News

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

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

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

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

The first significant deal at last year’s Marché du Film was Neon’s acquisition of Pablo Berger’s eventual Oscar nominee, “Robot Dreams.” Whether or not another Spanish animated film can have that kind of impact in 2024 remains to be seen, but there is a long list of contenders to consider.

Perhaps the buzziest Spanish title at this year’s market is adult animation auteur Alberto Vázquez’s “Decorado,” sold by French powerhouse Le Pacte. Like his previous titles, “Decorado” is based on a Vázquez short adapted from one of his graphic novels. Uniko, Abano Producións, The Glow Animation Studio and Sardinha em Lata produce.

“Girl and Wolf” marks the feature debut of animator and graphic novelist Roc Espinet, touted as Spain’s next adult animation auteur. Produced by Hampa Studio, Sygnatia and Alesa Films, the Latido-sold film will certainly look an appealing prospect to distributors of indie animation.

Spanish animation is experiencing a historic boom. Shorts and features from the country are achieving notable success at festivals and the box office, while Spanish artists are contributing to some of the most influential film and TV productions coming from Hollywood today.

The question now is what steps should be taken to build on recent success.

Spaniard Almu Redondo won an Emmy this year for her work on the Cartoon Saloon-produced “Star Wars: Visions” episode “Screecher’s Reach,” and Pablo Berger’s Spanish feature “Robot Dreams” was nominated for a 2024 animated feature Academy Award. Few artists had as profound an impact on the aesthetic of the “Spider-Verse” films as Alberto Mielgo, who also won the animated short Oscar in 2022 for his film “The Windshield Wiper.”

Spanish artists flourishing abroad is a longstanding tradition, but one that may be waning. Many animation professionals are now staying in Spain, while...

Colombian producer Letrario and Spain’s Abano Producións have unveiled a new 2D animated feature co-production, “Mu-Ki-Ra,” which will be spotlighted at the 2024 Cannes’ Marché du Film Animation Day.

“Mu-Ki-Ra” was created by Colombian actress and screenwriter Estefanía Piñeres Duque, who co-wrote the screenplay with María Barro Guntín and is directing.

Part of the Annecy Animation Showcase at Cannes Animation Day, the film has some strong production power backing it. Galicia’s Abano Producións recently produced Spanish auteur Alberto Vázquez’s feature “Unicorn Wars,” and Letrario has an impressive catalog of live-action and animated works, including Piñeres’ 2020 short film “Color-ido,” which was an official selection at Pixelatl, AniMaze, and Rotterdam.

Several of the film’s Spanish-language voice cast roles have been filled by actors Maria Fernanda Marín, Isa Mosquera, Carmenza Gómez, and Witsey Mena.

“Mu-Ki-Ra” takes place in a land haunted by monsters made of vegetation. There, Cleo, a thirteen-year-old girl,...

Le Pacte has hopped aboard Quebec director Daniel Roby’s biopic Villeneuve: Rise Of A Champion about the early years of Formula One legend Gilles Villeneuve.

The film starts shooting next week in Canada and will focus on Villeneuve’s early years, his snowmobiling career, his start in motor racing and success before signing with Ferrari.

Set in Quebec starting in 1970, Rémi Goulet will play the titular Villeneuve as he rises from a modest background. Rosalie Bonenfant stars as his wife.

Villeneuve: Rise Of A Champion is produced by Christian Larouche at Christal Films, with Le Pacte on board to co-produce,...

Netflix Original “The Society of the Snow” won best picture and director for J.A. Bayona at Saturday night’s 38th Spanish Academy Goya Awards.

Those plaudits were two of a total 12 prizes, the third-highest kudos count for any title in the Goyas’ near 40-year history.

The lineup of best picture nominees was, however, a reminder in itself of the high quality and diversity of Spain’s current film production output. These took in Estibaliz’s Urresola Berlin triple winner “20,000 Species of Bees,” David Trueba’s real-life tender love story “Jokes & Cigarettes,” Isabel Coixet’s probing “Un Amor” and Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes,” an “aching ode to film, time and memory,” Variety wrote in its review.

