The Cannes Film Festival has confirmed that “Another Day of Life,” one of the most-awaited of European animation films, will receive a special screening at this year’s edition. News of the movie’s inclusion follows the announcement of a batch of other late additions to Cannes’ official selection Thursday, including Lars von Trier’s “The House That Jack Built” and Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.”
“Another Way of Life” chronicles the graphic, harrowing and near-hallucinatory experiences during the 1975 Angolan civil war that drove Polish war correspondent Ryszard Kapuściński to write the book that forged his literary reputation. The animation-live action hybrid film wowed attendees at an industry gathering last month at Bordeaux’s Cartoon Movie event, where 15 minutes of footage was shown at a sneak-peek screening. Attendees were impressed with the mix of animation, live-action cutaways, archive footage and contemporary interviews.
Following the footage screening, sales agent Indie Sales and Spain’s Raúl de la Fuente, who directed with Poland’s Damian Nenow, were mobbed by a small crowd of admirers and buyers. “Another Day of Life” subsequently won Cartoon Movie’s Producer of the Year Award.
It joins a small but growing number of European animation features to have made the cut at Cannes’ Official Selection. “The Little Prince,” from France’s On Animation Studios, played out of competition in 2015; “Zombillenium,” from France’s Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord, snagged a special screening last year. Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux has previously programmed major Hollywood animation titles, such as “Up,” which opened Cannes in 2009, and “Inside Out” in 2015.
“Another Day of Life” is a six-way European co-production between companies in Poland (Platige Films), Spain (Kanaki Films), Belgium (Walking the Dog), Germany (Wuste Film, Animationfabrik) and Hungary (Puppetworks).
The Cannes Film Festival runs May 8-19.
