Ventana Sur’s 2022 Animation!: Innovative Toon Visuals, New Talent, Social Issue Optimism (EXCLUSIVE)
Historical epic “The Flame of Blues,” from Argentina’s Blu Animation Studio and father-daughter relationship tale “My Dad the Truck,” by Colombia’s María Cristina Pérez, figure among 14 titles – half series, half features – at Ventana Sur’s 2022 Animation!.
Further buzz titles take in “Esther,” from Argentina’s Ezequiel Torres, an action-packed coming of age adventure, doc series “The Imposible Future,” by Argentina’s Martin Haas and Antonio Balseiro and pre-school comedy adventure “King Gaston,” from Brazil’s Diogo Viegas.
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Now firmly established as one of Latin America’s foremost animation forums, 2022’s Animation! saw an all-time record of 203 submissions.
That high attests to animation’s continuing growth in Latin America, powered primarily by a new generation of vocational animation talent which has broken through in the last 5-15 years, often spending much of them making shorts or animated commercials.
All of Animation!’s movie projects are from first time feature directors, though Brazil’s Fernando Macedo, behind “Rosie and the Artefact of Life” has large experience helming series, most notably “Karl.”
Production houses range widely, however, from the securely established – Macedo’s own Spirit Animation to legendary Brazilian studio Pinguim Content, behind the groundbreaking “Fishtronaut,” which took Brazilian animation to a new level – to relative rookies and single creators.
Unspooling during Ventana Sur, which runs Nov. 26-Dec. 2, this year’s Animation ! also underscores the trends and tensions playing out through animation in Latin America and indeed the global content industry at large.
“Creativity, risk taking and differentiation become ever more important in the new global market as intense competition means it is essential to stand out from the crowd,” London and Los Angeles-based consultancy Ampere Analysis said in a report on last week’s Mipcom.
“This year, Animation!’s lineup includes projects with a strong auteurist stamp and a mix of techniques which characteristically achieves a distinctive visual identity, in a search for new aesthetic forms of expression,” said Animation! Manager Silvina Cornillón.
“So there’s a trend in which the ‘Latino’ differential value moving to a new level, focusing on visual originality,” she added.
Multiple Animation! projects – “Choco,” “Blue Deer,” for instance – still draw on Indigenous legends and myths. There’s a larger presence, however, of “stories about current concerns, such as ecology, the economy and our society’s future. What’s interesting is that these are addressed from a hopeful, optimistic viewpoint,” Cornillón observed. “The Impossible Future,” another buzz title, is one obvious case in point.
Projects are presented at pitching sessions. Four – two series and two features – are chosen by representatives of Annecy’s Mifa market and international experts to form part of a traditionally popular Animation! Special program at June’s Annecy Animation Festival in France.
Animation! 2022
Feature Film Projects
“Blue Deer,” (“Venado Azul,” Maliarts Studios, Mexico)
Produced by Maliarts, whose exquisitely toned “The Sleeping Beauty Chronicles” was a 2021 Animation! standout, and directed by Pablo Calvillo, a layout artist on “Astro Boy,” “Ice Age: Continental Drift” and “The Lego Movie.” Iyari, a young Wirikuta, sets out to stop the the imminent destruction of the Wirikuta desert by a mining company.
“Choco: The Land and the Monsters,” (“Chocó: La Tierra y los Monstrous,” Letrario, Colombia)
A parable of inclusivity in which Chocó, 13, leaves her village to confront the monster who ate her brother. But nothing is what she believed. From writer-director Estefanía Piñeres Duque, with delicate 2D character design inspired in part by the Emberá communities of Colombia’s Pacific region. A 2020 Pixelatl Estudio Pitch winner.
“The Flame of Blues, The Legend of the Francia Brothers,” (“La Llama del Blues, La Leyenda de los Hermanos Francia,” Blu Animation Studio, Argentina)
An epic 2D adventure for teens/adults of large cultural weight spanning Africa, Argentina and the Americas, as a slave raid on an African village in 1856 forces three brothers across the Atlantic. Rebelling against oppression, they kindle the origins of Blues. Directed by Pablo Guallar (“Crónicas de un exilio”), and produced by Blu Animation Studio.
“The Friends,” (Amigos,” Barry Company, Vetor Zero, Brazil)
An action comedy adventure targeting 7+s and a CG/ stop-motion hybrid. The feature debut of Gabriel Nobrega whose award-winning animated commercials include “Meu Bloco Na Rua” for Apple. A group of misfit schoolchildren friends set out to unveil the great mystery of death. They end up learning more about life.
