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After a very intense and controversial Oscars season, Netflix scooped up three awards at the 2025 97th Academy Awards. That brings Netflix’s total Oscar count up to 26 statues. Here’s a full breakdown of Netflix’s past efforts at the Academy Awards and the full list of 73 nominated titles.

Netflix takes the Oscars seriously. They continue to have a massive team working on awards campaigning. Insider reported in 2022 that Netflix had a 40-person awards operation along with 15 consultants who spread their time working on campaigns for Emmys and, of course, the Oscars. Despite that massive spending and resource allocation, it’s still yet to win some of the biggest prizes of the night when some of its close rivals have. Apple TV+ notably scored Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars, and Prime Video has scooped some top awards, too.

As of 2025, Netflix has still eluded a few big awards,...

Fumi Kitahara, the animation publicist who guided award-winning campaigns for DreamWorks, Aardman, Laika, Netflix, Disney and independent studios during her distinguished 30-plus years in the industry, has died. She was 56.

Kitahara died Monday in Los Angeles of complications related to her long battle with a rare blood cancer, a spokesperson for Walt Disney Animation announced.

Among the many acclaimed animated features she helped to publicize are the first three Shrek films, Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, How to Train Your Dragon, Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, Over the Moon and The Sea Beast.

She also oversaw the awards campaigns for numerous Oscar-winning shorts, including such recent titles as The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse and War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko.

Born on March 2, 1968, Kitahara graduated from California State University Northridge with a degree in business marketing.

Fumi Kitahara, a respected publicity executive who guided award-winning campaigns for studios including DreamWorks, Aardman, Laika, Netflix and Disney, died Monday of complications related to a rare blood cancer. She was 56.

Among the features Kitahara helped publicize are the first three “Shrek” films, “Chicken Run,” “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Coraline,” “Kubo and the Two Strings,” “Over the Moon” and “The Sea Beast.”

She oversaw awards campaigns for Oscar-winning shorts such as “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse,” and “War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko.”

Kitahara graduated from Cal State Northridge and started her career in 1992 at Walt Disney Studios in the office of Howard Green, working with him on features including “The Lion King,” “Pocahontas,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Toy Story,” and “Frank and Ollie,” in addition to a variety of live-action titles.

Exclusive: Animation-focused sales company Gebeka International has unveiled new images for Little Amelie, adapted from Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb’s bestseller The Character of Rain ahead of an EFM push.

Tackling themes of self-awareness and child development, the work revolves around a child born in Japan to a Belgium family. It takes inspiration from the Japanese belief that until the age of three years old, all children are Gods, and then on their third birthday they fall from grace and join the rest of humanity.

Liane-Cho Han and Mailys Vallade’s Little Amelie is the first adaptation of Nothomb’s fictionalized autobiography tapping in her childhood in Japan.

For an intense 3 years, the young protagonist discovers language, her parents, brother and sister, a heavenly garden, passions (Japan and water), aversions (to carp), seasons and time, as she passes a period that will shape her life forever, in happiness and tragedy.

French production and sales company Charades started getting involved in animation several years ago, working with films like Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai” (2018) and Jérémy Clapin’s “I Lost My Body” (2019), both of which received Oscar nominations. But with Gints Zilbalodis’ Golden Globe best animated feature winner “Flow” and Adam Elliot’s Annecy Cristal winner “Memoir of a Snail,” 2024 stands out as the company’s most successful year yet when it comes to releasing award-winning and profitable animated features.

Both “Flow” and “Memoir” have been omnipresent during this year’s awards season and look like favorites to score Oscar nominations. That would be impressive in any year, but even more so in one in which Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks all released box office hits that have already won the hearts of audiences around the world.

More than just a pair of indie international features collecting prizes and good reviews, “Flow” and...

From a multi-Oscar-winning drama to an acclaimed musical adaptation, we’ve picked the top Netflix original movies available on the platform.

While Netflix has gained its popularity from its hit series like “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game,” and many others, the streamer has since its first original movie in 2015 been changing the game on how movies can be made and seen, producing high-quality projects and giving awards nominators and voters much to consider.

From Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour gangster epic “The Irishman” to the just-released adaptation of the recent Broadway revival of “The Piano Lesson,” starring Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher, and more, there are plenty of Netflix Originals for your next movie night. Ready to watch? Continue below for the best of what the streamer has to offer!

Sign Up $6.99+ / month netflix.com Top 7 Original Movies Streaming Right Now on Netflix:

No. 7: Dolemite Is My Name

No.

Animator/director Jérémy Clapin (the Oscar-nominated “I Lost My Body”) makes his live-action feature debut with the French sci-fi drama “Meanwhile on Earth.” It concerns Elsa (Megan Northam), the grieving sister of an astronaut lost in space, Franck (Sébastien Pouderoux), who’s unable to move on with her life. But she receives a ray of hope when an alien contacts her with a dark proposal for her brother’s safe return.