Even after Bayona took best director there was still genuine suspense whether he would also win best picture, after best adapted screenplay went to “Robot Dreams” and “Jokes & Cigarettes” took best actor for David Verdaguer.

Roc Espinet’s “Chica y Lobo” and Cynthia Fernández Trejo’s“El Lenguaje de los Pájaros” are two highly-anticipated titlesat Ventana Sur’s 2023 Animation! Works In Progress strand, a joint initiative of Animation! and France’s Annecy Animation Film Festival and its MIFA market.

Animation! and indeed Ventana Sur at large, unspools Nov. 27- Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires.

“The 2023 selection showcases a wide range of themes, including both serious and profound topics. The cultural richness, creative innovation and meaningful storytelling offered by these films should be highlighted,” Animation! manager Silvina Cornillón told Variety.

Espinet, who works as an animator at the famed Titmouse Studio, brings the fantastic and fabled “Chica y Lobo” to market, the effort based on his third graphic novel published by Spaceman Project.

Having worked on Alberto Vázquez’s Goya-nabbing titles “Decorado” and “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,” he won a Movistar Plus+ prize for his short film “Colossal Jane.

At this year’s Annecy, the most important animation festival in the world, Basque animations were out in force.

With a diverse showcase ranging from the nostalgic cartoon charm of “Conej Steps Out” by student outfit Funnie Fantasies, to UniKo’s tantalising taster excerpts for feminist story “Sultana’s Dream” by Isabel Herguera and the short “Body of Christ” by Beatriz Lumez, Basque animators made a mark.

The festival’s spotlight on Spanish female creators further underscored this region’s depth of talent. Coupled with an array of compelling projects seeking co-production, from Agurtzane Intxaurraga’s “Run, Kuru, Run!” to “The Invisibles” by Imanol Zinkunegi, it’s clear: Basque animation is a force on the rise. According to San Sebastian Festival director José Luis Rebordinos, the Basque Country’s “fledgling animation industry is an opportunity.”

Youth Focused

European, national, and regional support will be key to bolstering this momentum. A question,...

“Decorado,” the awaited next animated feature film from Alberto Vázquez, director of 2015’s “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children” and last year’s “Unicorn Wars,” has been boarded by Le Pacte.

One of France’s most important independent film companies, a distributor in France of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” and Ken Loach’s “I: Daniel Blake” among its biggest foreign hits, Le Pacte, headed by Jean and Alice Labadie, has acquired rights to “Decorado” for distribution in France and international sales.

“We picked up ‘Decorado’ because we were in love with ‘Unicorn Wars’ and ‘Decorado is even crazier,” said Jean Labadie. “We love animation and bold projects which are out of boundaries.”

The “Decorado” feature was presented at Cartoon Movie in March where its producers met Le Pacte and initiated discussions after Le Pacte’s expressions of enthusiasm for the story and the project.

Vázquez’s follow-up to “Unicorn Wars,” a Gkids U.

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

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

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

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

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

Spanish animation shows off its serious side in Cannes’ “Revelations!” showcase, dedicated to new shorts both by promising beginners and acclaimed filmmakers, such as Alberto Mielgo, who scored an Academy Award for “The Windshield Wiper.”

In June, four of the presented titles will also head to Annecy: María Lorenzo’s “Fashion Victims 2.0,” “Lost at Sea,” directed by Lucija Stojevic and Andrés Bartos, Pablo Río’s “Conej Steps Out” and Carla Pereira and Juanfran Jacinto’s “All Is Lost.”

“Animators, or just artists in general, tend to reflect on their times. Some of these films were born during the pandemic and yes, there is this melancholy to them. They are tackling multiple serious subjects,” says animation curator Carolina López Caballero.

That includes elderly suicide, like in the case of Diego Porral’s tender “Leopoldo from the Bar,” where a lonely man walks through ever-changing streets of Madrid accompanied by a massive pigeon.

