(MENAFN- Arab Times) "April and the Extraordinary World," Franck Ekinci and Christian Desmares' animated feature featuring Marion Cotillard's voice in the title role, won the Cristal award for best feature film at Annecy Animation Film Festival.
Co-produced and repped by Studiocanal, "April and the Extraordinary World" is a 2D arthouse movie in the tradition of European auteur-driven toons. The movie was just picked up by GKids for US distribution. GKids previously handled six best animated features that competed at the Oscars. Lead-produced by Paris-based Je Suis Bien Content, the animation studio on "Persepolis," "April" is also being buzzed about as a potential Oscar candidate. Based on Jacques Tardi's celebrated graphic novel, "April" charts a young girl's journey to fulfill her destiny. The toonpic will be released by Studiocanal on Oct.14.
Japanese helmer Keiichi Hara's "Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai," repped by Production I.G, nabbed the jury nod, while Remi Chaye's "Long Way North," sold by Urban Distribution, won the audience prize.
Annecy welcomed a record 8,250 participants - way up on last year's 7,000. The attendance spike was mainly driven by the US presence, which was up 60% for the festival and market. The guest country panorama in Spain had a large impact on panels, films selected and master classes, as did the focus on women. The festival screened nearly 500 films from 83 countries. As in the last few years, many entries touched on serious issues such as immigration, exile and human rights.
In other kudos, Siri Melchior's "Rita and Crocodile Fishing" snatched up the jury award for best TV series while Clementine Robach's "The Mitten" won the jury prize for a TV series. Eric Serre's "Hellow World! Long-Eared Owl" won the Crystal nod for TV production.
Suresh Eriyat's "Rotaly Fateline" won best commissioned film. And Yves Geleyn's "NSPCC Lucy and the Boy" won the jury nod for best commissioned film.
In the graduation films' section, Nina Gantz's Edmond won the jury prize and Lisa Matuszak's "Brume, cailloux et metaphysique" won the jury mention.
Daniel Gray and Tom Brown's "Teeth," a US/Hungary/U.K. production, nabbed the Fipresci prize. Rosina Urbes' Brazilian pic "Guida" won the Fipresci's special mention, and Michel Gondbry's "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy" won the Andre Martin film nod.
Sold by Indie Sales and helmed by Claude Barras, "My Life as a Zucchini," which is penned by Celine Sciamma and was pitched in Annecy in the work-in-progress section, won the Gan Foundation Support for Distribution.
Stanley Nelson's new documentary "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution," which screened this week at AFI Docs, is only the latest in a line of the filmmaker's works examining the African-American experience.
But the director, honored at the Guggenheim Symposium at the National Archives on Friday, is somewhat dismissive of the idea that he feels the burden of being the "explainer." His movies, like "Two Dollars and a Dream: The Story of Madam C.J. Walker," "The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords" and "The Murder of Emmett Till," focused on aspects of African-American history that may otherwise have been unknown to white audiences.
In a Q&A with the Washington Post's Ann Hornaday, Nelson quipped, "There's this tendency to want to be that African in Tarzan movies, you know? You hear the drums and Tarzan says, 'What do those drums mean?' They say, 'Oh Tarzan. Those are mad. They are mad.'" The audience laughed.
He added, "I mean, I try to make my films for black people. I feel if I make my film on the Panthers for black people, and they see something new, then obviously most white people will see something new also. Our stories are our stories. It's a great story, part of the American story. The world story. So I am trying to tell everybody something that is new and that is hopefully entertaining."
Nelson discussed the great lengths he and his colleagues have gone to in pursuing film footage or photos. For "Two Dollars and a Dream," the story of the first woman to become a self-made millionaire, he sought to push the story forward by using music rather than a narrator. One of the songs he sought - and eventually found from a collector - was "Nappy Headed Blues," which, as he found out, even mentions Madam Walker in the last verse. He is currently working on a project about black colleges and universities, a daunting task that will involve, among other things, combing through hundreds of volumes of yearbooks.
"You have got to just keep looking, and you have got to look with a positive attitude," Nelson said.
His film "Freedom Riders," winner of two Emmys, coincided with the 50th anniversary of the event in 2011, and while it featured extensive recollections from those who took part, Nelson and his team also landed an interview with John Patterson, Alabama's segregationist governor at the time.
What he found, he said, was that most "people want to talk, and they love to talk about themselves." Patterson, he said, was not apologetic, but still seemed to want to get his side of the story out, perhaps as a way to be forgiven, he said. A key is to meet with people in person to request an interview, because it is much more difficult for them to say no, he added.
Among the stories featured in "Black Panthers" is the killing of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in his apartment during a nighttime raid by Chicago police. Nelson said that it was a documentary released about a year after Hampton's death in 1969, "The Murder of Fred Hampton," that actually inspired his career choice.
"Ghost in the Shell: the Movie," a new feature adaptation of the hit manga comic book, has just closed major territory sales deals with France (Anime Ltd.), Italy (Dynit Srl) and Spain/Portugal (Selecta Vision).
Produced by I. G., "Ghost in the Shell: The Movie" world premieres simultaneously today Saturday June 20 at Annecy on the last day of the world biggest animation fest/mart, and in Japan, where it is distributed by Toho Company.International sales are handled by publishing company Kodansha Ltd., who also informed Variety that it is in advanced talks to sell US, Germany and Asia country rights.
Manga book "Ghost in the Shell" is a reference work that rapidly became an keystone for cyberpunk sci-fiction universe. Shirow Masamune was the author of the original manga comic book that started off en endless saga of novels, TV skeins, vidgames and features.
Directed by Kazuchika Kise ("Ghost in the Shell Arise" feature collection) and Kazuyna Nomura ("Sengoku Basara Samurai Kings: The Last Party"), "Ghost in the Shell: The Movie" is a prequel to the original "Ghost in the Shell," helmed in 1995 by Mamoru Oshii. Kise worked on the first -and now cult- movie "Ghost" as key animation supervisor. Tow Ubutaka penned the script.
The action of "Ghost in the Shell: The Movie" is set in 2029, after the end of the non-nuclear World War IV, when a country's prime minister is assassinated. One of the collateral victims is a former manager of a full cyber prosthesis Motoko Kusanagi, a hacker in the film, who initiates an investigation.
As in the other iterations of saga, "Ghost in the Shell" recreates an action-packed universe combined with metaphysical ruminations about A.I., where technological crime fuses with thriller elements, told via an intrincate plot.
Eagerly awaited by genre followers worldwide, "'Ghost in the Shell' has been revered by its fans as one of the most iconic, sci-fi franchises of all-time.
"'Ghost in the Shell: Arise' gave fans the opportunity to dig into the origin stories of these characters they know and love so much," said Yuko Ogawa, at Kodansha International Business Division.
"With 2015's 'Ghost in the Shell: The Movie,' they are hoping this film will have an impact similar to the original film from over two decades ago. We're expecting the new film to be a hit that leaves its mark on the sci-fi/action genre," Ogawa concluded.
Hollywood is preparing its own version of "Ghost in the shell," starring Scarlett Johansson, directed by Rupert Sanders and produced by DreamWorks and Paramount. It is scheduled for release in March 2017.
Haunted by "Ghost in the Shell," the Wachowsky brothers informed their producer that they wanted to direct a live action makeover. The final result: "Matrix."
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