be shot in Barcelona, and the Spanish premiere of the film is scheduled for the fall of 2025, through distributor Filmax.