Today sees the start of the 2023 edition of the Utrecht-and-Amsterdam-based Kaboom Animation Festival, which focuses on animation worldwide. All audiences are catered for: the festival's programme has a kids section, a great selection of queer movies, many amazing shorts, classics, but also several new films. Among those is Alberto Vázquez' bonkers war epic Unicorn Wars, in which fascist teddy bears battle woke unicorns. Wait, what? Picture a beautiful forest, where unicorns play in peace as long as they don't approach the blob-like monster in its center. But just outside the forest is a military camp, where cute teddy bears are ruthlessly trained and transformed into murder machines. Their generals and the teddy bear religion endlessly tell the recruits that teddy bears are the superior...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Malaga’s Animation Day showcases some of the most important animation features in the pipeline in Spain, all made with international partners.

On Tuesday, March 14, five recent outstanding Spanish animated works in progress will be pitched by their producers to the international industry during the event.

Animation Day forms part of Spanish Screenings Content at Malaga Festival’s industry zone Mafiz, supported by Icex Spain’s Trade & Investment entity with the collaboration of Diboos, the Spanish Federation of Animation Producers and the VFX Production Companies Associations.

The five Wip animated titles selected are “4 Days Before Christmas,” a produced by 3Doubles Producciones and Capitán Araña with Canada’s Pvp Media; Barcelona-based Doce Entertainment’s Latin American project “Dalia and the Red Book”; Salvador Simó’s Spain-China toon feature “Dragonkeeper”; Abano Producions, El Gatoverde and Uniko’s German co-production “Sultana’s Dream”; and “Rock Bottom,” a Spain-Poland co-production from Alba Sotorra, Jaibo Films and Gs Animation.

Spanish director Alberto Vazquez’s anthropomorphic animals call to mind fairy-tale illustrations and animation classics — except Vazquez’s animated unicorns and teddy bears engage in gruesome acts that reveal the worst of human nature.

“I like to inhabit this intermediate space where you don’t know if it’s for children or if it’s actually for adults—but it’s also not for all adults,” said Vazquez on a recent video call.

Vazquez’s sophomore feature, the Goya Award-winning “Unicorn Wars,” hits U.S. theaters March 10. He defines this latest brainchild as an amalgamation between “Apocalypse Now,” Disney’s “Bambi,’ and the Bible.

Read More: The 41 Best Animated Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked

The dark fantasy maps a holy war between bears and unicorns over the control of a sacred forest. At the center of the larger conflict are bear brothers Bluey and Tubby (Azulín and Gordi in...

Described as "Bambi meets Apocalypse Now," Alberto Vázquez's new animated movie Unicorn Wars follows the ongoing battle between teddy bears and unicorns in the Magic Forest, and ahead of its March 10th theatrical and digital release, we've been provided with an exclusive clip to share with Daily Dead readers!

You can watch teddy bear soldiers discover (and eat) psychedelic slugs in our exclusive clip below, and to learn more about Unicorn Wars, visit:

https://gkids.com/films/unicorn-wars/

Synopsis: It’s Bambi meets Apocalypse Now in this provocative and strangely beautiful horror comedy from acclaimed filmmaker and illustrator Alberto Vazquez (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children), who uses its outrageous candy-colored premise to explore religious zealotry, the tortured legacies of military fascism, and the depths of the soul.

For ages, teddy bears have been locked in an ancestral war against their sworn enemy, the unicorns, with the promise that victory will...

Goya and Annecy Cristal-winning director Alberto Vásquez (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children) is back with another genre-bending animated feature for adults, Unicorn Wars, and a new trailer asks you to bear witness to the adorable yet grim battle ahead.

Gkids will release the technicolor feature theatrically in select markets nationwide, and will also be available on demand from March 10, 2023.

Don’t be fooled by Unicorn Wars‘ cuddly characters; there’s nothing adorable about this brutal war.

About the film…

“It’s Bambi meets Apocalypse Now in this provocative and strangely beautiful horror comedy from acclaimed filmmaker and illustrator Alberto Vazquez (Birdboy: The Forgotten Children), who uses its outrageous candy-colored premise to explore religious zealotry, the tortured legacies of military fascism, and the depths of the soul.

“For ages, teddy bears have been locked in an ancestral war against their sworn enemy, the unicorns, with the promise that victory will complete the...

Unicorns are woefully underrepresented in cartoons, at least when compared with the place they hold among the toys, binder art and imaginations of children. Teddy bears, on the other hand, are practically everywhere you look in animation — not that it’s ever been a contest.

