Alê Abreu’s ‘Perlimps’ and Milton Guerrero’s ‘Kai’ are among the five selected projects to be presented at the Animation! Works in Progress by Annecy showcase at Ventana Sur 2021, the biggest film and TV confab in Latin America.
The Animation! WIPs by Annecy sidebar is curated by the French festival and its MIFA market. Since 2020, the selection includes projects from Portugal and Spain.
This year Brazil and Peru are represented by two productions, while Portugal, Spain, France and Colombia produce or co-produce just one. Peru’s presence underscores the rise of the animation sector in the country. According to the Ibero-American Animation Quirino White Paper, Peru has seven animation training centers, three animation lobbies and a score of too production houses. A drill down on the selected titles:
“Kai” (Milton Guerrero, Peru)
Targeting children and family audiences, “Kai” follows a girl living in a world of magical creatures. When she learns she is the daughter of the great shaman Illari, she decides to obtain magical powers for herself. Along the way, she learns that she must let go of her selfish dreams of glory and use her own very human nature to change the world. The CGI project is currently at layout. Kai is directed by Milton Guerrero and produced by the country’s leading company: Lima-based Red Animation Studios (“The Adventures of Ugo and Serena the Whale”), which recently launched alongside Chile’s Punkrobot and Brazil’s Hype Animation the joint venture Los Amigos, set to build a joint production slate.
“Perlimps” (Alê Abreu, Brazil)
The Oscar-nominated director of “Boy and the World,” Brazil’s Abreu is directing this family adventure and coming-of-age parable in which Claé and Bruô, secret agents from enemy kingdoms, must overcome their differences and combine forces to face the threatening Giants and save the Perlimps from the green slime that threatens to swamp their beloved and psychedelic forest. Remarkable for its tropical hued impressionist backgrounds, “Perlimps” features a soundtrack by body percussionist Andre Hosoi who also employs electronic music and Chinese instruments.
Buriti Filmes, Sony Pictures, Globo Filmes & Gloob co-produce the project, which is scheduled to be ready for delivery in summer 2022. “Perlimps” will combine hand-paint on paper, 2D and 3D animation.
“Len and the Song of the Whales” (Joan Millán and Manuel Victoria, Colombia)
Sold by Latido Films, “Len” is directed by Joan Millán and Manuel Victoria and follows a 9-year-old girl from a coastal tribe has to decide whether to stay in her village – until she receives an astral message from her whale friends which may transform humanity.
Produced by Len and Felicitá Movies, the 3D-animated “Len” is scheduled for release in June 2023. A deeply Colombian project, it depicts fictional tribe Mapui receiving visual and emotional inspiration from an ancestral Amerindian universe, including the Kogui and Arhuaco of Santa Marta, the Nasa from Cauca, and the Inga and the Camentsä, from the highlands of Putomayo.
“Nimuendaju” (Tania Anaya, Brazil, Peru)
The animayed feature tells the story of German ethnologist Curt Nimuendajú who lived in Brazil from 1903 until his death in 1945. He devoted his life to the study of Brazilian indigenous cultures. The co-production is a 2D project trying to uncover the real story and world of Brazilian tribes, so often stereotyped unfairly portrayed in Brazil’s five centuries of “official” history. Distributed by Brazil’s Vitrine, “Nimuendaju” is directed by first time helmer Tania Anaya and co-produced by Brazil’s Anaya Produções Culturais and Peru’s Apus. Scheduled for delivery in Spring 2023.
“My Grandfather’s Demons” (Nuno Beato, Portugal, Spain, France)
Portuguese animator-producer-director Nuno Beato – multi-prized short “My Life In Your Hands” – directs his first feature, combining stop-motion and digital techniques. It follows Rosa, who returns to the rural home where she was raised by her grandfather after his sudden death. Pained by the feeling of not having returned that love, Rosa will learn to make peace with herself and others and to repair her grandfather’s past mistakes.
Targeting families, “Demons” is produced by Portugal’s Sardinha em Lata, Spain’s Caretos and France’s Midralgar. It will be ready for delivery in June 2022.
Beato was inspired by traditional symbolic Portuguese figures when designing the clay figures in the film. The movie’s landscape is heavily influenced by the scenery of Trás-os-Montes, at the Natural Park of Montesinho located on the border between Portugal and Spain’s Galicia.
2021’s Ventana Sur runs Nov 29–Dec 3.