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Netflix Animation has announced the appointment of Hannah Minghella as the new Head of Feature Animationand Live-Action Family Film. The feature animation department’s current VP, Karen Toliver (Hair Love), and President, Traci Balthazor (Planes), are both departing the studio-streamer.
Minghella joins Netflix from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, where she was President of Motion Pictures covering animation, live-action and documentary features. Hailing from the U.K., she produced the Oscar- and BAFTA-winning animated short The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022, Apple TV+). Prior, she had a nearly 15-year stint at Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures, where she worked on Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania.
“I am thrilled to be joining Netflix and the incredibly talented team working on feature animation and live-action family film. In such a short time, the studio has already distinguished itself within the animation community as a home for bold and original voices,” Minghella shared in the announcement.
Bolstering the Feature Animation team, Sharon Taylor has been named Head of Production, based in Vancouver. She was previously CEO of Australian animation and VFX studio Animal Logic, which was tapped to be acquired by Netflix in 2022. Taylor resigned from her position when the studio integrated into the Netflix Animation structure early this year, handing off her duties to the now outgoing Toliver.
Animal Logic produced The Magician’s Elephant and last year’s hit Adam Sandler original Leo for Netflix Animation. The studio is also known for its work on The LEGO Movie and hybrid Peter Rabbit franchises.
Building on its increasingly impressive roster of feature films, which has included in recent years the Oscar-winning Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and Oscar-nominated Nimona, The Sea Beast and The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Netflix Animation has a busy slate on the horizon. This year has already seen the launches of Thelma the Unicorn and just-debuted Ultraman: Rising, with Studio Ponoc’s The Imaginary coming next month and Locksmith Animation’s Richard Curtis adaptation That Christmas due in December.
Upcoming titles also include Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, SPA’s K-Pop: Demon Hunters and Motel Transylvania, SpongeBob spin-offs Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie and Plankton: The Movie, Skydance Animation’s Spellbound, Roald Dahl adaptation The Twits, Nathan Greno’s Pookoo and more.
For the first time ever, Jim Henson’s original musical fantasy film Labyrinth (1986), starring David Bowie, will transport fans to Goblin City in a fusion of film and live music on stage with Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert. The 30-city North American tour launches September 24 — Jim Henson’s birthday. For tour dates, tickets, VIP packages and more information, visit labyrinthinconcert.com.
“It’s always incredible when the amazing fans of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth come together to watch (and rewatch!) this beloved fantasy adventure,” says Nicole Goldman, EVP of Branding for The Jim Henson Company. “With Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert, we are welcoming loyal and new fans to the world of the Goblin King, and celebrating the incredible music of David Bowie and Trevor Jones in a whole new way. It is certain to be a ‘Magic Dance!’”
Audiences are invited to experience an epic evening as the movie is presented on a large HD cinema screen. On stage, a live band will perform in sync with Bowie’s original vocals, playing the songs and the score from the soundtrack composed by Bowie and Trevor Jones.
Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert producer Black Ink Presents, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, is known for its extensive history of breathing new life into favorite films with symphonies, orchestras or bands live on stage, including Batman, Ghostbusters, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Rocketman, La La Land, and more.
“I have always been a huge fan of the groundbreaking collaboration of Jim Henson, George Lucas, David Bowie and Trevor Jones on this film, and bringing it to fans in a live concert screening experience is a dream come true,” says John Kinsner, CEO of Black Ink Presents. “Getting to hear Bowie’s vocals with a live band while watching the film is sure to give every Labyrinth fan goosebumps.”
Starring Bowie and Jennifer Connelly, as well as scores of goblins and creatures from the renowned Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the film features a soundtrack of unique and memorable melodies, with Bowie’s original songs like “Magic Dance,” “Underground” and “As the World Falls Down,” along with Jones’ orchestral score.
Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: In Concert tour schedule (subject to change):
DATE
CITY
VENUE
September 24
Morgantown, WV
Metropolitan Theatre
September 25
Reading, PA
Santander PAC
September 26
Glenside, PA
Keswick Theatre
September 27
York, PA
Pullo Center
September 28
Concord, NH
Capitol Center for the Arts
September 29
Mississauga, ON, Canada
Living Arts Centre
October 1
Rutland, VT
Paramount Theatre
October 2
Medford, MA
Chevalier Theatre
October 3
Patchogue, NY
Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts
October 5
Munhall, PA
Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead
October 7
Cleveland, OH
Agora Theatre
October 8
Louisville, KY
Louisville Palace
October 9
Columbus, OH
KEMBA Live
October 10
Lexington, KY
Lexington Opera House
October 11
Indianapolis, IN
Murat Theatre
October 12
Detroit, MI
Masonic Cathedral Theatre
October 13
Milwaukee, WI
Pabst Theater
October 14
Cincinnati, OH
Taft Theatre
October 16
Saint Paul, MN
Fitzgerald Theater
October 17
Waukegan, IL
Genesee Theatre
October 18
Kansas City, MO
Uptown Theater
October 19
Omaha, NE
Holland Center
October 21
Dallas, TX
Majestic Theater
October 22
New Orleans, LA
Orpheum Theater
October 23
Atlanta, GA
The Eastern
October 24
Jacksonville, FL
Florida Theatre
October 25
Orlando, FL
Plaza Live
October 26
Clearwater, FL
Ruth Eckerd Hall
October 27
Fort Lauderdale, FL
The Parker
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The Toronto International Film Festival today announced six highly-anticipated films set to premiere in its Gala and Special Presentation programs. These select half-dozen will all be making their World Premieres during the 49th edition of TIFF, running September 5-15.
Among the picks is the animated feature The Wild Robot, featuring an acclaimed ensemble cast led by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o as Roz, a robot shipwrecked on an island that must adapt to its new surroundings. The film is written and directed by Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon, Lilo & Stitch), based on the award-winning book by Peter Brown.
The DreamWorks Animation film will be released in theaters on September 27 through Universal Pictures. Read more in our pre-Annecy interview with Sanders here.
The lineup will also include the world premieres of documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, Korean historical actioner Harbin, Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck, dark comedy Nightbitch and a coming-of-age film about Indigenous basketball, Rez Ball.
“We know the TIFF audience has been eagerly anticipating what films will be coming to Toronto this September, and today’s announcement is a snapshot of what’s to come this year: a wonderfully wide range of titles that span genres and generations, with discoveries for everyone,” said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “TIFF is renowned for finding and showcasing works from both emerging and established filmmakers from all around the world, and for creating an unmatched groundswell of excitement, often paving the way for awards season, thanks to the hundreds of thousands of industry delegates and public filmgoers that attend each year. As we approach our 50th Festival, we are proud to evolve and expand our offerings to meet the needs of the industry and our audiences while always remaining true to what TIFF stands for — transforming the way people see the world through film.”
Amy Adams | David Cronenberg | Sandra Oh [photos c/o TIFF 2024]The festival also announced the first TIFF Tribute Awards recipients of 2024:
TIFF Performer Award: Six-time academy award nominated actress Amy Adams, who stars in the TIFF-premiering Nightbitch and also produced via her Bond Group Entertainment label. Adams is known to animation fans for her starring roles in the live-action/2D movies Enchanted (2007) and its Disney+ sequel/ Disenchanted.
Prior notable credits include Vice, (2018) for which she received nominations from the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, BAFTAs, and Academy Awards; HBO series Sharp Objects, which she also executive produced, and won a Critics’ Choice Award as well as nominations for a Golden Globe, SAG and Emmy. Adams recently wrapped production Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun and will next star in At the Sea from Kornel Mundruczó and Kata Wéber. Adams is represented by WME, Linden Entertainment, Narrative, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award: Filmmaker David Cronenberg’s reputation as an authentic auteur has been firmly established by his uniquely personal body of work, which includes Shivers, Rabid, Fast Company, The Brood, Scanners, Videodrome, the Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch, Crash, eXistenz, The Dead Zone, M. Butterfly, Spider, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars, Crimes of the Future and The Shrouds. As an actor, Cronenberg has given notable performances in Alias Grace, Disappearance at Clifton Hill, and Star Trek: Discovery.
Cronenberg’s contributions to art and culture has been recognized with appointment as an Officer to the Order of Canada in 2003, a Companion of the Order of Canada in 2014, investiture in France’s Order of Arts and Letters in 1990 and the Légion d’Honneur in 2009.
Additionally, Sandra Oh was named the 2024 TIFF Tribute Awards Honorary Chair. A prolific actor of the screen and the stage, the Ottawa-born artist’s career spans over 30 years. Her animated film credits include the Toronto-set Turning Red (Pixar), Over the Moon (Netflix/Pearl/SPI/Glen Keane Prod.), Raya and the Last Dragon (Disney), Window Horses by Anne Marie Fleming and this year’s The Tiger’s Apprentice (Paramount).
Oh’s live-action credits include Sideways, Double Happiness, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Princess Diaries and For Your Consideration; TV roles include 10 seasons as Dr. Cristina Yang on Grey’s Anatomy (Golden Globe Award/SAG Award/Emmy nominations), The Chair (also executive produced) and four seasons of Killing Eve (also executive produced; Golden Globe Award/SAG Award/Critics Choice Award/Emmy Award nominations), Arli$$ (HBO) and Thorne: Scaredy Cat (U.K.) She currently stars in Quiz Lady (Hulu) and The Sympathizer (HBO). She will next star in Fleming’s Can I Get a Witness.
Anime outlet Crunchyroll today announced its full U.S./Canada calendar for simulcast titles airing all summer long. Even more shows are sure to be announced, so fans should follow crunchyroll.com/news for the latest updates.
See below for the newly unveiled schedule of subtitled simulcast premieres (dub dates to be announced later):
JUNE 26
The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army Was a Human(studio A-CAT)
Ike is a powerful magician and the leader of the Immortal Brigade, part of the Seventh Corps of the Demon Lord’s Army. He single-handedly conquers fortresses and pushes back the armies of humanity. Neither Dairokuten, the Demon Lord, nor Ike’s loyal soldiers know his darkest secret—he is a human in hiding! But can he keep his secret safe and bring peaceful coexistence to demons and humans?