“Unicorn Wars” pits these two camps against one another in a brutal battle royal, featuring scene after scene of adorable teddies plotting to rid the world of the mythical horses, before erupting into a full-blown bloodbath. The visually striking, not-at-all-kid-friendly result is all kinds of wrong: Picture pastel-colored anime bears impaled on the horns of sleek black horses, backlit by raging hot-pink infernos. “The Care Bears” this ain’t, though the comparison can hardly be accidental with this ultra-graphic, Saturday morning cartoon-subverting satire for which irreverent Bronies may well be the ideal audience.

Branching out on his own after co-directing the cult indie offering “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,...

The Animation Is Film Festival, in its fifth in-person edition, once again champions the jewels of the hand-drawn, CGI and stop-motion world.

This year’s festival kicks off Oct. 21 at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres in Hollywood with the U.S. premiere of Henry Selick’s stop-motion “Wendell & Wild.” Selick will also be there to conduct a Q&a after the screening. The festival will close with Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” with a Q&a with del Toro after the screening.

“To repurpose a line from Tolstoy, every special festival is special in its own way. Most obviously, when a bona fide master of the craft comes out with his first film in over a decade — as is the case with Henry Selick’s ‘Wendell & Wild’ — that’s special. When an Oscar-winning ‘live-action’ director comes out with his first animated feature, a passion project many years in the...

What if "Happy Tree Friends" came back in 2022, but it was a gritty war film about the horrors of fascism and religious zealotry? You'd get something like "Unicorn Wars," a brutal, disturbing war film disguised as a candy-colored cartoon about cuddly teddy bears. Alberto Vázquez's sophomore feature, "Unicorn Wars," features fantastic animation and gorgeous use of color that is juxtaposed with some of the gnarliest imagery put to an animated film in over a decade. Sadly, it suffers from "short-turned-into-a-feature" syndrome, with flashbacks that feel unnecessary, repetitive scenes and plot beats, and a pacing that slows down in order to pad the runtime, before it picks back up with a guts-spilling, blood-soaking, nightmare-inducing climax. 

Alberto Vázquez is no stranger to using the (very stupid) assumption that animation is for kids to deliver dark and horrific adult animated movies. His feature debut, "Birdboy: The Forgotten Children," based on a short by Vásquez,...

Click here to read the full article.

My Father’s Dragon, the next movie from Wolfwalkers animation studio Cartoon Saloon, and Little Nicolas, which last spring won the top prize at Annecy, are among the films named to the competition lineup of the Animation Is Film Festival, which kicks off Oct. 21 in Hollywood.

Little Nicolas, helmed by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre, is an animated adaptation of the children’s series by Rene Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempe. My Father’s Dragon, helmed by Oscar nominee Nora Twomey (The Breadwinner), is based on Ruth Stiles Gannett’s children’s book of the same name and will be released this fall on Netflix.

The competition lineup also includes Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom, directed by Kotono Watanabe; Titina, directed by Kajsa Næss; Aurora’s Sunrise, directed by Inna Shaken; Oink, directed by Mascha Halberstad; Perlimps, directed by Alê Abreu; and Unicorn Wars,...

Oscar-winning animation film producer Nicolas Schmerkin has revealed his Paris-based outfit Autour de Minuit has signed a pre-development agreement with Franco-German TV channel Arte for its latest project, “Fucking Cat”, which is being pitched at this week’s Cartoon Forum in Toulouse.

An adaptation of Belgian author Stéphane Lapuss’ “Putain de Chat” comic book series, “Fucking Cat” tells the story of Moustique, the talking cat, who, like all cats, hates humans and would like to get rid of his master but faces the dilemna of how to become master of the world without giving up his cat food. Both Lapuss and co-author Lionel Bonnal will assist in penning the adaptation.

“The concept is that the cat talks but the human doesn’t, he just hears the ‘miaow’: it’s both situation comedy and dialogue comedy – the audience hears what the cat says to his master, and it’s not very nice,...

“Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” the hand-drawn biopic about Martha (Calamity) Jane’s empowering journey West in 1863, from French director Rémi Chayé, won the Cristal Award at the Annecy 2020 Online animation festival. North American theatrical distribution has not been announced but leading contenders include GKids and Shout! Factory, which handled Chayé’s acclaimed Arctic adventure, “Long Way North.”