“I Don’t Understand You,” (“Teke Uneka,” Piaggiodematei Wapisa (Argentina), Hierro Animación (Colombia), La Ballesta (Spain)
In 1830, a boy, nicknamed Jemmy Button, is abducted by the British Navy and taken to London, instructed in Christian values and returned to Tierra del Fuego to bring civilisation to his fellow Yagans. It proves a hauntingly tragic experiment. To be made in 2D rotoscoping, 2D and CG. Directed by Marcelo Dematei, whose “Cuentos de Viejos” won the CITIA/Imaginove prize for best cross-media project at 2012’s Annecy.
“My Dad the Truck,” (“Mi Papá el camion,” Pez Dorado Animaciones, Colombia)
To be made in 2D traditional animation, with paint on water and cut-outs. And that shows in delightfully textured water-coloured designs for characters and backgrounds in the salutary tale of a father from the countryside who dreams of being a truck driver. He discovers his true calling is to become a real dad.
“Rosie and the Artefact of Life,” (“Rosie o e Artefato da Vida,” Spirit Animation, Brazil)
From Brazilian heavyweights Fernando Macedo and Spirit Animation, creator-producer of “Karl,” now in its third season, for Disney XD, Amazon Prime, Wildbrain Spark and Youku, and a recent recipient of an Epic Mega Grant for “Celeste.” A family-skewed CG fantasy adventure with a young sorceress deer and blind warrior bear racing to break an ancient curse.
Series Projects
“Elementarians,” (“Elementarios,” Pablo Conde, Argentina)
A fantasy adventure linking a renegade soldier and young sorceress who unite to control their own special powers and battle a dark entity, Legion. To be directed by striking music vid helmer Conde (“60 Seconds of Darkness”) in frame-by-frame 2D.
“Esther,” (Rudo Company, Argentina)
Set in an attractively drawn 2D modern-day world, Esther, an apprentice shaman, must align her emotions with an ancestral spirit to defeat a hunter with otherworldly powers. Directed by Ezequial Torres at Rudo Company, whose “Raros peinados nuevos,” by Juan Pedro Ramos and Ailín Bustamante, won the La Liga de la Animación Iberoamericana Award at 2022’s Shortway/Pixelatl.
“The Impossible Future,” (“El Futuro Imposible,” Piensamarketing, Argentina)
Billed as an “epic animated journey through the solutions to humanity’s main problems,” the doc, made up of 13-minute episodes, turns on the protagonists of a “silent decentralized” revolution who are building a better future.” Written by Fernando Salem (“Como funcionan todas las cosas”), and directed by Antonio Balseiro (“Payada pa Satan”) and Martin Haas.
“King Gastón,” (“Rei Gastão,” Gepetto Filmes, Brazil; Sardinha em Lata, Portugal)
Set in a lovely kingdom whose impulsive monarch strews chaos. From Brazil’s Gepetto (“Chico Na ilha dos Jurubebas”) and Portugal’s Sardinha (“My Grandfather Used to Say He Saw Demons”), which allied for “Alice’s Diary.” Helmed by WildBrain alum Diogo Viegas, and written by BAFTA-nominated Steve Middleton (“Percy’s Tiger Tales”).
“My Cousin Jairo,” (“Primos Penguins,” Merkén Studios, Chile)
Jairo, an outgoing penguin from the Galapagos, must adapt to Polar Bay, the most isolated habit in Antartica, aided by distant cousin Roxy. A comedy adventure in paperless 2D animation for 6-9s from kids toon series helmer Hugo García (“MapaYa,” “Reporteros 3.0”).
“Space Rockers,” (“Roqueiros do Espaço,” Pinguim Content, Brazil)
A 2D series for 8-12s to be helmed by Celia Catunda and Kiko Mistrorigo, directors of the milestone Brazilian toon series “Fishtronaut.” A 2D comedy adventure about a rock band made up by an earthling and three aliens who travel though the galaxy, never quite making it.
“The Sun and the Moon,” (Sandra Stobschinski, México)
Winner of the Animation! Award at this September’s Pixelatl, the story of a forbidden love between Meiro, a young bodyguard, and Shinku, destined to be the region’s Samurai. Stobschinski, based out of Jalisco’s Mako Animation Studio, is set to direct a series melding digital 2D and cutouts and targeting 9-13s.
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