JULY 1
SHYSeason 2 (8bit)
On the brink of a third World War, superheroes appeared on Earth. Gifted with powers, their appearance brings peace to the world. The heroes each selected a country in which they would reside, serve, and protect its citizens. Shy is Japan’s hero, endowed with super strength. Her most daunting enemy yet? Crippling shyness. Join Shy and her super friends as she defends Earth and gains confidence!
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German
The Ossan Newbie Adventurer, Trained to Death by the Most Powerful Party, Became Invincible(Yumeta Company)
Normally, people choose to become adventurers in their teens. At 30 years old, Rick Gladiator bucks the trend by leaving his job as a guild clerk to become an adventurer. He begins as a novice F-rank with the fi ghting strength of an S-rank. After two years of brutal training with the continent’s strongest party, Orichalcum Fist, Rick will defeat anyone who underestimates him!
JULY 2
TASUKETSU -Fate of the Majority-(SATELIGHT)
A student fi nds himself in a game of survival as half of the human population disappears each night!
JULY 3
Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian (Doga Kobo)
Alya is a transfer student enjoying popularity at her new high school, often sporting a cold shoulder while earning high marks in class. She ignores her nerdy classmate, Kuze Masachika, except for when she blurts out a fl irtatious line to him in Russian. Little does she know, Kuze understands Russian, though he pretends not to. Let’s see where this wacky love story takes them!
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French and German
JULY 4
Senpai Is an Otokonoko (Project No.9)
For Makoto Hanaoka, life’s about to get more complicated. Saki Aoi, a lively girl with loads of confidence, confesses her love for Makoto one day. When he fails to reciprocate, Saki declares she will be his first love! She shares her goal with a mutual friend, Ryuji Taiga, who also confesses his crush on Makoto. Stuck in a love triangle, Makoto must find a way to make it work and have fun.
Twilight Out of Focus (Studio DEEN)
A boys’ school film club is the backdrop for three tales of new romance. Mao and Hisashi pair up for a project, make three promises, and draw closer together in the process. The club president, Jin, and a jealous junior named Giichi clash before finding common ground. Shion, a first-year student, joins the film club in search of a boyfriend and butts heads with Rei—until Rei asks him on a date.
Dubs include: English
Days with My Stepsister(Studio DEEN)
When his father remarries, Yuta Asamura winds up sharing a roof with his new stepsister, Saki Ayase, the hottest girl in his grade. Carrying the scars of their parents’ troubled divorces, they vow to maintain a respectful distance. But what starts as cautious camaraderie blossoms into something deeper from shared experiences. Is it admiration, familial love, or something more?
The Cafe Terrace and Its Goddesses Season 2 (Tezuka Productions)
After inheriting his late grandmother’s failing café, Hayato sees it as a bother and plans to sell it for a quick buck. Until he discovers five beautiful girls staying there! When they beg him to keep the café open, Hayato reluctantly gives in. Can he manage the seaside shop while learning to live with these unruly women?
Dubs include: Latin American Spanish and German
Pseudo Harem(NOMAD)
Eiji Kitahama joins the drama club with dreams of having a harem like the ones from his favorite manga. Rin Nanakura, an underclassman, finds herself crushing hard on Eiji, and tries on different personas in his presence to win him over. No matter how she acts, one thing is certain — her feelings for Eiji continue to grow stronger. Will she ever be able to tell him the truth and be herself?
Dubs include: Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese
JULY 5
NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Cour 2 (A-1 Pictures)
The year 11954. YoRHa Soldiers <2B> and <9S> are newly dispatched to Earth to carry out and support the 243rd Descent Operation. There, they succeed in destroying the machine lifeform core units, <Adam> and <Eve>. With the annihilation of these enemies, the <Army of Humanity> takes this chance to end this long-lasting war and decides on an all-out attack against the machine lifeforms. This is a record of the battles and hopes of <Androids> and the fate which dictates them all…
Dubs include: Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French and German
Quality Assurance in Another World(100Studio and Studio Palette)
When a dragon attacks a peaceful village, it’s not the beast that perplexes resident Nikola, but the man who comes to their aid. Haga, member of a secret royal team of investigators, intrigues her with his eccentric ways. It may be due to the fact he’s a real-life QA debugger and this world is a VR game! With Haga by her side, Nikola is inspired to venture out and learn her world’s true nature.
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German and Arabic
JULY 6
SHOSHIMIN: How to Become Ordinary(Lapin Track)
Kobato decides to become an honest, humble citizen after enduring a bitter experience known as “wisdom work.” He forms a pact with Osanai, his classmate with the same goal, and they plan to enter high school leading quiet lives. But for some reason, inexplicable events and disasters keep happening around them. Will Kobato and Osanai ever manage to live ordinary, peaceful lives?
MONOGATARI Series: OFF & MONSTER Season(SHAFT)
Spring break, an interval of time between the second and third year of high school. Koyomi Araragi encounters a blood-chillingly beautiful woman. The iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded Vampire, she calls herself “Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade.” On the brink of death after losing her four limbs, she asks Koyomi to save her. After experiencing fear, chaos and finally conflict, Koyomi gives his own blood in order to save her. But when he awakens, he finds himself re-born as her vampire kin. This hellish spring break, the final one of his high school life, is only just beginning.
JULY 7
Tower of God Season 2 (The Answer Studio)
Ja Wangnan can’t seem to pass the 20th floor. Even after failing time and time again, he refuses to give up. On his journey, he meets a mysterious and powerful character named Viole. Wangnan invites Viole to join his team of Regulars. Their journey continues with new challenges at every turn.
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German and Russian
Wistoria: Wand and Sword (Actas and Bandai Namco Pictures)
In a world where magic reigns, Will Serfort can’t cast a spell. Though hardworking, Will’s classmates think less of him for it. However, he has a secret strength: his sword. Can Will defy expectations with muscle over magic and blade over wand? Find out in this epic sword-and-sorcery adventure!
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German and Castilian Spanish
Narenare -Cheer for You!- (P.A.WORKS)
Misora Kanata is a first-year student on the Takanosaki High School cheerleading team. She won a national championship in middle school, but can’t jump after a mistake in a competition. She befriends Suzuha, Shion, Anna, Onka, and Megumi to form the PoMPoMs. Their new team goes beyond cheerleading to reach the hearts of the people they cheer on. They might just change the world!
VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream(TNK)
Yuki Tanaka is a VTuber at Live-On, one of Japan’s largest VTuber companies, as the polite and ladylike Awayuki Kokorone. One day, she forgets to end the stream, and viewers see her real personality — irreverent, improper, and prone to imbibing after a long day. Yuki is surprised to find that her accident caused her rankings to multiply, so she doubles down and gets to work. She’ll be a star yet!
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese
A Journey Through Another World: Raising Kids While Adventuring(EMT Squared)
After a god accidentally slays him, Takumi is reborn with new skills in a monster-filled forest where he stumbles upon twins. They’re sweet, adorable and super strong! Won over instantly, he names them Alan and Elena, becomes their guardian, and joins an adventurers’ guild to provide for his new family. And so starts his chill life of adventure, watching over Alan and Elena’s growth!
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German
JULY 8
MAYONAKA PUNCH(P.A.WORKS)
Meet Masaki, the now former member of the popular NewTuber group, Harikiri Sisters. After a career setback, aka getting fired unexpectedly via a livestream, she joins forces with Live, a partner with superhuman abilities. Together, they aim to create sensational content and reach 1 million subscribers. Will they reach their content dreams or be hit with the block button?
JULY 9
No Longer Allowed in Another World(Atelier Pontdarc)
Pulled into an otherworldly adventure with cute sidekicks and superpowers, you’d think Osamu hit the jackpot. Nope! From a time before pixels, the early 20th-century gloomy author just wants to find a quiet place to meet his maker, not to rack up XP. Sadly, his poetic demise is constantly thwarted by inconvenient heroics. Dive into the hilariously tragic life of the most reluctant hero!
Dubs include: English
JULY 10
Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Season 2 (Studio Palette)
After Alice, Iska and Sisbell defeat the Object, they return to the Nebulis palace. Iska becomes Sisbell’s guard through a secret pact, and they find themselves drawing closer with each passing day. Alice’s heart aches upon seeing her sister arm-in-arm with Iska. A dark conspiracy is at play, and the trio is caught in the crossfire. But can they uncover the truth in time to prevent total war?
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese
Love Is Indivisible by Twins (ROLL2)
Jun Shirosaki’s love life takes a wild turn when he finds himself caught between the Jinguji twins — his childhood friends who are as different as night and day. Rumi, the older sister, pairs a boyish charm with a maiden’s heart, while Naori combines girlish looks with her deep love for otaku culture. As feelings grow and confusion mounts, Jun must navigate this unexpected love triangle next door.
JULY 12
Bye Bye, Earth (LIDENFILMS)
Belle Lablac doesn’t really fit in as the only human being in a world full of anthropomorphic animals. No fangs, no fur, no scales, no claws. Lonely and eager to discover where she comes from, Belle journeys to find answers to the questions of her heart. Carrying nothing but her giant sword, the Runding, she faces a world of possibilities and pitfalls in hopes of discovering the truth.
Dubs include: English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German
JULY 13
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! (A-1 Pictures)
A food-loving, childhood-friend-type of heroine, Anna Yanami. An energetic, jock-girl-type of heroine, Lemon Yakishio. A shy, small-animal-type of heroine, Chika Komari. It’s a fresh take on a helter-skelter story of youths on the losing side of romance with slightly questionable, losing heroines! Lose and shine, Makeines!