For Clapin, “Meanwhile on Earth” was an opportunity to explore his fascination with outer space via the theme of loss. Live-action provided a new means of expressing his surreal sensibility. Elsa’s painful journey is depicted as both reality and imagination. She works in a hospice, drawing pictures of the patients as an aspiring graphic novelist, but retreats inside her head, where her brother is still with her. For this, the director incorporated black-and-white animated sequences in which Elsa...

Halloween may be over but the good news is that the horror genre never sleeps. And that’s why the first full week of November is kicking off with Five brand new horror movie releases.

Here’s all the new horror that released on Friday, November 8, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

From directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, A24 released Heretic in theaters nationwide beginning last night. A24’s latest big screen horror villain? Hugh Grant!

Hugh Grant (D&d: Honor Among Thieves), Chloe East (The Fabelmans) and Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets”) lead the cast of A24’s new horror movie. In the film…

“Two young missionaries are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by Mr. Reed, becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse.”

Heretic made its world premiere back in September at TIFF, which...

Known for his animation work, French filmmaker Jérémy Clapin is fascinated by the parts of ourselves that life forces us to leave behind. More specifically, he’s fascinated by their absence, and what it means for someone to feel “whole” in the aftermath of a profound loss.

2019’s miraculous “I Lost My Body” told the story of a severed hand as it crawled across the suburbs of Paris in search of the man to whom it once belonged. With “Meanwhile on Earth,” his live-action debut, Clapin returns with a similarly beguiling — if much less resonant — approach to body horror, this one about a grieving 23-year-old nurse who’s told that she can reconnect with her missing brother: an astronaut presumed dead after he disappears from a mission in deep space.

Elsa (Megan Northam) is so desperate to hear Franck’s voice again that she would presumably do anything it told her,...

Meanwhile on Earth (Pendant ce temps sur Terre) from writer/director Jeremy Clapin (I Lost My Body) is a slow-burn sci-fi story of grief and loss, and arrested development. The film stars Megan Northam (The Passengers of The Night) as Elsa, a budding illustrator and sister to famed astronaut who never returned from a fateful space mission. In her small French town, her brother Franck even has a bronze statue immortalizing him…which she routinely vandalizes to make him look like a superhero. Needless to say, it’s been hard for Elsa and her family to move on and Franck is never far from their thoughts.

In a bizarre twist, Elsa is contacted by her brother after she enters a paranormal vortex while gazing at the stars. But when her connection to Franck is cut short, and an unknown entity begins communicating with Elsa, she learns that she has been...

Writer/Director Jérémy Clapin, whose 2019 animated debut, I Lost My Body, earned an Academy Award nomination, makes the jump to live-action with the sci-fi thriller Meanwhile on Earth. Today, we have an exclusive clip that sets up violent psychological horror.

Metrograph Pictures releases Meanwhile on Earth in theaters on November 8, 2024.

In the film, “Elsa, along with her family, is struggling following the disappearance of her brother Franck, an astronaut who vanished during his first mission. While stargazing one night, Elsa is shocked to receive contact from Franck, but her joy is short-lived when she learns of the dark and troubling forces behind Franck’s reappearance, forcing her to confront the lengths she will go for the brother she once feared was gone forever.”

Sébastien Pouderoux, Catherine Salée, and Dimitri Doré also star.

Watch the clip below, which unleashes a violent chainsaw confrontation in the woods. Or does it? Things are...

Writer-director Jérémy Clapin follows up his acclaimed animated film I Lost My Body with a science fiction drama that explores similar territory. Meanwhile on Earth tells the story of Elsa, a young woman still grieving the disappearance of her astronaut brother Frank three years ago.

Living a stagnant life in their small French town, Elsa finds her routine disrupted when she begins receiving messages from beyond. Claiming to have Franck, a mysterious voice offers to return him if Elsa assists some visitors from outer space.

As Elsa delves deeper into this strange situation, she faces troubling choices that test both her love for Franck and her own sense of ethics. Clapin skillfully integrates supernatural elements into Elsa’s very human experience of trauma and loss, raising profound questions. What is the value we place on human life, and how far would we go for those we love? Meanwhile on Earth...

Oscar-nominated “I Lost My Body” director Jérémy Clapin’s science fiction drama “Meanwhile on Earth,” his live-action debut, will hit theaters in the U.S. Nov. 8, distributed by Metrograph Pictures.

The film follows Elsa (Megan Northam) who, three years after her brother Franck disappears in outer space, spends her days obsessing over the loss. Frozen in place by her grief, she passes her days at a dead-end job, visiting Franck’s bedroom or drawing comics to help cope. One picturesque evening, while stargazing near a radio tower, Elsa receives a message only she can hear from an extraterrestrial entity who says they can get Franck back to Earth, but only at a tremendous cost.

