Organizers of the 77th Festival de Cannes have announced several additions to the lineup, including animated features The Most Precious of Cargoes (La Plus Précieuse des marchandises), which has been added to the Competition selection, and Flow, running in the Un Certain Regard section for films for more unusual, daring fare. Both pics have previously been showcased during the Annecy Festival Work-in-Progress sessions.
Flow is the latest project from Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis, who made a splash with his solo-created animated feature Away in 2019 and won Annecy’s first-ever Contrechamp award the same year. The dialog-free film, created in 3D CG with the help of Blender, is a co-production of Zilbalodis’ Dream Well Studio (Latvia), Sacrebleu Productions (France), Trickster Studio (Latvia) and Take Five (Belgium). Zilbalodis serves are writer, director and cinematographer; producers are Ron Dyens, Matiss Kaze and Gregory Zalcman. International sales are handled by Charade.
Synopsis: The world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences. In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world.
The Most Precious of Cargoes is helmed by Oscar-winning French director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist; OSS 117: Cario, Nest of Spies). Hezanavicius also wrote the screenplay with playwright & children’s author Jean-Claude Grumberg, who created the original story. The tale is set against the horrific backdrop of the Holocaust, brought to life with 3D and 2D animation. The Most Precious of Cargoes is produced by Ex Nihilo and Les Compagnons du Cinéma (both in France) in coproduction with Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium), StudioCanal, France 3 Cinéma, RTBF, Voo and BeTV. Animation and line production is handed by 3.0 Studio in Angoulême.
Synopsis: Once upon a time there was a poor woodcutter and his wife who lived in a deep Polish forest. The poor woman moaned that she had no children. Day and night, trains passed through the woods. One day, as the poor woman was watching a train that she thought was a cargo train, a package was thrown out and fell into the snow…
Featuring the voices of Dominique Blanc, Grégory Gadebois, Denis Podalydès and Jean-Louis Trintignan.
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