Special Edition Cartoon Movie 2017 – Bordeaux
THE ANIMATION GAZETTE drawn by animation
FLANDRIENS SURGE FORWARD AT CARTOON MOVIE The Flandriens are coming to Cartoon Movie. Not the famous cyclists of Flanders, but the region’s animators, the splashes of mud replaced by ink, the spare inner tubes wrapped around their shoulders replaced by computer cables. But the drive to succeed is just the same. Flemish animators can take on any terrain, from 2D (hand-drawn and computer animation), to 3D and stop-motion. “The Flanders region has 22 production companies specialised in animation projects, 10 animation studios, and currently we have 25 feature-length movies in the pipeline and 30 animated series,” says Eric Goossens, vicechairman of animation producers’ association Anim.be and producer at Walking The Dog. And just as Flandriens must also ride for their teams, Flemish animation producers play an important role in international co-productions, adding their drive to Oscar-nominated films such as The Triplets of Belleville, The Secret of Kells and A Cat in Paris. “I’m happy to see that Flemish producers are getting trained in this business area, which is not easy at all,” says Goossens. Flanders has already collected some winning jerseys at Cartoon Movie, with companies such as Grid Animation, Walking The Dog, nWave
The support team for all this activity is the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), whose cash and coaching are always there to drive the Flandriens of animation onwards. In 2016, the VAF/Film Fund gave over 2.1 million EUR to 22 animated projects, including co-productions, and the VAF/ Media Fund channelled 1,260,000 EUR into 11 animated series.
Pictures and Vivi Film all receiving Tributes as Producer of the Year. Projects pitching in 2017 include three features initiated in Flanders: Canaan (produced by Tondo Films), Crazy Island (produced by Grid Animation), and Zooks (produced by Potemkino/Sancta). And there are five co-productions with Flanders: Ploey – You Never Fly Alone (co-produced by Cyborn), The Siren (co-produced by Lunanime), and Hump, Charlotte and Fox & Hare Save the Forest (all coproduced by Walking The Dog).
FLAT’S WHERE IT’S AT In a world dominated by 3D animation, Lunanime is committed to 2D, from hand-drawn to computer animation. “There are a lot of artists that still have something to tell us, and who want to explore, and we want to be there for them, to help them develop new things,” says production head Annemie Degryse.
They call them Flandriens, bad-assed cycle racers who force their machines over the cobbled roads and murderous hills of Flanders, oblivious to the cold and the rain.
the Khmer Rouge regime. The company is also developing several other feature coproductions, including: Tulip by Felicioli and Gagnol, about an eleven year old girl who can see monsters; The Siren by Sepideh Farsi, a story set in South Iran in 1980, which is being pitched at Cartoon Movie this year; I Lost My Body by Jeremy Clapin; and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Pierre Foldes.
Flandrien Briek Schotte See also: the Flandrien Victories
STOP PRESS: STORK OF THE TOWN The producers of Richard the Stork, including Flemish studio Walking The Dog, are in the running to be named European Producer of the Year at Cartoon Movie this year. The film’s producers are Knudsen & Streuber Medienmanufaktur and Ulysses Filmproduktion, both of Germany; Walking the Dog (Flanders); Melusine Productions (Luxembourg) and Den siste skilling (Norway). The nomination follows the feature’s world premiere in the Generation Kplus section of the Berlinale.
T H E A N I M AT I O N GA Z E T T E • 1
The Siren
What the Flandrien!?
“A Flandrien is passionate, dedicated and hard-working, and he is a team player,” explains Telidja Klaï of kids’ TV channel VRT/Ketnet. “And the Flemish animation scene is also very dedicated, passionate, hardworking and full of team players. No mountain is too high for Flemish animators.” The Flandrien grit and determination drives Flemish animators to climb new heights, using their skills to emerge from the pack and sprint towards glory. “Flemish animators push the boundaries of the genre every day by making things that are unique and of a very high quality, and by working at the highest international level.”
Eric Goossens
As well as producing animation and fiction films, Ghent-based Lunanime has an in-house animation unit, StudioLumière, which previously contributed to Oscar-nominated feature A Cat in Paris and Phantom Boy, both by Jean-Loup Felicioli and Alain Gagnol. Its 15 animators are now busy with feature co-production Funan, by Denis Do, about a young woman trying to survive
Telidja Klaï - VRT/Ketnet