Like “I Lost My Body” before it, “Meanwhile on Earth” was produced by Marc du Pontavice, a prolific animation producer and the founder and president of Xilam Animation. It was co-produced by Carcadice, France 3 Cinéma,...

In writer-director Jérémy Clapin’s downbeat science-fiction film Meanwhile on Earth, the promises of the future are already the naïve and tarnished daydreams of the past, while the present is a matter of inexorable decline. Lit in wintry tones of disillusionment, nearly every shot in Clapin’s follow-up to I Lost My Body evokes a kind of post-Futurist mood. At the same time, there are flashes of nostalgia for what we thought the present could be—if only we had believed in those daydreams hard enough for them to become reality.

The film tells the story of Elsa (Megan Northam), a young woman whose brother, Franck (voiced by Sébastien Pouderoux), has disappeared into the vacuum of outer space on an exploration mission. Her talent as an illustrator motivates Meanwhile on Earth’s several animated daydreams, in which she meets with Franck on a spacecraft that suggests something out of a Mœbius comic.

"A stunning sci-fi experience." Metrograph Pics has revealed another teaser for the indie sci-fi film titled Meanwhile on Earth, from French filmmaker Jérémy Clapin. It's now rescheduled to open in November, shifting a few months from the initial September date for a better fit later in the fall. This first premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival earlier in the year. Jérémy Clapin is the same director who made the excellent animated film I Lost My Body, which anyone can now watch on Netflix. In this new film, a young woman is contacted by her missing brother, an astronaut who vanished on a mission, but all is not what it seems in this sci-fi thriller. The intro from Berlinale explains: "Siblings Elsa & Franck were always very close. When Franck mysteriously disappeared during a space mission three years ago, everything changed for Elsa. Since then, the 23-year-old has struggled to move on with her life.

“They’ve gone into their dream.” That’s what the non-corporeal extraterrestrial entity (voiced by Dimitri Doré) says through a highly malleable seed that Elsa Martens (Megan Northam) places in her ear. The words are meant to comfort her when the first of its victims is imperceptibly replaced by one of its companions––that the person she knew the body to be didn’t die. It was instead painlessly sent away to exist in a realm we can assume will bring it joy. Does this fact make it easier to deal with the task she’s been asked to undertake? Nothing about choosing four more people for this alien to use as vessels in exchange for bringing her brother back to Earth is easy, but she’s going to try anyway.

Writer-director Jérémy Clapin’s Meanwhile on Earth presents us with a world where thick-as-thieves siblings Elsa and Franck are no longer together.

Metrograph Pictures is releasing Jérémy Clapin's sci-fi drama, Meanwhile on Earth, in cinemas on September 13th.    A 23 year-old girl is contacted by an unknown life form claiming to be able to bring her older brother safely back to Earth, who disappeared during a space mission.   Metrograph released the trailer today. Check it out below the long synopsis. Meanwhile on Earth also happens to be playing at Fantasia next week on the 22nd, for its North American premiere.    From the director of I Lost My Body (Academy Award®-nominated Best Animated Feature) comes a thrilling new sci-fi vision   Metrograph Pictures will release Meanwhile On Earth in theaters September 13, 2024   Elsa, along with...

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

Writer/Director Jérémy Clapin, whose 2019 animated debut, I Lost My Body, earned an Academy Award nomination, makes the jump to live-action with the sci-fi thriller Meanwhile on Earth. Today, we have a first look trailer that introduces a strange mystery from space.

Metrograph Pictures releases Meanwhile on Earth in theaters on September 13, 2024.

In the film, “Elsa, along with her family, is struggling following the disappearance of her brother Franck, an astronaut who vanished during his first mission. While stargazing one night, Elsa is shocked to receive contact from Franck, but her joy is short-lived when she learns of the dark and troubling forces behind Franck’s reappearance, forcing her to confront the lengths she will go for the brother she once feared was gone forever.”

Watch the trailer below, which goes heavy on the psychological as strange things begin to happen surrounding Elsa’s search for her brother.

It may...

After crafting one of the most imaginative animated films of the last few years with the Oscar-nominated Cannes premiere I Lost My Body, director Jérémy Clapin returned this year in the live-action realm Meanwhile on Earth. World premiering at Berlinale earlier this year, ahead of a stop at Fantasia Film Festival and a theatrical release beginning on September 13, Metrograph Pictures have now released the first trailer and poster.

Here’s the synopsis: “Elsa, along with her family, is struggling following the disappearance of her brother Franck, an astronaut who vanished during his first mission. While stargazing one night, Elsa is shocked to receive contact from Franck, but her joy is short-lived when she learns of the dark and troubling forces behind Franck’s reappearance, forcing her to confront the lengths she will go for the brother she once feared was gone forever. “

See the trailer and poster below.

The post...