Dubs include: English
ATRI -My Dear Moments-(TROYCA)
In the near future, a sudden and unexplained sea rise has left much of human civilization underwater. Ikaruga Natsuki, a boy who lost his mother and one of his legs in an accident some years earlier, returns disillusioned from a harsh life in the big city to find his old countryside home half-swallowed by the sea. Left without a family, all he has to his name is the ship and submarine left to him by his oceanologist grandmother, and her debts. His only hope to restore the dreams for the future that he has lost is to take up an opportunity presented to him by the suspicious debt collector Catherine. They set sail to search the sunken ruins of his grandmother’s laboratory in order to find a treasure rumor says she left there. But what they find is not riches or jewels; it is a strange girl lying asleep in a coffin at the bottom of the sea, Atri. Atri is a robot, but her appearance and her wealth of emotions would fool anyone into thinking she’s a living, breathing human being. In gratitude for being salvaged, she makes a declaration to Natsuki.
Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World? (Project No.9)
In a world where humans triumphed in a great war, Kai guards sealed crypts containing their enemies. But when “World Rebirth” overwrites history, he’s thrust into an alternate reality where humanity lost the war and he’s been forgotten by everyone he knows. Now, this lost hero must rise to restore the world’s balance!
Dubs include: English
JULY 17
Sengoku Youko Cour 2 (White Fox)
Humans and katawara are at war, but there are those on each side who join forces. Tama is a fox spirit who loves humans, while her sendou brother, Jinka, despises them. Together, they use the power of spirit transformation to defeat the monstrous katawara and put an end to the evils of this chaotic age. What destiny awaits the duo at the end of their journey?
AUGUST 7
Delico’s Nursery (J.C.STAFF)
Hailing from the prestigious noble house of Delico, Dali Delico is an elite member of the Blood Pact Council with a promising future. When the Blood Pact Council, the highest governing body for the Vamps, assigns a special mission to Dali, he flatly refuses it. Having lost patience, Gerhard, Dino, and Henrique, who are also Council members serving the same term as Dali, rush to the house of Delico to persuade him. What they witness there is Dali, taking care of an infant himself … Meanwhile, there has been a series of mysterious murders targeting Vamps. Can they find the right balance between their absolute mission and childcare in this magnificent gothic world?!
Dubs include: English
Continuing Series from Spring 2024:
Spice and Wolf: MERCHANT MEETS THE WISE WOLF (Passione) – New episodes on Mondays
DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION (Production +h.) – New episodes on Thursdays
One Piece (Toei Animation) – New episodes on Saturdays
My Hero Academia Season 7 (BONES) – New episodes on Saturdays
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3 (8bit) – New episodes on Saturdays
YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master (Pierrot) – New episodes on Saturdays
Case Closed (Detective Conan) (TMS Entertainment) – New episodes on Saturdays
Wonderful Precure! (Toei Animation) – New episodes on Saturdays
Chibi Maruko-chan(Nippon Animation) – New episodes on Sundays
Comedy Central today announced the voice cast for its reimagined adult animated series, Everybody Still Hates Chris. Produced by CBS Studios, Chris Rock Enterprises and 3 Arts Entertainment, the new half-hour animated series inspired by Everybody Hates Chris will premiere on the network later this year.
“I’m very excited to introduce the world to another funny side of my childhood,” said star and executive producer Chris Rock.
Everybody Still Hates Chris will again feature Chris Rock (Rustin, Fargo) as Adult Chris, narrating stories inspired by his experience growing up as a skinny nerd in a large working-class family in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, during the late 1980s. Terry Crews (America’s Got Talent) will voice Julius, Chris’s father who is a gentle giant with a relentless work ethic, and cheap. Julius grew up dirt poor, so he knows the cost of everything down to the penny; he works two jobs to support the family, and on his days off, he takes on a third job. Tichina Arnold (The Neighborhood) will voice Rochelle, Chris’s mother who is smart, strong-willed and has a nurturing spirit, but she can also be hot-headed, especially when it comes to her kids. She tolerates zero nonsense, so she quits more jobs in a month than most people do in a lifetime.
Joining these original series stars for the animated revamp, Tim Johnson Jr. (Saturdays) will voice Young Chris, a nerd who wants to be cool — but he’s outshined by his younger brother, tortured by his little sister, and foiled by his cheapskate dad; Ozioma Akagha (DELILAH) will voice Tonya, Chris’s feisty baby sister, with the face of an angel and the heart of a demon, who gets along with her middle brother, Drew, but leaps at any chance to get Chris in trouble; Terrence Little Gardenhigh (Danger Force) will voice Drew, the golden child of the family who is the epitome of Black Excellence: handsome, athletic, a ladies man, taller and cooler than his older brother, Chris; and Gunnar Sizemore (Kung Fu Panda) will voice Greg, Chris’s only friend at school who is girl-obsessed, status-conscious and raised by a single dad.
“I wanted this job to get free tickets to a Chris Rock stand up show, but we ended up making something we’re proud of that is true to the original series we all loved,” said Sanjay Shah, series showrunner and executive producer.
Everybody Hates Chris, Rock’s autobiographical, critically-acclaimed family series, ran for four seasons on UPN then the CW from 2005–2009. The series won a NAACP Image Award for its writing in 2007 and was also nominated for a Golden Globe and several Emmy Awards. All four seasons of the original series are available to stream on Paramount+.
Everybody Still Hates Chris is produced by CBS’ Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios’ animation arm. Alongside Rock of Chris Rock Enterprises, showrunner Shah (Central Park); Ali LeRoi; and Michael Rotenberg and Dave Becky of 3 Arts Entertainment will executive produce. Titmouse (Big Mouth) serves as the animation studio for the series with Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio and Ben Kalina serving as executive producers.
Entertainment management and production company The Gotham Group and Gobelins Paris, France’s top animation school, announce a strategic partnership designed to drive innovation and cultivate talent in the world of animated entertainment.
This collaboration combines the partners’ expertise and resources to create a unique platform through which to nurture aspiring artists, storytellers and creators. The partnership aims to foster creativity, knowledge exchange and innovative collaborations, providing unparalleled opportunities for students, professionals, and the entertainment community.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Gobelins Paris,” said Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Founder & CEO of The Gotham Group . “This is an opportunity to mentor and support the next generation of creative visionaries. We believe in the power of storytelling and fostering diverse voices and perspectives in the entertainment industry and have been consistently impressed by the caliber of artistry coming out of Gobelins.”
“This partnership with Gotham Group opens up extraordinary possibilities for our students and alumni,” said John Coven, Director of the Department of Animated Film at Gobelins. “By working together, we can bridge the gap between education and industry, providing unparalleled opportunity and growth. We look forward to cultivating a vibrant community of storytellers who will shape the future of entertainment.”
Gotham Group CEO Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Gobelins Director of the Department of Animated Film John Coven (Photos: Stella Kalinina, Gobelins)
The Gotham Group, known for discovering and developing the exceptional animation creatives (including Big City Greens creators Chris & Shane Houghton, Loud House exec producer Mike Rubiner and Thelma the Unicorn director Lynn Wang), has produced content across film, television, animation and digital media, with recent examples such as WondLa, Creature Comforts U.S.A. and Wendell & Wild. By partnering with Gobelins Paris, the company aims to expand its creative footprint and lean further into this fresh pool of emerging European talent.
Gobelins Paris boasts an extensive alumni network comprising industry leaders and pioneers. The school’s commitment to innovation and artistic exploration aligns with The Gotham Group’s vision, making this partnership a natural for both organizations. With this collaboration, Gobelins Paris can provide its students with invaluable industry exposure and enhance their professional prospects.
Together, the partners will embark on various initiatives, including workshops, seminars, mentorship programs, and co-development opportunities. These programs will enable students to engage with industry professionals, gain insights into the creative process, and develop crucial skills needed for success in the competitive entertainment landscape.
The collaboration will foster cross-cultural exchange, facilitating the exploration of different perspectives and storytelling techniques. By combining the strengths of American and French entertainment industries, the collaboration will create content that resonates with global audiences and pushes the boundaries of artistic expression.
How do you green your story without greenwashing? How do you make the story relatable without depressing a young audience? I believe it is all about “levels” combined with the kind of story you want to tell. The good news is that some elements of climate change will actually make your story better and more relatable.
We all know any story can be told in animation an adult comedy series, a family feature, or a preschool show. It’s also equally true that any story can have climate change awareness; it just depends on how much. And at this point, I hope your story has some elements of climate challenges because we are all counting on all of us to project a better future for the planet. Would it hurt the story or make the story more relatable? We know that even Barbie hit a few climate notes last year, and I think people appreciated that awareness — especially from a plastic doll. Here are some ideas that might be worth considering — from minor tweaks to really big changes for an animated big deep green think.
Don’t mention it (climate change, that is). Not at all. But you could consider how your world looks. If the setting is naturalistic, does the front lawn have to be mown to perfection? This is just one example in the holdover of a classic suburban America — the stereotypical dream of a big green front lawn. Perhaps it is a forced construct that might be better served left behind in a world where drought is commonplace. I know many Californians are moving to a desert type front areas as water scarcity is real. Are there other design considerations that might make the show more relatable even without discussion — EV parking, veg garden in the playground, parents biking to work etc. etc.. A show with a two-way bike lane just as part of the commute — many European cities have them. The wonderful PBS series, Molly of Denali, does this well: Solar panels are just on the roofs of homes because that is the way it is in Alaska now — no one talks about it.
Barbie style. Just a brief reference. It could be a short conversation between the characters about a relatable topic. But take it beyond plastic recycling. Many kids are even now aware that recycling may not be the wonderful solution it was once thought to be. Shows used to go out of date because of changing technology; now perhaps, they will date if we do not project a future that children expect adults to be creating for them. Have the conversations with children themselves. There are also environmental groups (Good Energy Stories and others) about how to add conversations about issues that children are facing. It does not have to be preachy — it can be real. There was a time when dating was not allowed in the kid’s content world — we need now to move into this new area. I would also say it needs to be done fast. This addition may now also be the key to future proofing content. At least for a while.