The Jury Award and Jury Distinction Award went to “The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks,” an experimental drama about Stalin’s reign of terror from Russian director Andrey Khrzhanovsky, and” Kill It and Leave This Town” (Poland), a black-and-white hybrid dystopian drama about a despairing guy who hides in his memories, directed by Mariusz Wilczynski; and the Contrechamp Award and Contrechamp Distinction Award were bestowed on “My Favorite War”, a personal story from director Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen about growing up during the Cold War using cut-outs, and “The Shaman...

“Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” the hand-drawn biopic about Martha (Calamity) Jane’s empowering journey West in 1863, from French director Rémi Chayé, won the Cristal Award at the Annecy 2020 Online animation festival. North American theatrical distribution has not been announced but leading contenders include GKids and Shout! Factory, which handled Chayé’s acclaimed Arctic adventure, “Long Way North.”

The Jury Award and Jury Distinction Award went to “The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks,” an experimental drama about Stalin’s reign of terror from Russian director Andrey Khrzhanovsky, and” Kill It and Leave This Town” (Poland), a black-and-white hybrid dystopian drama about a despairing guy who hides in his memories, directed by Mariusz Wilczynski; and the Contrechamp Award and Contrechamp Distinction Award were bestowed on “My Favorite War”, a personal story from director Ilze Burkovska Jacobsen about growing up during the Cold War using cut-outs, and “The Shaman...

Alberto Vázquez’s debut feature is a darkly comic, mind-bending fantasy based on his own graphic novel and award-winning short film. Co-directed by Pedro Rivero, Birdboy: The Forgotten Children is...

by Tim Brayton

For the finale of our five-part tour of some of the more obscure films competing for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, we turn to a film that premiered over two years ago, but has only just opened in the U.S. this very weekend: the Spanish psychological horror cartoon Birdboy: The Forgotten Chidlren. The film is based on the comic Psiconautas by Alberto Vázquez, who co-writes and co-directs with Pedro Rivero; it's the duo's second film based on these characters, following the 2011 short Birdman, which serves as the new feature's backstory (the short is available online).

The basic hook here couldn't be any more direct or nasty-minded. This is a silly talking animal film warped into a portrait of the world as bleak, hopeless hell. "Psychological horror," I called it, because I'd be hard pressed to name any better category, but that's not really enough to communicate the sheer,...

The opening moments of “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children” unfold like an urgent warning to any parents who might think that this is just another kid-friendly animated film about cute animals who learn valuable lessons. “The future is past,” a voice insists from the darkness, speaking in Spanish and accompanied by exclamatory subtitles (an English-language version is also available). “The garbage is the present. Blood is the law!” From there, we’re hurled through the history of a once-vibrant storybook world, a colorful idyll where bunnies and mice and all sorts of creatures lived in harmony until a nuclear disaster scorched the island and turned its survivors against each other.

Adorable silhouettes bleed into red and black monsters, and the nice sounds of nature are replaced by a queasy synth score that sounds like it was borrowed from “The Neon Demon.” Within minutes, we’re introduced to a young mouse named...

Even in a post-apocalyptic world, not all hope is lost, as moviegoers will discover when Birdboy: The Forgotten Children comes out in select theaters this December and January. To celebrate the animated film's New York and Los Angeles release on December 15th, Gkids provided us with Birdboy T-shirts and enamel pins to give away to one lucky Daily Dead reader.

---------

Prize Details: (1) Winner will receive a Birdboy: The Forgotten Children prize pack, including:

(2) Birdboy T-shirts (2) Birdboy enamel pins

How to Enter: We're giving Daily Dead readers multiple chances to enter and win:

1. Email: For a chance to win via email, send an email to contest@dailydead.com with the subject “Birdboy Contest”. Be sure to include your name and mailing address.

2. Instagram: Following us on Instagram during the contest period will give you an automatic contest entry. Make sure to follow us at:

https://www.instagram.com/dailydead/

Entry...