After directing the Oscar-nominated animated film “I Lost My Body,” Jérémy Clapin now finds himself making his first live-action feature.

Clapin writes and directs the drama “Meanwhile on Earth,” which stars newcomer Megan Northam as a girl who grieves her missing astronaut brother. However, all may not be as it seems.

The official synopsis reads: “Elsa (Northam), along with her family, is struggling following the disappearance of her brother Franck, an astronaut who vanished during his first mission. While stargazing one night, Elsa is shocked to receive contact from Franck, but her joy is short-lived when she learns of the dark and troubling forces behind Franck’s reappearance, forcing her to confront the lengths she will go for the brother she once feared was gone forever.”

The film is produced by Marc du Pontavice and will be distributed by Metrograph Pictures. Rising outfit Metrograph is making a splash this year...

"No one will ever know we are among you." Metrograph Pictures has revealed an official trailer for an indie sci-fi film titled Meanwhile on Earth, from French filmmaker Jérémy Clapin. This premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, and opens in art house theaters in the US starting in September this fall. Jérémy Clapin is the same director who made the excellent animated film I Lost My Body, which anyone can now watch on Netflix. In this new film, a young woman is contacted by her missing brother, an astronaut who vanished on a mission, but all is not what it seems in this sci-fi thriller. The intro from Berlinale: "Siblings Elsa & Franck were always very close. When Franck mysteriously disappeared during a space mission three years ago, everything changed for Elsa. Since then, the 23-year-old has struggled to move on with her life. One day she is contacted by an...

The Annecy Animation Festival hosted its closing ceremony on Saturday, where there were two clear winners from the main feature film competition. Adam Elliot’s “Memoir of a Snail” took Annecy’s top award, the Cristal for best feature, and Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” scooped just about everything else.

Australian stop-motion feature “Memoir of a Snail” is the latest from Elliot, an Academy Award winner who scored the animated short statue in 2004 with his stop-motion film “Harvie Krumpet.” This time around, the director offers the heartstring-pulling story of Grace Pudel, a lonely misfit who loves collecting snails.

“There’s a magic to 100%-CG-free stop-motion, with its cellophane flames and tears made of sexual lubricant,” wrote Variety Chief Film Critic Peter Debruge in his review of the film. “Don’t be surprised if ‘Memoir’ has you shedding real ones in your seat.”

Zilbalodis’ “Flow” won a four-pack of honors at this year...

The seventh edition of Animation is Film (Aif), a Los Angeles-based sister event to France’s prestigious Annecy Animation Festival, will run October 18-20 at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theaters in Hollywood this fall.

Launched in 2017, “The Festival embraces the highest aspirations of animation as a cinematic art form on par with live action and is a vocal advocate for filmmakers who push the boundaries of their work to the fullest range of expression that the medium is capable of,” reads the Aif mission statement.

The festival’s executive director, Matt Kaszanek, put it more succinctly during last year’s event: “Animation Is Film is not just the name of our festival; it is its mission.”

Animation is Film fills a gap in the U.S. market, which has no dedicated animation festivals on par with those in Europe, Asia, and Canada. The annual autumn event is also becoming something of an Oscar-season bellwether.

Update: Netflix has unveiled a new teaser for the show, so you can see some of it in action for yourselves. Our original article continues below.

If nothing else, Zack Snyder has a distinct style. Much like Michael Bay, you can recognize a Snyder film the moment you watch it. Whether you clock his use of slow motion, his eye for striking imagery and poses, or his slick action, Snyder's background in music video directing means he knows how to craft memorable images in a short amount of time with limited resources.

This is to say, Zack Snyder was always meant to work in animation. Say what you will about his owl movie, which no one saw, but "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" showed this, with fantastic visuals that matched Snyder's narrative obsession with myth-making.

Now, he's getting another chance at it, with "Twilight of the Gods.

Netflix Animation held its first slate preview event June 6 at the Tudum in L.A., as a lead-up to the Annecy Animation Festival (June 9-15), where it will premiere Shannon Tindle’s “Ultraman: Rising” (streaming June 14) and tout some of its upcoming works in 2024 and 2025.

Hosted by Christopher Sean (the voice star of “Ultraman: Rising”), attendees were treated to exclusive presentations, previews, and special announcements. The biggest announcement was the full title of Aardman’s next stop-motion feature, “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” which will have an Oscar-qualifying run this winter before streaming in 2025.

Directed by franchise creator Nick Park and creative director Merlin Crossingham, who offered a pre-recorded introduction, “Vengeance Most Fowl” marks the return of the villainous penguin, Feathers McGraw, from the Oscar-winning short “The Wrong Trousers.” The film is a cautionary tale of high-tech gone wrong involving an out-of-control “smart gnome” with a mind of its own.

LevelFilm has acquired a brace of festival favorite films from Metrograph Pictures for Canadian distribution.