Just one green story. Is there one episode you could include in your series that might engage with some issues that are being discussed by children today? It needs to be done in a hopeful appropriate way of course — there’s enough “doomism” right now to give us all eco-anxiety! If it is done in a hopeful and authentic way this again may be the key to making a story relatable. Perhaps a character has eco-anxiety and comments on plastic use at the most inappropriate times. (I easily relate to that!) Or he only shops at thrift stores because consumerism has him down? Again, being conscious of the age of your audience but you do not have to look far to find this topic in our everyday world. There are many young activists committed to a greener future. They are relatable, aspirational and provide hope.
Be like Jane. It’s true that Apple TV+’s award-winning show Jane has a whole environmental message as do Future Chicken (YouTube, Roblox) and Octonauts: Above & Beyond (Netflix). Does your concept find a way to tell amazing stories and change the world? Let me encourage you this direction because we need all the amazing diverse and unique stories now to help us stay activated and giving us hope. Please be like Jane.
The Don’t Look Up level. Is there a story so out of the box, so revolutionary that can barely imagine it? Is it so hard to believe that while we hold hardware in our hands that we are water. We are nature. Plants are just waiting for us to die and be compost. Just saying. Can we learn from nature. Can we project a world that is so radically different from the one we have today?
There are options. In this time of upheaval, I believe we still must find stories that make us laugh and show us how wonderful our future looks.
Mary Bredin is an acclaimed kids & family content producer, development consultant and climate activist. She has worked at TeamTo, Guru Studio, Disney, Nelvana, Viasat and Canal+ over the past two decades and her credits include Jade Armor, True and the Rainbow Kingdom and Pikwik Pack.
The 23nd annual Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, announced the winners in its competition categories at an awards ceremony at Racket NYC. Winners of the Audience Award will be announced at a later date.
Taking home the award for Best Animated Short in the Shorts Competition is In the Shadow of the Cypress (Iran), directed and produced by Barfak Studio founders Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi. Originally titled Dar Saaye Sarv, the 2D piece centers on a former captain who struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder while trying to be a caring father to his daughter. (Watch the trailer here.)
Jury statement: “For using a distinctive visual style, unique imagery and exceptional sound design to bring to life a poignant family relationship, characterized by love and protection amidst an effective portrayal of the profound impact of PTSD on both the individual and those around them.”
Budō
A Special Jury Mention went to Budō (Sweden), directed by Amanda Aagard and Alexander Toma, which made its International Premiere at the fest. The anime-inspired stop-motion comedy unfolds as a lonely widow finds comfort in the company of a stray cat, who quickly takes over her life in unimaginable ways. (Trailer)
Jury statement: “With appreciation for its quirky and humorous narrative and capturing viewers with its remarkably intricate manner of portraying its characters and surroundings.”
The World Festival of Animated Film – Animafest Zagreb 2024 also recently concluded, announced the prize winners at a ceremony held in the SC Cinema.
The Short Film Grand Prix went to The Miracle (Belgium/Netherlands/France) directed by Nienke Deutz, produced by Lunanime, Keplerfilm and Les Productions de Milou. The jury’s explanation states: This film treats an invisible subject with subtlety and nuance. It uses delicate storytelling and leaves us with hope.
Additional awardees in the shorts competition include:
Entropic Memory (Canada), Nicolas Brault – Golden Zagreb Award
Reborn with You (S. Korea), Inju Park – Zlatko Grgić Award for Best First Film
Aaaah!(France), Osman Cerforn (Miyu Prod.) – Jury Special Prize
Three Birds(Slovenia/Croatia), Zarje Menart (Finta Film/Adriatic Animation) – Jury Special Prize
The Bitch (Colombia/France), Carla Melo Gampert (Evidencia Films/June Films) – Jury Special Prize
Circle (S. Korea), Yumi Joung (Match Cut King.) – Jury Special Prize
Žarko, You Will Spoil the Child!, Milivoj and Veljko Popović (Prime Render Studio/Bagan Films/3D2D Animator) – Audience Award
The Grand Prix of the Feature Film competition was awarded to Sultana’s Dream (Spain/Germany) from director Isabel Herguera (Abano Producións and Fabian&Fred). The jury was unanimously won over by the film’s beautifully designed and crafted animation and its elevation of its message to a new level through its multi-layered narrative. Inspired by a feminisit sci-fi story written in Bengal in 1905, the film follows Inés on a voyage around India in search of the utopian “Ladyland.”
A special award was bestowed on the Hungarian feature Pelikan Blueby Lászlo Csáki (Umbrella Entertainment and Cinemon Entertainment). The Audience Award “Mr. M” went to Sirocco
and the Kingdom of the Windsby Benoît Chieux (produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five and Le ciel de Paris).
Additional prizes were award to:
Carrotica (Germany; Konrad Wolf Film University),Daniel Sterlin-Altman – Best Student Film
Such Miracles Do Happen (Poland; Łódź Film School), Barbara Rupik – Best Student Film Special Award
The Posthuman Hospital (U.S./S. Korea; CalArts), Junha Kim – Best Student Film Special Award
Žarko, You Will Spoil the Child!, Milivoj and Veljko Popović (Prime Render Studio/Bagan Films/3D2D Animator) – Best Croatian Film
Windows from the South, Eugen Bilankov (Academy of Fine Arts) – Best Croatian Film Special Award
Nube(Mexico/France/Hungary), Diego Alonso Sánchez de la Barquera Estrada and Christian Arredondo Narváez (Avec ou Sans Vous/Cub Animation/Les Gobelins) – Best Children & Youth Film
The Grand Mother (Poland), Julia Hazuka (Magdalena Abakanowicz, University of the Arts Poznań) – Films for Children Special Mention
On the 8th Day (France); Agatha Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavia Carin and Thé Duhautois (Pôle 3D) – Films for Youth Special Mention
Coming back stateside, Arkansas’s 10th Bentonville Film Festival — led by Festival Chair Geena Davis and dedicated to amplifying female, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and people with disabilities’ voices in entertainment — announced its winners yesterday.
In the dedicated animation competition, the Best Animated Short honor went to Slow Light (Poland/Portugal) by Katarzyna Kijek and Przemysław Adamski. Combining cut-out animation and 2D, the film explores the idea of being stuck in one’s past through the story of a boy blind from birth who suddenly begins to see — but because his eyes are so dense it takes light seven years to reach the retina and his brain, meaning he can only see what happened years ago. (Trailer)
Jury Statement: A beautiful example of how film and art are champions of accessibility, Slow Lightwelcomes audiences to the complex world of its protagonist. Directors Katarzyna Kijek and Przemysław Adamski masterfully applied a unique style of animation that serves as the perfect guide for audiences to truly connect with a story rooted in the pursuit of human connection.
The category’s Honorable Mention for Creative Innovation went to Belgian director Nina Gantz for her stop-motion work Wander to Wonder.
Nicolas Deveaux’s whimsical animated series Athleticus has been featuring animals competing in athletic races since it was introduced in 2018. Produced by France’s Arte and Cube Creative and distributed worldwide by Xilam, the fourth season of the show has a special tie-in with the 2024 Summer Olympics, which will take place in Paris this summer.
“The series is an extension of the work I did for my short films 7 tonnes 2, which was about the training of an elephant on a trampoline, and 5 meters 80, which centered on a herd of diving giraffes,” Deveaux explains in a pre-Annecy interview. “Early on, my producer, Lionel Fages, wanted to turn these concepts into a series. I was hesitant at first as I knew the budgets involved for series and the costs of animating a realistic animal, but the idea persisted and I continued to enrich my menagerie year after year.”
‘I hope the series can help us empathize with wild animals and perhaps even inspire us to consider and respect the living world a little more. After all, we’re all just animals!’
— Creator Nicolas Deveaux
Once he realized that the animals could be treated as the protagonists of a series, he proposed Athleticus to Arte. “The theme of sports was already present in my short films, particularly the art of movement, and it was perfect for opening up a world of different activities for my animals,” he adds. “The universal and rich nature of the sports world is a significant asset in making this series successful.”
Deveaux says he is thrilled with the show’s connection to the Summer Games in Paris. “Athleticus is perfectly positioned to be a part of it!” he notes. “Season 4 is focused on watersports and vacations: It was delivered last summer, but Arte has held its release back to specially coincide with the Olympics. Our partner Xilam Animation holds distribution rights to the series [four seasons, a total of 120 episodes] and has also previously secured deals with leading pay and free TV broadcasters.”
One of the biggest challenges for the show creator was to get the audience to believe that the show’s animals are real. “We’re committed to achieving this at every stage, right up to the sound work, as it would just take a small misstep to break the tacit contract with the viewer,” he explains. “Another challenge was including watersports in the new season — depicting waters is a demanding and costly exercise for a realistic series. However, it was also an exhilarating challenge, and the results are superb.”
images c/o Xilam Animation
Deveaux mentions that Athleticus offered him the chance to explore various themes and visuals. “Each episode is very unique. Across all four seasons, we’ve created 120 shorts of 2’15” with Cube. I’ve enjoyed being able to steer the project toward fables that are centered around sports, of course, but also highlighting what’s happening on sidelines and the social spaces. In the fourth season, my co-writer Gregory Barnes and I had a lot of fun weaving vacation themes into the storylines. We also had the great opportunity to produce everything in Paris together, which is a luxury that is reflected in the quality of the images for sure.”
The animation for the series was produced at Cube in Paris. The production switched software for the fourth season, moving from 3ds Max to Blender. The water effects for the fourth season were produced using Houdini, with compositing via Nuke.
“I hope audiences appreciate the show’s humor and certain form of poetry — and that in some way, they can identify with the ostrich, the turtle or the elephant,” says Deveaux. “I also hope the series can help us empathize with wild animals and perhaps even inspire us to consider and respect the living world a little more. After all, we’re all just animals!”
