Feature inspired by work of René Goscinny, Jean-Jaques Sempé to open December 16.
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
- 12/9/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Feature inspired by work of René Goscinny, Jean-Jaques Sempé to open December 16.
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
- 12/9/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
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“Little Nicolas,” the nostalgic, hand-drawn ode to the popular French children’s book series and its creators — René Goscinny (“Asterix”) and the late illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé — won the Grand Prize at the fifth annual Animation Is Film Festival (Aif), held last weekend at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theaters in Hollywood. This should help the France-Luxembourg release from directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre secure U.S. distribution.
“My Father’s Dragon” (Cartoon Saloon/Netflix), the 2D adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s classic children’s book, from Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey (“The Breadwinner”), took home the Special Jury prize. This provides some heat as Cartoon Saloon chases its fifth Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination.
The Audience Award went to “Aurora’s Sunrise,” the animated documentary from director Inna Sahakyan, which tells the remarkable story of Aurora Mardiganian, who survived the Armenian genocide as a teenager, and came to America, where she...
“Little Nicolas,” the nostalgic, hand-drawn ode to the popular French children’s book series and its creators — René Goscinny (“Asterix”) and the late illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé — won the Grand Prize at the fifth annual Animation Is Film Festival (Aif), held last weekend at the Tcl Chinese 6 Theaters in Hollywood. This should help the France-Luxembourg release from directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre secure U.S. distribution.
“My Father’s Dragon” (Cartoon Saloon/Netflix), the 2D adaptation of Ruth Stiles Gannett’s classic children’s book, from Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey (“The Breadwinner”), took home the Special Jury prize. This provides some heat as Cartoon Saloon chases its fifth Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination.
The Audience Award went to “Aurora’s Sunrise,” the animated documentary from director Inna Sahakyan, which tells the remarkable story of Aurora Mardiganian, who survived the Armenian genocide as a teenager, and came to America, where she...
- 10/27/2022
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Alain Ughetto’s ‘Interdit aux chiens et aux italiens’ scoops two awards.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre’s French-Luxembourgish 2D animation Little Nicholas – Happy As Can Be won the Cristal for a Feature Film at Annecy International Animation Festival, which held its awards on Saturday, June 18.
Produced by France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions, the film follows the adventures of a mischievous boy and his schoolmates, teacher and parents in 1960s Paris.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The story is by Anne Goscinny, Michel Fessler and Massoubre, with Julien Maret leading the animation. France’s Charades is handling world sales,...
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre’s French-Luxembourgish 2D animation Little Nicholas – Happy As Can Be won the Cristal for a Feature Film at Annecy International Animation Festival, which held its awards on Saturday, June 18.
Produced by France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions, the film follows the adventures of a mischievous boy and his schoolmates, teacher and parents in 1960s Paris.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The story is by Anne Goscinny, Michel Fessler and Massoubre, with Julien Maret leading the animation. France’s Charades is handling world sales,...
- 6/20/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Michel Fessler, co-writer of “Little Nicholas,” selected at Cannes this year as a special screening, has boarded Ravi K. Chandran’s “Tamara” as scriptwriter.
Based on a story by Paris-based playwright and actor Vasanth Selvam (“Dheepan”), the film will follow 26-year-old Indian origin woman Tamara from Camargue in the south of France, who seeks her roots in the southern Indian territory Pondicherry, which was once a French colony. In parallel narratives, the film will trace the emotional turmoil of Tamara and two other women.
The film is fully financed and being produced by Indian companies Sithara Entertainments (“Bheemla Nayak”), Pawan Kalyan Creative Works (“Sardaar Gabbar Singh”) and Fortune Four Cinemas (“Sir”). Producers include Trivikram Srinivas, Nagavamsi S., and Sai Soujanya.
It is co-produced by Samir Sarkar for Singapore and India based Magic Hour Films (Rotterdam titles “Nasir” and “Jonaki”).
The agreement with Fessler was negotiated at the Cannes Film Market by Chandran and Sarkar.