India Donaldson’s feature directorial debut “Good One” world premiered at Sundance and screened at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. In the coming-of-age drama, 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) embarks on a three-day backpacking trip in the Catskills with her dad, Chris (James Le Gros) and his oldest friend, Matt (Danny McCarthy). As the two men quickly settle into a gently quarrelsome brotherly dynamic, airing long-held grievances, Sam attempts to mediate their disputes. But when lines are crossed and Sam’s trust is betrayed, tensions reach a fever pitch.

“Meanwhile on Earth” is the live-action debut of Jérémy Clapin who was nominated for an Academy Award for his adult animated film “I Lost My Body.” The film, which premiered at the Berlinale earlier this year, stars Meghan Northam (“The Passengers of the Night”) in her debut feature starring role.

Urban Sales has closed a raft of deals on the upcoming animated feature “Into the Wonderwoods” ahead of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Special Screenings section.

The film, which bows with a special screening May 22 at the prestigious French fest, has sold to 45 territories, the Paris-based sales outfit announced during the Cannes Market. Pic has sold to Volga for the Cis territories and the Baltics; Selim Ramia & Co. for the Mena region; Skyline for Vietnam; New Horizons for Poland; Ascot Elite for Switzerland; Movies Inspired for Italy; Vercine for Spain; and Pris Audiovisuais for Portugal.

The family animation next travels to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival to compete in the main competition for the prestigious Cristal award. Le Pacte will be releasing the film in France on Oct. 23. Advanced negotiations are ongoing for Benelux, China, Germany, Turkey, Latin America and North America.

“Into the Wonderwoods...

Cannes Critics’ Week, now in its 63rd year, is always an opportunity to explore uncharted work from new and emerging filmmakers — and away from the glitter and glitz of the Croisette, where the main competition bows. Recent Critics’ Week Grand Prize winners have included everything from “Tiger Stripes,” a Malaysian coming-of-age debut opening in stateside theaters later this month, to 2019’s honoree “I Lost My Body,” the animated favorite that went on to be nominated for an Oscar.

Coming up in the Special Screenings category of Critics’ Week, Alexis Langlois makes their feature directorial debut with “Queens of Drama,” a French pop/punk musical that brings a mid-aughts camp sensibility to Cannes this year. Below, IndieWire shares an exclusive clip for the film along with a first-look image. “Queens of Drama” premieres at Critics’ Week on Saturday, May 18, with Charades handling sales.

Per the synopsis, in 2005, Mimi Madamour, the young pop idol,...

Two of France’s fastest-rising young stars, Lyna Khoudri and Rio Vega, will lead the French voice cast of animated feature “In Waves,” an unconditional first love story, and tale of loss and memories adapting American illustrator Aj Dungo’s same-titled multi-prized graphic novel.

An anticipated banner prestige animation title from Paris-based Silex Films, “In Waves” lead producer, the feature also marks the first animated co-production of both Anonymous Content and Charades, behind sales of Jeremy Clapin’s “I Lost My Body” and Mamoru Hosoda’s “Mirai,” both Oscar nominated titles.

In Waves is directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, a former student of French animation schools Gobelins and La Poudrière who helmed episodes of the Silex-produced animated series “Brazen” and was Oscar-shortlisted for her short “My Home,” “In Waves” has just been announced as one of five titles at the Annecy Animation Showcase, part of Cannes’ Animation Day on May...

Veteran French distributor Rezo Films is closing its doors after more than 32 years and nearly 400 films after struggling to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive distribution landscape.

Founded in 1992 by Jean-Michel Rey and Nadia Lassoujade, Rezo Films helped to launch the careers of several French auteurs including Abdellatif Kechiche, Pascal Bonitzer, Catherine Corsini, Xavier Dolan, Gaspar Noé, Stéphane Brizé and Jeremy Clapin.

Several of those films performed well for arthouse titles in the territory including Clapin’s debut feature I Lost My Body in 2019, Brizé’s Mademoiselle Chambon in 2009, and Kechiche’s Games Of Love And Chance (L’Esquive) with 373,618 tickets...

Exclusive: New York-based distributor Metrograph Pictures has acquired North American rights to French director Jérémy Clapin’s sci-fi drama Meanwhile on Earth following its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama section last month.

The lost sibling tale marks the first live-action feature for Clapin after his 2019 Oscar-nominated, Netflix-acquired animated movie I Lost My Body, which originally world premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week and also won the Cristal for Best film at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 2019

The drama follows a young woman who is struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of her brother, an astronaut who vanished during his first mission.

While stargazing one night, she is shocked to receive contact from her him, but her joy is short-lived when she learns of the dark and troubling forces behind his reappearance, forcing her to confront the lengths she will go for the brother she once feared was gone forever.