The fourth season of Athleticus premiered on June 10 on French channel Arte.
Canadian producer-distributor Sphere Media announced a two-season recommission for the animated comedy-adventure series Saving Me. U.S. broadcaster BYUtv has invested in a third and fourth season of the original 2D show from Sphere Animation (formerly known as Oasis Animation). The show debuted on BYUtv’s linear channel and app in October 2022, with two 10 x 22′ seasons.
The new 10 x 20′ seasons will pick up on the adventures Bennett Bramble, a grumpy 61-year-old tech billionaire and the world’s biggest jerk, who has royally screwed up not only his own life but the entire planet. In an effort to put things right, Bennett travels back in time and teams up with 11-year-old self to figure out how to be a better person.
Seasons 3 & 4, again created by Aaron Johnston, will be completed in June 2026. The executive producers are Jeff Simpson, Andra Duke and Luke Johnston for BYUtv; along with Aaron Johnston, Kelly Loosli, Roddy McManus; and Bruno Dubé and Marlo Miazga for Sphere. The showrunner is Willem Wennekers and the head writer is Craig Martin.
Miazga was appointed head of Sphere’s Kids and Family banner in April 2023, combining with her role as president of unscripted and documentaries, enabling the departments to collaborate more closely.
“Achieving a greenlight under any circumstances is a buzz. To be able to announce three in succession across the group in today’s exceptionally challenging marketplace is a moment we’re grateful for and proud of,” said Miazga. “When we restructured our kids’, factual and animation units last year, our aim was to bring together Sphere’s creative teams to allow for a cross pollination of ideas, energy and resources. These new commissions are proof that the right corporate scaffolding not only makes business easier but can also unleash creativity. Saving Me is bust-a-gut funny but it also delivers an important message to young people: loving relationships, not power and money, are the driving engine of life.”
A year since announcing the project in development during the 2023 Annecy Festival, Singapore’s Robot Playground Media has completed the pilot episode of its adult animated horror anthology A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts, based on Ying Chang Compestine’s novel.
The studio provided Animation Magazine with the trailer appetizer for this first installment in this feast: Egg Fried Rice. Watch it below!
The anthology consists of 10 stand-alone episodes, each centered on an iconic Chinese dish and animated in different styles by indie animation studios from around the world.
Egg Fried Rice, commissioned by Singapore’s Mediacorp and produced by Robot Playground Media and Studio Climb (Malaysia) is now completed. An atmospheric period horror piece about a woman’s plot to murder her husband and stepdaughter, it draws inspiration from the works of Satoshi Kon, Guillermo del Toro and Zhang Yimou.
Robot Playground Media is in active development on the rest of the episodes alongside its partner studios (previously announced as Igloo Studio in Thailand; Something Big, Disnosc and Werlen Meyer in France; and Xanthus Animation in Taiwan; in addition to Studio Climb) while seeking presales, distribution and minority co-producers to join the project.
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Though Annecy Festival has become rather large scale and increasingly star-studded in recent years — take this year’s Wes Anderson masterclass or The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim presentation — its most engaging strand is the more intimate Works in Progress sessions hosted at the Salle Pierre Lamy, a stone’s throw away from the festival’s center at the Bonlieu. It’s hard to make it to everything as there’s a session one after another every day, beginning to end, but what we caught was fascinating. Here are some of our highlights.
Hyakuemu
The follow-up project to director Kenji Iwaisawa’s beloved anime On Gaku: Our Sound, Hyakuemu is shaping up to be a fascinating meeting between that previous film’s DIY indie routes and more conventional commercial production. Funnily enough, it was the On-Gaku artists on stage who described this production as being bigger and more commercial, while their new collaborators such as Keisuke Kojima (Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End) described it as being more indie for them. It’s somewhere in the middle.
Based on the manga of the same name by Uoto, the story focuses on two characters, Togashi and Komiya — two childhood friends and rivals passionate about the 100 meter sprint. Togashi is a naturally gifted runner, while Koyami catches up to him over the years through constant refinement of technique. Producer Akane Taketsugu from Asmik Ace says the project first started 15 years ago when a producer first took interest in adapting the material via rotoscoping, before she took over — she describes it as a story of “failure and renewal.”
A story of natural gifts colliding with gradual refinement over time feels like at-home material for Iwaisawa, considering how On-Gaku follows a group of boys starting a band despite no innate talent for playing music — circumstances that felt in sync with its “miniscule production team,” “operating out of someone’s apartment,” Iwaisawa saying, “it felt like I was making a short film, though it took seven years to complete it.” Hyakuemu, perhaps also like its subjects, feels like that instinct meeting with a larger and perhaps more refined type of production, and the session showed some interesting ways in how they met.
The film’s art director Keikankun Yamaguchi — a student in oil paints and fine arts — also worked in the same role in On-Gaku, and it seems like Hyakuemu still has her adapting on the fly. She said that she wanted to do as much of it analog as possible, “I’m not against the current trend, but I wanted to find my own style,” she elaborated. That spirit of exploration lead to some rather unique results for Yamaguchi, who noted that her lack of experience in backgrounds lead to her trying different things — at one time painting 29 different backgrounds for a shot lasting just three seconds.
Hyakuemu is currently in production, with the live-action shoot now finished, and the film due for a 2025 release.
The Upside Down River
A practically minded and rather educational session opened the week with the work in progress panel for The Upside Down River. The event may have been by-the-book, so to speak, but the series itself — eight 20-minute episodes adapting the novels by Jean-Claude Mourlevat, felt rather unique. A co-production between Dandelooo, Vivi Film and Sparkle Animation, The Upside Down River follows Hannah and Tomek, as the former seeks to cure her pet bird and the latter simply to sate his wanderlust. The series particularly scrutinized Tomek’s motivations, as they needed something “more complex than following the pretty girl,” and so complicated it by adding in a search for his long-lost mother.
The production went from initially being two 90-minute installments to a more episodic structure, and the team spoke about some of the benefits and difficulties of TV work (“less money per minute,” but also more scope for narrative, in short). Design supervisor Héléna Loudjani of Dandelooo’s Ooolala studio spoke through look development, Sleeping Beauty was cited as inspiration especially for the forest scenes, Loudjani pointing out the shared strong and dark vertical lines. Continuing into displays of the animation elaborated on the look, with 3D characters styled to look 2D, a process balanced across the collaborating studios. The series looks to be a pleasant children’s fantasy, and is currently looking for buyers, TV and international distributors.
Planets
Though it’s hard to tell how much was learned about what the final shape of the film would look like, the mad details of the Planets session made it one of the most entertaining sessions of the week. Director Momoko Seto was joined by her collaborators from Miyu Productions — Franck Malmin (director of post-production), Tanguy Olivier (director of production) and composer Nicholas Becker — to talk through the feature’s wild process. Planets is a rather allegorical concept, “themed around displacement and migration,” the two dandelion seeds “putting down new roots” as it follows two dandelion seeds on a trip through the cosmos, hoping to find somewhere new to settle.
To capture the feeling of an alien planet, Seto decided to simply look closer at the flora, fauna and textures of our own planet. An example of one of the many planets conceived was made through close ups of salt crystallization, others observations of mold or bugs filmed in macro to make them look “like Godzilla.” They also did it through the strangest plants that the team could find, and if they couldn’t find it, they simply cultivated it themselves. Seto described growing their own plants and filming them with live-action time-lapse photography, later going to Japan to find different ones. There’s even a frog (“We had a lot of problems with her agent,” Seto quips), one of many oddities amidst the terabytes of footage shot over 256 days since 2021 (“three days more than Apocalypse Now!” Seto gleefully notes). The photography is intended to combine with 3D animation as well as stop motion, and Tanguy discussed building a VFX pipeline which was a little different for Miyu, who have primarily dealt with 2D. How it’ll all work together remains to be seen, but for now, it was an extraordinarily charming event.
Housenka
From Baku Kinoshita, the director of the critically acclaimed anime series Odd Taxi, comes Housenka, an original feature film that might have been the most promising of the works-in-progress at this year’s Annecy. The story concerns Akutsu, an aging yakuza serving a life sentence in prison, reflecting on his past in conversations with the eponymous housenka (“touch-me-not”) flower that he’s grown in his solitary cell. That may sound rather somber and down to earth, but there’s a small fantastical twist in that the flower appears to talk back. Kinoshita and art director Ayumi Sato spoke often throughout the panel about their appreciation for anime made before the industry-wide switch over to digital production, and though the film Housenka is also produced digitally, much of it is made to emulate more of an analog feeling, avoiding the uniformity of filters and looking for contrast instead.
The session was hosted by Kinoshita, Sato, concept artist Michinoku Toge and CEO of studio CLAP Ryuchiro Matsuo, who explained that the film was in the middle of being drawn while the voices were already recorded, with the animation being done to fit the dialog, in the tradition of Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira. Unlike that film however, Kinoshita’s is rather quiet and downtempo, the director aiming for something more serene. “My last anime was an ensemble piece, this time I wanted something a little more stripped down, with more detailed drawings,” laying out Housenka’s mission plainly. Kinoshita handled the initial story idea as well as the character designs before handing off the scriptwriting to Kazuya Konomoto, his writer on Odd Taxi. In his descriptions of the work, Kinoshita was funny but also engaging, as he carried on to break down his design work, starting with a charming flow chart that showed the characters progressing from neat, simple shapes to fleshed out people with asymmetrical details indicating something about their personality — a lopsided fringe here, a scar there. As well as character design Kinoshita handled a lot of the storyboards himself. drawing them in as much detail as possible so to preserve his intent: deliberate rhythms of stillness, movement, stillness again.