Based on a story by Paris-based playwright and actor Vasanth Selvam (“Dheepan”), the film will follow 26-year-old Indian origin woman Tamara from Camargue in the south of France, who seeks her roots in the southern Indian territory Pondicherry, which was once a French colony. In parallel narratives, the film will trace the emotional turmoil of Tamara and two other women.
The film is fully financed and being produced by Indian companies Sithara Entertainments (“Bheemla Nayak”), Pawan Kalyan Creative Works (“Sardaar Gabbar Singh”) and Fortune Four Cinemas (“Sir”). Producers include Trivikram Srinivas, Nagavamsi S., and Sai Soujanya.
It is co-produced by Samir Sarkar for Singapore and India based Magic Hour Films (Rotterdam titles “Nasir” and “Jonaki”).
The agreement with Fessler was negotiated at the Cannes Film Market by Chandran and Sarkar.
- 5/25/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
“The Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be” by Benjamin Massoubre and Amandine Fredon is having its world premiere at a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20.
Several years in the making, the film brings together the world-famous French schoolboy and his creators, author René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé, as it goes back and forth between their world and his imaginary world.
Translated into more than 30 languages, the Little Nicholas short stories have been adapted to fiction but never to animation until now. For the creative team, it was essential to stay true both to Goscinny’s short stories and to Sempé’s drawings.
“The main challenge was to create the Little Nicholas’ world in animation and, at the same time, remain faithful to Sempé’s style – his drawings are very small, they’re made in ink, which gives them a sort of awkward but very lively energy,...
Several years in the making, the film brings together the world-famous French schoolboy and his creators, author René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé, as it goes back and forth between their world and his imaginary world.
Translated into more than 30 languages, the Little Nicholas short stories have been adapted to fiction but never to animation until now. For the creative team, it was essential to stay true both to Goscinny’s short stories and to Sempé’s drawings.
“The main challenge was to create the Little Nicholas’ world in animation and, at the same time, remain faithful to Sempé’s style – his drawings are very small, they’re made in ink, which gives them a sort of awkward but very lively energy,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Adrian Politowski’s Align, the L.A. based production and finance company, has come on board to co-finance “Little Nicholas,” a hand-drawn animated feature directed by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre.
The feature is being produced by Aton Soumache at On Kids & Family (“The Little Prince”), a Mediawan Group company, and Lilian Eche and Christel Henon at Bidibul Productions. Charades, the banner behind the Oscar-nominated “Mirai,” is handling international and domestic sales.
Fredon and Massoubre previously worked on “Ariol” and “I Lost My Body,” respectively. Created by the author Rene Goscinny and the New Yorker illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe, “Le Petit Nicolas” follows the adventures of a mischievous boy and his schoolmates, teacher and parents in Paris in the 1960s.
The feature, written by Michel Fessler (“March of the Penguins”) and Anne Goscinny, the daughter of Rene and a critically acclaimed author herself, will have two narrative threads. One will follow Nicholas and his surroundings,...
The feature is being produced by Aton Soumache at On Kids & Family (“The Little Prince”), a Mediawan Group company, and Lilian Eche and Christel Henon at Bidibul Productions. Charades, the banner behind the Oscar-nominated “Mirai,” is handling international and domestic sales.
Fredon and Massoubre previously worked on “Ariol” and “I Lost My Body,” respectively. Created by the author Rene Goscinny and the New Yorker illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe, “Le Petit Nicolas” follows the adventures of a mischievous boy and his schoolmates, teacher and parents in Paris in the 1960s.
The feature, written by Michel Fessler (“March of the Penguins”) and Anne Goscinny, the daughter of Rene and a critically acclaimed author herself, will have two narrative threads. One will follow Nicholas and his surroundings,...
- 3/3/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
After having been successfully adapted into a pair of live-action movies, “Le Petit Nicolas,” based on the popular series of French children’s books from the ’60s, will be back on the big screen in an hand-drawn animated feature directed by Gilles de Maistre (“Mia and the White Lion”) and Amandine Fredon.