Originally developed as an eight-episode series, the maritime adventure “Lucy Lost” will instead hit the silver screen now that Paris-based powerhouse Xilam Animation has retooled the project as a feature. “Klaus” alum Olivier Clert has boarded as co-writer and director, joining BAFTA-winning screenwriter Helen Blakeman for a seaside family tale adapted from “War Horse” author Michael Morpurgo’s 2014 novel “Listen to the Moon.”

Xilam has shared this first-look with Variety ahead of the reformatted project’s pitch at Cartoon Movie in Bordeaux.

Set on the Isles of Scilly just off the Cornish coast, the film follows a young girl named Lucy raised by a clan of fishermen she knows not to be hers. However, she remembers little else about her past, and as a terrible war rages off in the distance, a chance encounter with the mysterious girl her own age soon helps Lucy put back the pieces of her...

One of my favorite films from 2019 is an animated French feature called I Lost My Body, about hand that runs off from a lab and a guy who encounters it. I was delighted to discover that the filmmaker behind I Lost My Body, named Jérémy Clapin, already has a new science fiction film finished and ready. His latest film is titled Meanwhile on Earth, also known as Pendant ce temps sur Terre in French, and it premiered at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section. I'm glad I caught up with it, even though I didn't even know it was playing at Berlinale until halfway through when other colleagues started talking about it. Meanwhile on Earth is a mesmerizing little sci-fi film about a woman connecting with extraterrestrial life. Not a knockout, nothing to phone home about, but vibrant filmmaking that kept me intrigued. It may not end up...

Best Friend Forever has acquired international rights to emerging director Dania Reymond-Boughenou’s debut feature “Silent Storms,” a supernatural film set in a fictional Arab city.

Currently in post production, the movie follows Nacer, a 45-year-old journalist who is observing the appearance of strange yellow sandstorms looming over Algiers and its surroundings. While covering the phenomenon for his newspaper, he starts witnessing more and more supernatural events, until his late wife Fajar returns to life. Faced with increasingly threatening storms, Samir has to face a dark past that haunts him.

“Silent Storms” stars Khaled Benaïssa (“Papicha”), singer-turned-director Camélia Jordana, Shirine Boutella (“Lupin”) and Mehdi Ramdani. The movie is scored by Dan Levy (“I Lost my Body”).

Reymond-Boughenou previously directed the short film “Constellation de la Rouguiere,” which was selected for Fid Marseille and Clermont Ferrand film festivals.

The helmer said she wanted the film to depict the reappearing of a traumatic memory.

Grief is a concept that everyone with a heart can relate to, but it’s not always something that everyone with a brain can deal with. Riffing on Jean Cocteau’s 1950 classic Orphée and giving it a very modern makeover, French writer-director Jérémy Clapin explores that very paradox with Meanwhile on Earth, a strange, poetic, and endearingly surreal meditation on the counterintuitive ways in which we react when confronted with loss.

In a very literal way, Clapin has been here before, with his acclaimed and surprisingly poignant 2019 animated film I Lost My Body, in which the disembodied hand of a pizza delivery boy goes on a journey to find the rest of itself. This much more cryptic follow-up pushes the notion a whole lot further, and whether it works or not will be in the eye of the beholder.

The loss this time is felt by Elsa (Megan Northam), who...

“Close to You,” the Elliot Page-starring drama directed by BAFTA winner Dominic Savage, will be introduced to international buyers at the European Film Market by former Charades exec Jean-Félix Dealberto.

The film, which was written by Savage and Page, and also stars Hillary Baack (“Sound of Metal”), had its world premiere in Toronto, where Greenwich Entertainment acquired U.S. distribution rights.

“Close to You” follows Sam (Page), who moved to Toronto from his small town on Lake Ontario, Canada, and finally decides to return home to visit his family for his dad’s birthday. On his journey, he has a chance encounter with a friend from high school (Baack) that sparks old feelings. It is on this trip where Sam can finally confront long-buried feelings, a first love that was never properly resolved, his relationship with his family and a newfound love and confidence in himself.

The film was...

The Berlinale has completed the lineup for its Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum expanded sections, with new films from Levan Akin and Andre Techine, plus the debut feature of US playwright Annie Baker.

Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.

Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features

Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSBreak no.1 & Break no.2..The lineups for select sections of the 2024 editions of the Berlinale and International Film Festival Rotterdam have been unveiled, with films from Panorama, Forum, Forum Expanded, Generation, and Berlinale Special announced for the former, and the Tiger and Big Screen competitions at the latter. In Berlin, so far, we are excited by the prospect of new films by Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) and Jérémy Clapin (I Lost My Body), whereas in Rotterdam, we have our eye on new work by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and Lei Lei. As the year comes to a close, the Best of 2023 lists keep coming. Sight & Sound shared the seventh edition of their always-interesting poll of the best video essays of the year,...