While “The Breadwinner” has deservedly grabbed all of the accolades for GKids (including a Golden Globe nomination), Oscar voters should not overlook another GKid animated feature contender: “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children.” The Spanish dystopian fable, directed by Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero, is the darkest and most daring hand-drawn animated movie of the year. It alternates between the horrific and the comical, and its imagery assaults the viewer like a nightmarish Goya painting.

Indeed, the twisted tale about troubled animated critters living on a post-apocalyptic island first sprung from Vázquez’s graphic novel. It was initially adapted into a short by the two filmmakers as a prequel to the feature. Following an ecological crisis that fosters crime, repression, and drug trafficking, Dinky, a young teen mouse, hatches a plan to escape with her friends, including Birdboy, a shy, tormented bird who lives in a lighthouse and consumes drugs to subdue the demon living inside him.

The animals and mechanical objects that talk and scheme in Birdboy could not be more human — in their yearning and suspicions and, most of all, their pain. They're not cuddly-cute critters, and their desperate post-apocalyptic adventures are not kiddie fare.

Directors Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero, expanding a short film based on Vázquez's graphic novel Psiconautas, los niños olvidados, weave irreverent humor and bursts of poetic rapture into their fever dream of adolescent hope, set in a world drained of joy. An endlessly inventive excursion into despair, death and rebirth, and bitter satire, the hand-drawn animated feature from Spain...

In the official trailer for the post-apocalyptic animated film Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, co-directors Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vázquez show that "there is light and beauty, even in the darkest of worlds":

"Gkids presents Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, opening in New York and Los Angeles on December 15, 2017, and expanding to select cinemas nationwide in January! There is light and beauty, even in the darkest of worlds. Stranded on an island in a post-apocalyptic world, teenager Dinky and her friends hatch a dangerous plan to escape in the hope of finding a better life. Meanwhile, her old friend Birdboy has shut himself off from the world, pursued by the police and haunted by demon tormentors. But unbeknownst to anyone, he contains a secret inside him that could change the world forever. Based on a graphic novel and short film by co-director Alberto Vázquez and winner of the Goya Award for...

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children is co-directed by Spain's Pedro Rivero & Alberto Vázquez based on a short film they created in 2011 of the same name. The film will hit select theaters in the Us on December 15th this year.

Synopsis:

There is light and beauty, even in the darkest of worlds. Stranded on an island in a post-apocalyptic world, teenager Dinky and her friends hatch a dangerous plan to escape in the hope of finding a better life. Meanwhile, her old friend Birdboy has shut himself off from the world, pursued by the police and haunted by demon tormentors. But unbeknownst to anyone, he contains a secret inside him that could change the world forever.

Birdboy features the voice talents of [Continued ...]...

"I want to help you, but I don't know how." GKids has released a brand new Us trailer for the animated film Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, which is finally arriving in limited Us theaters this December. This first premiered back in 2015 and played at festivals throughout 2016, but hasn't ever been available in the Us until now. Based on a graphic novel and short film by co-directors Pedro Rivero and Alberto Vázquez, Birdboy: The Forgotten Children is a darkly comic, beautiful and haunting tale of coming of age in a world gone to ruin. Featuring the voices of Félix Arcarazo, Andrea Alzuri, Eva Ojanguren, Josu Cubero, Jorge Carrero, and Nuria Marín. Even though this is arriving a few years late, it looks like an intriguing post-apocalyptic animated feature that's a bit different than what we normally see. Might be worth a watch. New Us trailer for Pedro Rivero & Alberto Vázquez's Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,...

It takes less than a minute into the newest trailer for the Goya Award-winning “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children” to set itself far apart from its more kid-leaning brethren. You’ll know the moment when you see it — hint: it involves at least one child being asked if they’re on drugs — and it’s one that sets the tone for a lush, terrifying, and wholly original take on the coming-of-age story so often aimed at the younger set.

Read More:gkids’ Top 10 Best Box Office Performers, From Studio Ghibli and Beyond

Alberto Vázquez’s debut feature, which he co-wrote and directed alongside Pedro Rivera, is billed as “a darkly comic, mind-bending fantasy” that is based on their award-winning short film. It recently picked up the Goya for Best Animated Feature earlier this year (Vázquez, no slouch, also won Best Animated Short Film for his similarly dark “Decorado” at that same ceremony...