Since the flashbacks take place in the ’80s, Kinoshita and Toge started with what they called a nostalgic approach with lighted, faded colors but decided that they wanted to show the period through the characters’ eyes, make it feel current through a more vivid, deeper palette. As well as referring back to ’80s anime, they considered how the spaces were shaped by the character’s mindset, explaining Akutsu’s minimalist taste changing the usual clutter of domestic spaces. That expanded to the sound design, which focused in on natural sounds and ambience instead of a constant musical score. That quiet and introspective atmosphere is what makes Housenka so exciting, especially with it being an original story — those two elements immediately making it stand out from the crowd of anime features.
Kambole Campbell is a freelance writer and critic based in London, whose work has appeared in Empire Magazine, Sight & Sound, The Independent, The Guardian and Polygon.
This Sunday, June 23, Animation Magazine invites you to enter the fantastical animated world of Studio Ponoc’s The Imaginary with a special free screening event, presented with Netflix as the studio’s Tudum Theater in Los Angeles.
Based on the book by A.F. Harrold, the 2D-animated feature centers on Rudger, an imaginary friend who finds himself suddenly separated from Amanda, the girl who created him. Cast away in a land of forgotten Imaginaries, Rudger confronts a mysterious threat in his quest to rejoin his other human half.
The advanced screening will include a reception and Q&A with writer-producer Yoshiaki Nishimura (Modest Heroes, Mary and the Witch’s Flower; Oscar nominated for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There). The discussion will be moderated by animation critic and historian Charles Solomon.
The Imaginary is directed by Yoshiyuki Momose (Modest Heroes – Life Ain’t Gonna Lose, Tomorrow’s Leaves), with an English-language voice cast featuring Louie Rudge-Buchanan as Rudger, Evie Kiszel as Amanda, Hayley Atwell, Sky Katz, Jeremy Swift, Kal Penn, LeVar Burton, Jane Singer, Ruby Barnhill, Roger Craig Smith, Courtenay Taylor and Miles Nibbe.
The film makes its Netflix global streaming premiere on July 5.
Animation Magazine presents an advance screening of The Imaginary + Reception and Q&A with Yoshiaki Nishimura
Sunday, June 23 | 11 a.m. Netflix’s Tudum Theater 1341 Vine Street, Los Angeles, 90028
Independent kids’ content creation company Epic Storyworlds — founded by children’s entertainment executives Steve Couture and Ken Faier and a sister company to Faier’s Epic Story Media — announces the arrival of Chantal Cloutier as its new Executive Producer and Brand Director, ahead of its presence at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
“I am delighted to join another innovative Quebec company” said Cloutier. “The vision of Ken Faier and Steve Couture regarding project management and fan engagement is unique and groundbreaking. The genuine ability to leverage brands at Epic Storyworlds is extraordinary, and I am excited to be part of this adventure.”
Cloutier will oversee the 360-degree strategy of all business lines on each project under her purview, and will take charge of the development of international productions and co-productions for all ofEpic’s original projects. The new EP will draw on her wealth of industry experience and contribute valuable expertise as the company continues its international expansion.
“Chantal’s arrival marks an important turning point in our international deployment strategy,” Couture said. “We needed to bolster our ability to initiate projects and bring them to the screen across our multiple business lines, and Chantal will be a major asset to our projects’ success. Her experience in the gaming industry has given her an understanding that goes beyond the audiovisual sphere, and we’re thrilled to be able to count on Chantal’s commitment to our growth and to our Quebec structure.”
Before joining Epic Storyworlds, Cloutier held the position of Executive Producer & Director of Original Productions at Squeeze Studio, where she oversaw the Cracké brand, among others. Prior to this, she also worked at video game company Ubisoft.
Cloutier, Faier and Couture will be returning to Annecy to participate in various panels and present a portfolio of new projects, as they look to forge strategic partnerships with international producers and buyers.
Epic Storyworlds is a Quebec-based company that develops, produces and operates a catalog of children’s content with a 360-degree approach, covering animated series, video games and toys, targeting an audience aged three to 12. The company has established an animation studio (Loomi Animation) and a Roblox experience studio (Freeground).
As the Annecy Festival has grown in scale so has the lavishness of the presentations, with so many streamers taking to the Bonlieu’s biggest stage to show off their entire slate of upcoming animation work. This year, Warner Bros. seemed to have one of the farthest-reaching lineup (even as their commissioning and general support of animation on Max has cratered, not long ago deleting entire shows). Here are the highlights of what we saw from Warner Bros. Animation’s Annecy line-up.
‘LOTR: War of the Rohirrim” opens on Dec. 13 (Warner Bros. Animation).
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
By far the highest profile presentation on the slate — perhaps throughout the festival — was the new look at Kenji Kamiyama’s anime feature film Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. The panel itself — featuring Kamiyama, producers Joseph Chou, Jason DeMarco and Phillipa Boyens and moderated by Andy Serkis (who, along with Peter Jackson, has since been confirmed to be an executive producer) — circled a lot of the same talking points as the presentation from the 2023 Annecy presentation.
The team as a whole underlined both how Lord of the Rings was a perfect fit for anime, but also the idiosyncrasies of the project – “we didn’t want to make an animated Peter Jackson film, we wanted a Kenji Kamiyama film,” says DeMarco.This time the team had some (somewhat rough) footage to show, with 20 minutes from what seems to be the opening of the film. The clip, with opening narration from Éowyn (Miranda Otto, reprising her role from the live action film trilogy), talks of a figure that means something to her own character arc, Hera, daughter of Helm Hammerhand, the King of Rohan. “Don’t look for her in the old tales,” the character warns with some familiar melancholy around Middle Earth’s patriarchal warrior culture.
The footage was dotted with familiar in-world texts such as an old Rohan poem being performed as a tavern song, or Hera recounting the same story of shieldmaidens that Éowyn would also tell later. The imagery itself, perhaps simply due to it being unfinished, could be a little awkward: such as its incorporation of 3D environments that felt separated from the characters or some repetitive and stiff acting in scenes of quieter drama and courtroom tension — though a fight later in the scene showed a lot more polish and precision. But engaging voice performances, particularly from Brian Cox as Helm, felt captivating, with the right kind of sincere high fantasy speak that turned a little Shakespearean with Cox’s line readings. After political negotiations collapse thanks to Helm killing Freca, a rival house member, with a single punch (something you can find in Tolkien’s appendices), a sizzle reel teased events to come after the banishment of Freca’s son, Wulf: large scale horse battles, villages burning, general chaos befitting a political tale about a nation of warriors.
Created by Ben Bocquelet, ‘The Amazing World of Gumball’ first premieres on Cartoon Network in May of 2011.
The Amazing World of Gumball
In the festival’s Making Of strand, typically hosted out of the Bonlieu’s Petite Salle rather than the Grande, the more intimate setting for The Amazing World of Gumball preview session didn’t belie a more contained tone. If anything it was one of the funniest and most raucous presentations of the week, befitting the series’ chaotic tone and visual construction.
It opened, of course, with a little catchup video on what the crew had been doing since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown; the video itself consisted of screaming and warping faces interspersed throughout apocalyptic news blasts, though ended with the title card: “… but we survived.” The panel consisted of executive producers and showrunners Ben Bocquelet and Matthew Layzell, series producer Emma Fernando, the show’s new composer Xav Clarke, and the SVP of Series at Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe, Sarah Fell. Together they ran through each component of the new series, explaining their methods and ethos along the way. First the team talked through their sitcom-inspired writing, where Gumball’s specialty is taking mundane plots from the creators’ lives and finding the absurd in them, with a writers room populated with talent found from places like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
The used example was “The Burger”, the main episode shown off at the panel and one based on Bocquelet and Layzell’s experiences with trying to eat healthy. Layzell continued into a hilarious run-through of the storyboards, where he did the voices (and SFX!) for each cut, as the scene of Gumball and Darwin trying to turn down a burger escalates into an actual car crash.
The plot of the episode follows the two as they try to source ethical food, and find that there are no good options, in part because everything in their area goes back to a billionaire called Mr Bilderburger. The design segment of the panel showed that Bilderburger went from resembling the Monopoly man, to a caricature of Elon Musk’s face on a burger bun, to being a literal burger, made to look like a hand puppet (thanks to a 3D model from French studio Bobbypills).
This lead into another key component of the session as a whole. “Gumball uses a lot of different styles and methods and it’s a ball-ache to put all together,” said Bocquelet. The team ran through their layout stages and toying with the timing of visual gags and blocking composition, before going into how they built backgrounds with CG and creating depth through different elements in the foreground and background. Following a clip of some rough animation, Xav Clarke stepped forward to discuss his part: the music. Taking over from Ben Locket (who once “had to set a violin on fire to get the right sound”), Clarke spoke on how the music compliments the shows madness, either accentuating the outrageous gags or bringing the show back down to earth. It eventually lead into a little song performance from the whole panel as a sort of apology for not having more material to show than what they had, itself a funny encapsulation of the whimsical and anarchic spirit of Gumball. And yes, they’re still working on the movie (this was the first thing asked in the audience Q&A).
Creature Commandos (DC Studios)
Creature Commandos
The profile of French animation house Bobbypills has accelerated in recent years — now to the point that they are producing “the vanguard” of DC Studios’ entire new narrative universe with Creature Commandos, the first project to be released under the studio’s new directive under James Gunn. The presentation had something of an ominous start however, in the form of a long and arduous message from Gunn himself, which gradually transformed from a harmless audience greeting into a wearying speech full of corporate buzzwords, which began to beg the question: can Bobbypills’ idiosyncacies thrive while catering to the requirements of a ‘cinematic universe’? Thankfully the rest of the presentation assuaged those fears. While light on finished animation, the designs shown off by producer Rick Morales of Warner Brothers Animation and creative director Yves “Balak” Bigerel of French animation studio Bobbypills, looked very promising.