The filmmaking duo, whose debut film Gagarine earned the Cannes Label in 2020 and found its way to cinephiles amidst the challenges of the pandemic, have been gradually crafting their next project. Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh will move into production next spring on Les Yeux Verts — it will be produced by June Films’ Naomi Denamur and Julie Billy (who just completed production on the highly anticipated feature debut by Ariane Labed). Casting is currently underway for what will be another film with young protagonists – the pre-teen and teen demo. We have no idea what the plotline is, but the project was co-written with Guillaume Laurent of Amélie and I Lost My Body fame.…...

Julien Bisaro and Claire Paoletti, the French director-writer team behind award-winning short Shooom’s Odyssey (2020) are setting their feature debut. The duo pitched the animated feature La Petite Cavale (On The Run) to co-production partners, as well as producers and broadcasters, at an industry session at this year’s Annecy animation festival on Wednesday. Bisaro and Paoletti screened a two-minute pilot for the project, which France’s Picolo Pictures are producing.

The kids-friendly feature focuses on Cookie, a male penguin who cannot lay an egg. When a volcanic eruption disrupts his New Zealand refuge and rolls an echidna egg in his path, Cookie takes it as a sign that this is the opportunity for fatherhood he has been longing for, and decides to raise the echidna chick as his own.

The bird theme and focus on parenthood recall Bisaro and Paoletti’s Shooom’s Odyssey, which told the story of little owl...

“Nimona” took a twisty road to the big screen. But now it’s ready for its debut at Annecy Animation Film Festival. Pictured above is an exclusive still from the anticipated fantasy adventure.

Based on the graphic novel by N.D. Stevenson, the feature follows Ballister Boldheart, a knight in a futuristic medieval world who is framed for a crime he didn’t commit. The only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona, a mischievous teen who happens to be a shapeshifting creature he’s sworn to destroy.

“Nimona” started out at 20th Century Fox’s animation shingle Blue Sky Studios, which optioned the novel in 2015. Nick Bruno and Troy Quane were brought onboard in 2020 when creative direction of the film changed. The film continued production apace even after Disney completed its $71.9 billion merger with 20th Century Fox in 2019.

Production continued during the pandemic as well, but then in 2021, Disney shuttered Blue Sky.

Charades has acquired “Flow,” a 3D animated feature directed by Gints Zilbalodis, the Annie-nominated filmmaker of “Away”.

Produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio and Take Five, “Flow” will be presented in the Work-in-Progress section in Annecy.

Zilbalodis penned the feature with Matiss Kaza at Dream Well Studio and Ron Dyens (“Barking Island”) at Sacrebleu Productions who are acting as co-writers and producers.

“Flow” is currently in production in Marseille, Paris and Bruxelles, with an expected delivery date during the second quarter of 2024.

“Flow” is set in the aftermath of a terrible flood that ravages the world and follows a stubbornly independent cat who is forced to share a boat with a group of other animals. Getting along with them proves to be an even greater challenge than surviving the flood.

Zilbalodis, a Latvian filmmaker and animator, made his feature debut at the age of 24 with “Away.” The movie...

Every year at the Cannes Film Festival, there's one extraordinary animated film that quietly premieres in one of the side sections. Some of my other favorites from the past are: I Lost My Body (2019), The Summit of the Gods (2021), and Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be (2022). This year's big animation discovery is a French animated feature called Mars Express, a hard sci-fi creation from director Jérémie Périn. At the fest there's also the animated film Robot Dreams, which I already reviewed and it's wonderful as well, but this one completely rocked me. Both of these films involve robots, which is a bit of a fun coincidence. Mars Express is pretty much a French update on the iconic Japanese anime Ghost in the Shell, featuring a noir story involving androids and artificial intelligence and hacking and robots galore. While it's not as great as Gits, it's as close as anyone has...

Zack Snyder has been a busy boy since his guardianship of the DC movie universe came to an end following principal photography on "Justice League." Though he eventually returned to finish his version of that film, the multi-hyphenate filmmaker has since settled in firmly at Netflix and is focusing on original stories rather than pre-existing franchises. Among these projects is "Twilight of the Gods," a 2D animated action series based on Norse mythology.

The project marks another return to Snyder's filmmaking roots. He made his feature directorial debut in 2004 with the very well-received remake of George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," and his first project for Netflix was the Las Vegas-set undead action horror "Army of the Dead." Snyder's second feature-length film debuted back in 2006 and secured his status as a rising talent to watch: the epic historical war movie "300," inspired by the legendary Battle of Thermopylae. "Twilight of the Gods...

Exclusive: Paris-based sales and production company Charades and London-based production and financing studio Anton are partnering on the worldwide sales of Oscar-winning Australian director Adam Elliot’s upcoming stop-motion drama Memoir Of A Snail.

The poignant tale of a young lonely misfit is the second feature after the award-winning 2019 animation Mary And Max for Elliot, who won an Oscar for the 2004 short Harvey Krumpet.