Before making his second directorial outing Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, Spanish writer-director Alberto Vázquez had the benefit of a long time spent with the material. Adapted from Psiconautas, a dark coming-of-age comic he wrote and subsequently turned into a short film, Birdboy saw Vázquez team with Pedro Rivero in the making of a unique animated film. A pink-skied, post-apocalyptic tale rife with fear for the future of the planet, Birdboy is led by a cast of…...

Aiming to make an impact this Oscar season, the inaugural Animation Is Film Festival from GKids, the Annecy International Animation Festival, Variety, and Acifa-Hollywood launches October 20-22 at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theater.

The festival will present a selection of new animated feature films from Asia, Europe, South America, and North America, with juried and audience prizes and filmmakers attending most screenings. Additionally, the festival will feature studio events, special screenings, short film programs, and a Vr lounge.

Aif seems well timed: The Academy now allows all members to vote for animated features, using preferential voting. However, it remains to be seen what the dynamic will be in terms of mainstream versus indie nominees.

GKids, which has nine Oscar nominations (including this year’s “My Life as a Zucchini”), has seven movies in contention this season; four showcase in competition at Aif. The highlight is “The Breadwinner” (October 20), a coproduction of Ireland,...

Film won best animated feature at 2016 Goya Awards.

Gkids has acquired North American rights to Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero’s animated feature.

The distributor plans an autumn theatrical release in Spanish and a new English-language version for the film adapted from Alberto Vázquez’s graphic novel and short film, Birdboy.

Stranded on an island in a post-apocalyptic world, teenager Dinky and her friends hatch a dangerous plan to escape in the hope of finding a better life.

Meanwhile, her old friend Birdboy has shut himself off from the world, pursued by the police and haunted by demon tormentors. But unbeknownst to anyone, he contains a secret inside him that could change the world forever.

The dystopian fantasy was an official selection in several festivals including Annecy, BFI London, Fantasia and San Sebastian, among others.

The film won best animated feature at the 2016 Goya Awards and was nominated for best animated feature at the 2016 European Film Awards...

Australia’s premier genre festival – Monster Fest – has unveiled its final wave of films for the 2016 festival, which is set to take place November 24-27 at the Lido Cinemas in Melbourne.

The team of features programmers – which includes festival director Kier-La Janisse, Monster Pictures co-founder Neil Foley, Boston Underground Film Festival Director of Programming Nicole McControversy and writer/programmer/punk legend Chris D. – vetted over 600 features in selecting the 2016 Monster Fest lineup, which includes new crime films Dog Eat Dog and The Hollow Point from Paul Schrader and Gonzalo López-Gallego respectively, gory slasher throwback The Windmill Massacre (reviewed here), the hometown premiere of epic period western The Legend of Ben Hall with cast in person and acclaimed Tiff selections Prevenge and Interchange alongside Fantastic Fest faves such as the Aussie-made yuletide thriller Safe Neighbourhood and the devastating – and polarizing – Playground.

From the press release:

Select panels for the Swinburne University...

Edited by Hans-Åke Lilja, Shining in the Dark: Celebrating Twenty Years of Lilja's Library is exclusive to Cemetery Dance Publications and will feature a Stephen King story that hasn't been released since 1981. We also have updated release details for The Similars, the final wave of films announced at Monster Fest 2016, six photos / details for The Orphanage video game, and a new trailer for Gremlin.

Cemetery Dance Publications' Shining in the Dark Anthology: From Cemetery Dance: "Shining In the Dark: Celebrating Twenty Years of Lilja's Library edited by Hans-Åke Lilja.

About the Book:

Hans-Ake Lilja, the founder of Lilja's Library, has compiled a brand new anthology of horror stories to help celebrate twenty years of running the #1 Stephen King news website on the web!

This anthology includes both original stories like the brand new novella by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In) very rare reprints like "The Blue Air...

The third cascade of world premieres in 15 days flowed from the headquarters of the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday as programmers revealed their Midnight Madness, Tiff Docs, Vanguard, Tiff Cinematheque and Short Cuts selections.