Perhaps Gunn’s video should have focused more on his brief that he sent to the two, which they showed on screen — speaking about the tone of Creature Commandos and its aesthetic routes — citing Golgo 13, classic Universal horror films and 1960s war movies for visual reference. Morales elaborated on who the Commandos were in the comics, a macabre spin on military action film ensembles like The Dirty Dozen or The A Team.
The designs themselves were wonderful, in some cases a blend of ’80s comic book vividness and murkier, Mike Mignola-adjacent pulpiness, along with Bobbypills’ pet visual interests. Morales and Balak explained that the designs began while the scripts were still being written, the two teams influencing each other’s work. The voice performers themselves had an impact on the design work — the two cited the early line readings of Stranger Things star David Harbour on his character Frankenstein changing the look from “mono-expressive” to something more complex, also resulting in a slightly softer silhouette befitting the character’s temperament.
Bobbypills and Warner Bros. Animation both had their own iterations of every character, taking different swings on the eclectic group. One such character, The Bride (Balak claims she’s his favorite), cycled through an incredible range of interpretations, from what they called “Italo Pulp” to a more punkish look to the more streamlined but vivid result. GI Robot, a bot who only exists to kill Nazis (and does so with a smile, according to the team), went through some amusing tests — one resembling a trash can and another more of a boxy, ’50s sci-fi robot before landing on the friendlier, wide-eyed result. Dr Phosphorus (was also a fascinating, challenging character — requiring a number of VFX tests due to his flaming skin, the team incorporating Jack Kirby’s ‘Kirby Krackle’ effect while considering how he would work in other mediums.
This is where the apparent limitations of the work crept in. Some of the designs — character and location alike, had to look like live-action counterparts. Of the backgrounds that they showed, a more expressive take on DC’s Belle Reve facility, bathed in spooky green light on a hill, was substituted for a plainer, more synergetic version that appeared like it does in the movies, a decidedly less interesting change. But thankfully in the other locations core to the show, there was more freedom to play — the “failed fairytale city” of Poko Castle and the dingy environs of Frankenstein’s Lab had more distinct ideas behind them.
Balak spoke of utilizing CG to help with the more complex environments, and later in the layout stage to test composition, spacing and timing, but switching to 2D when CG became “a pain in the ass” and less expressive than 2D. A rough scene with a fight between Dr. Phosphorus and Rick Flag Sr. did well to offset my concerns about the show’s position in this “unified” DC slate — the sequence looks to be both playful and exciting, while Morales and Balak also highlighted that they wanted a lot of downtime to explore the characters, rather than just knock them together like action figures. Hopefully their wants will be what define Creature Commandos more than the requirements of it to work within a bigger plan, especially in a story about misfits.
Kambole Campbell is a freelance writer and critic based in London, whose work has appeared in Empire Magazine, Sight & Sound, The Independent, The Guardian and Polygon.
We’re sure the dominant emotion felt by everyone at Disney and Pixar is pure JOY this weekend. As many box-office observers had predicted, Pixar’s well-reviewed sequel Inside Out 2 is having a fantastic, record-breaking opening weekend. Directed by Kelsey Mann, the movie is enjoying a $295 million at the global box office, which includes a smashing $62 million Stateside (much better than the early $45 million predictions). The numbers include $71.1 million from 30 international territories, and that score doesn’t even include the box office for countries such as France, Italy, Spain and China and Brazil, where the movie doesn’t open until next week.
According to Box Office Mojo, this positions Inside Out 2 as the record-holder for the biggest animation opening of all-time, beating last year’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, which had a $146.4 million three-day opening weekend (April 5, 2023). The Pixar pic also surpassed Disney’s Frozen 2’s $135.4 million biggest international opening of all time. That’s not all! The movie also had the biggest overseas and worldwide opening of 2024.
Fandango also confirmed that the movie is its biggest opening weekend ticket seller of 2024 on the service, having already made the audience survey list of the year’s most anticipated movies.
Directed by first-time helmer Kelsey Mann, produced by Mark Nielsen and exec produced by Pixar chief Pete Docter, Jonas Rivera and Dan Scanlon, the movie explores what happens to Riley (Kensington Tallman) when she experiences puberty and a whole new set of emotions, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser).
The movie received mostly good reviews from critics around the country. On Sunday, Pixar’s 28th movie was shining with a 92% score on the critic consensus site Rotten Tomatoes. You can read out behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie here.
The massively popular 2024 edition of the Annecy Intl Festival of Animation came to its exciting conclusion on Saturday with the announcement of the winners of this year’s Cristal prizes. Adam Elliot‘s audience-pleasing stop-motion feature Memoir of a Snail was the winner of the 2024 Cristal for Best Animated Feature, while Alexandra Ramires and Laura Gonçalves’s Percebese was the winner of the top prize in the shorts category.
Adam Elliot’s latest stop-motion feature Memoir of a Snail centers on a melancholic woman (voiced by Sarah Snook), who is a hoarder of snails, romance novels and guinea pigs. Elliot, who won the Oscar for his 2003 short Harvie Krumpet and also directed the acclaimed 2009 feature Mary and Max, received a lot of love from the Annecy audience this year, and is bound to find award season success later this year, as IFC Films, has already picked up the N. American distribution rights for the movie.
Among the other films receiving love from both the audience and the juries at Annecy was Gints Zilbalodis’ CG-animated feature Flow, which was the winner of the jury award, audience award, Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, and best original music for a feature film. Gints, who directed the much-praised indie movie Away, dazzled the Annecy audiences with this wordless CG-animated feature about the adventures of a cat and his animal friends in a (post-apocalytic?) world without humans. The movie, which was made for about $4.1 million, has already been picked up Sideshow and Janus Films.
Percebese, Laura Gonçalves and Alexandra Ramires’ fluidly animated short about the life cycle of a goose barnacle was the winner of the Cristal for Best Animated Short. Only two years ago, Goncalves’s previous short The Garbage Man was also nominated for a Cristal at Annecy and won the top award at Zagreb.
According to festival organizers, over 17,400 accredited attendees from 103 countries were at Annecy this year. That’s about a 10% increase from last year’s attendance of 15,820. The next edition of Annecy will take place June 8-14, 2024, and Hungary is designated as the the country of honor
Here is the complete list of the 2024 Annecy prize-winners:
Cristal for a Feature Film:Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot, Australia)
Gan Foundation Award for Distribution:Flow (Gints Zilbalodis; Latvia, Belgium, France)
Paul Grimault Award:Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window (Shnnosuke Yakuwa, Japan)
Contrechamp Features
Grand Prix: Sultana’s Dream (Islabel Herguera, Spain/Germany)
Jury Prize: Living Large (Kristina Dufková, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France)
Short Films
Cristal Prize: Percebes (Alexandra Ramires, Laura Gonçalves, Portugal, France)
Jury Prize:The Car That Came Back from the Sea Jadwiga Kowalska, Switzerland)
Audience Award:Hurikán (Jan Saska, Czech Republic, France, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Off-Limits Award:Glass House (Boris Labbé, France)
Alexeieff-Parker Award:Beautiful Men Nicolas Keppens, Belgium, France, Netherlands)
Jean-Luc Xiberras Award for a First Film:[S] (Mario Radev, U.K.)
TV Awards
Cristal for a TV Production:The Drifting Guitar (Sophie Roze, France, Switzerland)
Jury Award for a TV Series:My Life in Versailles “Versailles Ghost” (Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat, Nathaniel H’limi, France, Luxembourg)
Jury Award for a TV Special:Lola et le Piano à bruits (Augusto Zanovello, France, Poland, Switzerland)
Audience Award:The Drifting Guitar (Sophie Roze, France, Switzerland)
Commissioned Films
Cristal Prize:Pictoplasma (Will Anderson, U.K.)
Jury Award for a Commissioned Film: TED-Ed ‘How Did South African Apartheid Happen, and How Did It Finally End?” (Aya Marzouk, U.S., South Africa, Egypt)
The first known Portuguese animation film was released on January 25, 1923. The Nightmare of António Maria, a short animated by Joaquim Guerreiro, was a simple black pencil-drawn satire of Portuguese Prime Minister António Maria da Silva.
Fittingly, just over a century later, Portuguese animation is getting the spotlight at this year’s Annecy International Animation Festival. This might have seemed inconceivable at the end of the 20th century, but during the last few decades Portuguese animation has developed and grown enormously, led by the acclaimed voices of Abi Feijó (The Outlaws), Regina Pessoa (Tragic Story with Happy Ending), Pedro Serrazina (Tale About the Cat and the Moon), Laura Gonçalves (The Garbage Man), Alexandra Ramires (Tie), David Doutel and Vasco Sá (Garrano), José Miguel Ribeiro (Nayola) and 2023 Oscar nominee João Gonzalez (Ice Merchants).
Planting the Seeds
Between the 1920s and 1970s, there were a smattering of films and animators, but there was no real sense of an animation community. By the 1970s, the generation that started in the 1940s and included Tope Filmes (Artur Correia and Ricardo Neto), Optical Print (Mário Neves, and later his son, Mário Jorge) and Servais Tiago were primarily doing poor Disney impersonations.
Nevertheless, these pioneers planted the seeds of animation in Portugal and were strong supporters of the first animation festival in the country, Cinanima. The festival, in turn, generated interest in animation as an art form and paved the way for what would become an internationally acclaimed studio, Filmógrafo.
And indeed, one of the key figures in the growth of Portuguese animation during the last few decades is undeniably animator and producer Abi Feijó.
The Outlaws
Birth of Cinanima
Cinanima was founded in 1977. As with many festivals and organizations, the festival emerged because of an informal but passionate group of cinephiles. The emergence of Cinanima energized many, including the then-young art student Feijó. He went to every film screening at the first Cinanima and was surprised to discover that animation could be more than just gags. He was instantly addicted.