The partners have unveiled a first image as well as some first members of international voice cast featuring Jacki Weaver (Yellowstone), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Elvis), Dominique Pinon, Magda Szubanski, and Eric Bana (The Dry).

The lead cast has yet to be announced.

The animated feature is produced by Arenamedia, with Liz Kearney (Paper Planes) as producer, and Robert Connolly (The Dry) and Robert Patterson as Executive Producers.

The film is currently shooting in Melbourne, Australia, with an expected release date...

Anonymous Content has come on board California surf-themed animated feature adapted from illustrator Aj Dungo’s celebrated graphic memoir, “In Waves.”

Produced by Paris-based Silex Films, “In Waves” marks the feature debut of Phuong Mai Nguyen (“Brazen”), and is being penned by Fanny Burdino and Samuel Doux, whose screenwriting credits include “After Love” and “The Origin of Evil.”

The feature is produced by Priscilla Bertin and Judith Nora, co-Founders of Silex Films, alongside Charades and Nick Shumaker, Garrett Kemble, and David Levine who will executive produce on behalf of Anonymous Content.

“We fell in love immediately with ‘In Waves’ on first read,” said Nick Shumaker on behalf of Anonymous Content. “Its themes of first love, loss, and memory will speak to worldwide audiences across age ranges and demographics, and is a needed anecdote to help inject positive emotion back into our everyday,” Shumaker continued. He pointed out the projects marks...

Oscar-nominated Xilam Animation will serve as animation studio for Zack Snyder’s upcoming epic 2D animated action series Twilight of the Gods.

Set in the world of Norse mythology, the series is created by Snyder, who directs two episodes, Jay Olivia, who also directs, and Eric Carrasco. Series is executive produced by Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder and Wesley Coller, and produced by Zack and Deborah Snyder’s production company The Stone Quarry. Carrasco also serves as producer.

Xilam’s animation services on the animated series will include lay-out, colour Bg, animation and compositing.

“We’re so proud to be working with the team at Stone Quarry, including iconic creator and director Zack Snyder. And we’re also deeply grateful to Netflix for trusting us to bring his spectacular vision to life,” said Marc du Pontavice, Founder and CEO at Xilam Animation. “We’ll be utilising state of the art 2D animation across the series,...

Xilam Animation will serve as animation studio on Zack Snyder’s upcoming Netflix series “Twilight of the Gods.”

The series was originally announced in 2019. Little is known about the plot other than it will ancient Norse mythology. The voice cast includes: Sylvia Hoeks, Stuart Martin, Pilou Asbaek, John Noble, Paterson Joseph, Rahul Kohli, Jamie Clayton, Kristopher Hivju, Peter Stormare, Jamie Chung, Lauren Cohan, and Corey Stroll. The series does not yet have a premiere date.

Xilam’s animation services on the animated series will include lay-out, colour Bg, animation and compositing. The studio’s past credits include the Oscar-nominated feature “I Lost My Body” as well as shows like “Oggy and the Cockroaches,” “Zig & Sharko,” and “Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life.”

“We’re so proud to be working with the team at Stone Quarry, including iconic creator and director Zack Snyder,” said Marc du Pontavice, founder and CEO at Xilam Animation.

“Hina is Beautiful,” a new film from Japan’s Iwaisawa Kenji, director of the cult “On-Gaku: Our Sound”), headlines an Annecy Animation Showcase at this year’s Cannes’ Marché du Film.

The Showcase in general looks like a declaration of intentions from the world’s most important animation festival. Its shows heartfelt support for some of the world’s most original, redolent and sometimes riotous – think France’s Jul, Brazil’s Otto Guerra – adult animation auteurs of all ages, hailing from four corners of the earth.

All productions are works in progress, though production status varies radically from one title to another.

“Hina” looks to have largely flown under the international radar to date, which will make this year’s Showcase a must-attend after Iwaisawa burst onto the scene with left-of-field musical comedy “On-Gaku,” hailed by Variety as 2020’s “biggest dark horse in anime fandom.” If it’s half as...

The best-animated films are not always from Disney or Pixar, and some recently released great animated movies prove precisely that. Since its inception from the days of early hand-drawn classics like Bambi and Snow White, animation in cinema has come a long way in terms of production. However, some key ingredients that made the classics so incredibly captivating, including their sense of wonder, fascinating narratives, and larger-than-life characters, are still primary drivers of animated movies. Owing to this, as long as they have engaging and meaningful stories to tell, it does not matter whether the industry's two giants helm them or just ambitious up-and-coming indie studios.

For instance, while Disney allowed viewers to experience the enchanting adventures of Encanto's Mirabel, CoMix Wave Films brought a unique climate-conscious romantic narrative to the big screens with Weathering With You. Similarly, while Pixar expanded the Toy Story franchise with sequels and spin-offs, Netflix...