This week’s offering includes Ben Wheatley’s all-star gangster thriller Free Fire, which opens Midnight Madness one year after the premiere of the British auteur’s High-Rise; fast-rising Chadwick Boseman in revenge thriller Message From The King in Vanguard and a Tiff Docs strand that features climate change documentary The Turning Point, featuring and produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio.

The 41st Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8 to 18.

Wp = world premiere, IP = international premiere, Nap = North American premiere, Cp = Canadian premiere, Tp = Toronto premiere.

Midnight Madness

Ben Wheatley’s all-star gunfight Free Fire starring Brie Larson, Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy will open the section, which includes Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Rats, Adam Wingard’s Blair Witch, André Øvredal’s [link...

The first programming has been revealed for the 20th annual Fantasia International Film Festival. Taking place from July 14th–August 2nd in Montreal, this year’s Fantasia will honor Guillermo del Toro with the Cheval Noir Award, and the newly revealed first wave of programming includes screenings of Lights Out, Abattoir, In a Valley of Violence, Under the Shadow, Trash Fire, Teenage Cocktail, and more:

Press Release: Montreal, May 26, 2016 – The Fantasia International Film Festival will be celebrating its 20th Anniversary in Montreal this summer, taking place from July 14-August 2, with its Frontiéres international co-production market and Industry Rendez-Vous weekend being held July 21-24. The full lineup of over 130 feature films will be announced July 5th. In the meantime, the festival is excited to announce a selected first wave of titles, along with several special happenings.

For Fantasia’s 2016 poster, the festival has once again turned to award-winning Quebec visual artist Donald Caron.

Montreal’s genre festival also unveils first wave of titles for its upcoming 20th Anniversary edition.Scroll down for first wave of titles

Guillermo del Toro and Takashi Miike are set to attend the 20th anniversary edition of Fantasia International Film Festival (July 14-Aug 2) in Montreal.

In his first-ever appearance at the festival, del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy) will be presented with the Cheval Noir award.

He will also deliver a masterclass and host the Canadian premiere of documentary Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex, in which he is featured.

Meanwhile, prolific director Miike will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for the mark he has left on the festival over its 20 years. Nearly 30 of his films have been showcased at Fantasia and he has opened the festival three times.

Miike will also host the North American premiere of his latest film Terraformars, about a team of misfits who must fight humanoid cockroaches to colonise Mars, and As The...

Festival to open with Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle [pictured]; Guillermo del Toro and Aardman to give masterclasses.

Annecy International Animation Film Festival, running June 13-18 this year, has unveiled its line-up.

New Zealand director Leanne Pooley’s documentary 25 April, about the Battle of Gallipoli; Canadian film-makers Jean-François Pouliot and François Brisson’s 3D hit Snowtime! (La Guerre des Tuques 3D); Claude Barras’s Cannes-screener My Life As A Courgette, and Sundance discovery Nuts! are among the titles in the feature-length competition.

The festival will open with Michaël Dudok de Wit’s The Red Turtle, which will premiere first in Official Selection at Cannes.

Other highlights include a preview screening of Chris Renaud and Yarrow Cheney’s The Secret Life Of Pets, in the presence of the directors. Andrew Stanton will also attend the festival, accompanying Finding Dory.

First images of Ron Clements and John Musker’s upcoming film Moana and Michael Thurmeier’s [link...

Zabaltegi strand of the festival will feature 24 titles.Scroll down for full list

The 63rd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 18-26) has unveiled the features that will comprise its Zabaltegi programme, including Spanish premieres of new films from Laurie Anderson, Eric Khoo, Corneliu Porumboiu, Walter Salles and Alexander Sokurov.

The non-competitive strand includes features, documentaries, animation and shorts, and the first screening of all films in the section will run at the Tabakalera centre for contemporary culture and creation, the hub of Zabaltegi activities from this year.

Titles in the section that played at this year’s Cannes include Porumboiu’s black comedy The Treasure, which won the Un Certain Regard Talent Prize; Tambutti documentary Beyond My Grandfather Allende, winner of the L’Oeil d’Or award for best documentary; and Magnus Von Horn’s debut The Here After, which played in Directors’ Fornight.

Films that will first be seen at Venice (Sept 2-12) include Francofonia, from Russian...