Since there were no animation schools or classes in Portugal at the time, the only way to learn about animation was through workshops. During the second Cinanima festival, there was an animation workshop led by Gaston Roch and Le Collodium Humide (from Avignon, France). Feijó signed up and, in these workshops, learned the basics of cinema and animation. In 1984, he was accepted for a five-month training program at the National Film Board of Canada. Under the direction of Canadian animator Pierre Hébert, Feijó made his first film, Oh Que Calma (1985).
When Feijó returned to Portugal in 1985, little had changed. There were still no opportunities to study animation, let alone find a job. But the lack of production did not stop Feijó: “When I got back to Portugal, I gathered some friends I knew who were also interested in animation, and we tried to arrange the minimum conditions to do it.” In 1987, he started the studio Filmógrafo.
Abi Feijo
Regina Pessao
João Gonzalez
Meanwhile, Feijó and colleagues continued to organize animation workshops. These workshops were essential to the growth of animation in Portugal, and they also enabled Feijó and his colleagues to gain valuable teaching experience so they could share their knowledge with younger people and stimulate an interest in animation.
Before joining the E.U. in 1986, there had been no funding for short films of any kind. That all changed when money became available from such E.U. initiatives as the Cartoon Program. In response, the Portuguese Film Institute also started to finance short films, including animated ones. “I was lucky to be one of the first to be financed by The Outlaws,” says Feijó. “The success this film earned proved we could do important work, and so animation started to be financed separately on a specific call. During the entire 1990s, there was a constant increase in the money invested in short animation films, and at the end of the millennium we had a very good ‘crop’ of films.”
After completing The Outlaws, Filmógrafo started an international training co-production program with a French studio, Lazennec Bretagne. The program provided six Portuguese and six French students with nine months of training. The students then paired up and produced a film. Three of the workshop’s students were Pedro Serrazina, Regina Pessoa and José Miguel Ribeiro (who made his acclaimed film The Suspect after the training).
Tale About the Cat and the Moon
Pedro Serrazina started at Filmógrafo during this training program. He was given some training on the rostrum camera and, in turn, shot virtually all of The Outlaws and worked as a cameraman on other productions. In 1996, he made his first film, Tale About the Cat and the Moon.
“We were just extremely happy that we could make our living doing animation,” says Serrazina. “This was a luxury, especially for me, who was coming from architecture and not really happy at the time and looking for something new. It was the start. The Outlaws was the opening of this idea that we could do short films, and then when Cat was selected for Cannes, it made people aware that we could do this and that it was viable.”
Regina Pessoa arrived around the same time as Serrazina, and she also contributed to The Outlaws, creating some drawings and most of the animation of the police inspector character. She then joined the Lazennec-Filmógrafo training and, during the workshops, developed the idea for her film, The Night.
ph. c/o Animafest
‘We really wanted to express personal stories and bring our respective backgrounds together. We were just extremely happy that we could make our living doing animation.’
— Pedro Serrazina
Pessoa remembers the moment when the animation bug bit her. She’d just completed some in-between drawings for two main characters from The Outlaws. When she finished, she gave the drawings to Feijó. “He closed himself in the little dark windowless room where the camera was and eventually emerged with a strip of still-damp 16mm film,” recalls Pessoa. “Placing it on a projector that was in a corner of the room very close to the wall. Then, wonder, magic and astonishment! The laughing characters I had drawn appeared in a square of light on the wall, alive and forever laughing! And I could have stayed there watching forever, too.”
From there, the Portuguese animation community slowly started to grow and flourish. “One of the major influences was the introduction of animation courses at a few schools,” says Feijó.
“We didn’t have universities or places to learn,” adds Serrazina. “We learned on the spot, which was actually great. This idea of editing and working with the material was important to all of us because we all came from other areas. There was a need to share stories through the medium of animation. After that, universities and courses appeared, along with more festivals. There was really that possibility of doing this as a job.”
The Garbage Man
The increase in interest led to the birth of more animation studios. Says Feijó, “In 2000, there were three main studios: Filmógrafo, Zeppelin and Animanostra. But today there are many more, including: Ciclope, Filmes da Praça, Bando à Parte/BaP, Sardinha em Lata, Cola, Animais, AIM…”
“I entered as an intern in a studio and after got invited to stay and work professionally on other films,” says Laura Gonçalves, one of the co-founders of the BAP Animation Studio, whose film The Garbage Man took the Grand Prize at the 2022 Animafest Zagreb. “Now that there are more studios run by the younger generation, this also helps to develop the skills of those who graduate. But it is still very hard in Portugal to make a living from animation work if you don’t also do commercial jobs. We get to do it at BAP; we have survived working on authorial films only, but in a very specific environment, because we were able to create stability within our own group of people based on the financial support of the films.”
The landscape has also changed in terms of formats. Until the 21st century, animated short films were the primary vehicle of expression, but that has changed according to Serrazina: “I think the young animators want to do other things besides short films, from games to online content, etc., so the perspective has changed.”
Ice Merchants
Winds of Change
And that shifting perspective also is reflected in mindsets and backgrounds. Before, say, the 1990s, there weren’t a heck of a lot of animation schools. That changed in the late 1990s, and there’s been this explosion in schools and new talents. That has affected animation in a different and unexpected way. Many animators before that time (and we can go back in animation history and list endless examples) were self-taught and often came from totally different backgrounds. Most had not dreamed of being animators.
“I think that the most fun and interesting thing about animation is the background of the artists,” adds Gonçalves. “Many have come from diverse backgrounds (sciences, painting, cinema, sculpture, photography, music, etc.). This richness of diverse points of view and ways of making films brings something else to the films that the school that specializes in animation doesn’t always have, in my opinion.”
‘I think that the most fun and interesting thing about animation is the diverse background of the artists.’
— Laura Gonçalves
Serrazina also feels there’s been a change in mindset since he began in animation. “In the past, you had me coming from architecture and Regina and José Miguel coming from fine arts. We were really the first three. We really wanted to express personal stories and bring our respective backgrounds together. These days, they go straight into animation, and I feel there is sometimes a different approach in which animation is a visual medium they want to explore and use as a career. Not many of them come with a firm intention of expressing themselves. They learn how to bring movement to things. We wanted to bring stories and our past experiences into animation. It doesn’t mean it’s better or worse; it’s just different. It’s very healthy.”
“Animation was the first place I felt good,” says Pessoa. “It was also getting to know Abi and this strong community spirit from the studio. It was so different from the experience from fine arts school, where I felt teachers’ sterile coldness and where a certain cruel and elitist rivalry was cultivated. In the studio, we were all nice, harmless misfits.”
Portugal’s animated past, present and future are celebrated over seven programs (curated by Monstra’s director, Fernando Galrito) during Annecy Festival 2024.
Chris Robinson is a writer and artistic director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF). Robinson has authored thirteen books including Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy: A Story of Estonian Animation (2006), Ballad of a Thin Man: In Search of Ryan Larkin (2008), and Japanese Animation: Time Out of Mind (2010). He also wrote the screenplay for the award-winning short, Lipsett Diaries.
Fan-favorite animated kids’ & family series My Dad the Bounty Hunter will not be returning for a third season on Netflix, despite the show’s 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and solid viewership numbers. Series creator Everett Downing Jr. (Hair Love) confirmed to WhatsOnNetflix.com that the streamer has opted not to order a third season.
He wrote in an email to the website:
“I feel extremely fortunate to have been able to work with such an incredible team of partners and artists. It’s so unreal watching your ideas come to life! Everyone who worked on the show fell in love with Terry, Tess, Lisa, Sean and the entire cast of quirky, wild and crazy characters. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to revisit this world again someday. For now, these characters and stories will be living rent-free in my heart for the rest of my life.”
Created and executive produced by Everett Downing Jr. (Oscar-winning Hair Love) and Patrick Harpin (story artist on Hotel Transylvania2 & 3), My Dad the Bounty Hunter follows the adventures of a close-knit family after siblings Lisa (voiced by Priah Ferguson) and Sean (JeCobi Swain) stow away on their dad’s (Laz Alonso) “work trip” and discover he is actually the galaxy’s toughest bounty hunter. Once mom (Yvonne Orji) catches on, the family join forces to take down alien interstellar fugitives.
Season 1 premiered in February 2023, followed swiftly by Season 2 in August of the same year. The show won praise from critics for its portrayal of Black family life and treatment of social issues as well as its relatable stories and characters. S2 made the Netflix global TV top 10 shortly after its premiere with 7.3 million hours watched (1.7M views); according to FlixPatrol, My Dad the Bounty Hunter hit top 10 lists in more than 60 countries and ranked as the 25th most popular kids’ show of the year. Netflix’s 2023 Engagement Reports total 112.9M hours/27 million views for both seasons combined.
Warner Bros. Entertainment has launched the first official trailer for its Watchman animated adaptation, having just confirmed at Annecy Festival that the R-Rated project will roll out in two parts and feature cel shaded CG animation. Chapter 1 is due this year, possibly as soon as August, with the second part coming in 2025.
The preview spotlights Rorschach, Ozymandias, Doctor Manhattan, The Comedian and Silk Spectre. Voice cast and creative teams details are to be announced.
Described by WB as “a faithful animated adaptation of the iconic graphic novel,” Watchmen brings to screens a world created by the British comics team of writer Alan Moore (V for Vendetta, Batman: The Killing Joke, From Hell), artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. The comic was published by DC in 1986-87 before being issued as a single-volume edition, and quickly won critical praise (as well as Hugo Award, which Moore reportedly buried upside down in his garden to use as a bird table).
Watchmen tells an alternate timeline in which superheroes arose in the 1940s and ’60s, changing history in crucial ways. The stories centers on a group of retired superpowered vigilantes are pulled into the investigation of the murder of a government-sponsored superhero — laced throughout with Moore’s political commentary and explorations of moral quandaries.
The title spawned a prequel comics series (Before Watchmen), sequel comics series (Doomsday Clock) and television series sequel on HBO, as well as the live-action 2009 movie directed by Zack Snyder. Moore has notably shunned involvement in any spin-offs or adaptations.