“Le Petit Nicolas, une enfance rêvée” is being produced by French animation powerhouse On Entertainment (“The Little Prince”), in co-production with Foliascope (“The Tower”), Luxembourg outfit Bidibul Productions (“A Cat in Paris”) and Canada’s Kaibou. Charades, the banner behind the Oscar-nominated “Mirai,” is handling international sales and will introduce the project (currently in pre-production) to buyers at Cannes.
“Little Nicholas” marks the first 2D animated feature undertaken by Aton Soumache at On Entertainment, whose credits include the Cannes-premiering, BAFTA-nominated “The Little Prince” and the upcoming “Playmobil: The Movie.” Foliascope is the company launched by animation veteran Pascal Le Notre,...
“Le Petit Nicolas, une enfance rêvée” is being produced by French animation powerhouse On Entertainment (“The Little Prince”), in co-production with Foliascope (“The Tower”), Luxembourg outfit Bidibul Productions (“A Cat in Paris”) and Canada’s Kaibou. Charades, the banner behind the Oscar-nominated “Mirai,” is handling international sales and will introduce the project (currently in pre-production) to buyers at Cannes.
“Little Nicholas” marks the first 2D animated feature undertaken by Aton Soumache at On Entertainment, whose credits include the Cannes-premiering, BAFTA-nominated “The Little Prince” and the upcoming “Playmobil: The Movie.” Foliascope is the company launched by animation veteran Pascal Le Notre,...
- 5/2/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
BERLIN -- French filmmaker Regis Wargnier (East-West, Indochine) has long displayed a fascination for cultural conflict, but in Man to Man, he comes upon a clash of cultures so vastly different and so fundamentally antithetical that only tragedy can result. Based on the more egregious extremes of both the scientific and entertainment communities of the mid-19th century, Man to Man gives us the dismaying spectacle of Victorian Britain's confrontation with African pygmies.
It's a unique look at a staggering example of human ignorance, exploitation and racism. Unfortunately, in the film's second half, another carry-over from the 19th century -- that of overripe melodrama with hiss-able villains, staunch heroes and midnight skullduggery -- emerges. This saps much of the life out of a truly fascinating subject. This is a not unnatural consequence of an approach by filmmakers who do not trust their audience to "get it" without a lot of Hollywood flourishes.
The film thus falls between the camps of intriguing independent filmmaking and commercially calculated entertainment. So despite a cast that includes Joseph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas, the film will challenge its marketers to find an audience curious about the subject yet willing to forgive melodramatic excess.
An 1870 expedition into unexplored Equatorial Africa by ambitious Scottish scientist Jamie Dodd (Fiennes) and entrepreneurial widow Elena van den Ende (Scott Thomas) captures along with wild animals for European zoos a male and female pygmy (played with much dignity by Lomama Boseki and Cecile Bayiha). Like many scientists of that day, Jamie and his colleagues back home -- the imperious Alexander Auchinleck (Iain Glen) and dogged Fraser McBride (Hugh Bonneville) -- are deluded by the theory that pygmies represent a living "missing link" between man and ape.
The two kidnapped Africans survive a rough ocean voyage to the U.K., where they are thrown into a makeshift Scottish prison and poked and prodded as if they were animal specimens. The arrogant Victorians grant no human connection between themselves and these Africans.
The image of local villagers, alarmed at rumors of "savages" in their midst, surging through woods at night guided by lighted torches, can only remind us of the Frankenstein movies of James Whale, still one of cinema's best evocations of science run amok. It's an apt image, for these are truly "mad" scientists, who in their crude study of these two individuals choose to note or ignore only what falls into line with preconceived racist theories.
Then, of course, our hero, Jamie, breaks from the pack. He no longer is willing to disregard clear clues of the pygmies' human emotions and intelligence. Elena is torn, innately sensing what Jamie does but mindful of her financial interest in the pygmies, whom she wants to display in human zoos all over Europe.
In the nearly silent communication between the scientist and his two subjects, the film finds its heart and soul. The actors have only their faces, their eyes, expressions and gestures with which to communicate across such a great divide.
But the break among the scientists gets treated less as a sharp difference of opinion than an opportunity for Wargnier and his co-writer, William Boyd, to indulge in more kidnappings, a false imprisonment, an assassination attempt and a second murderous mob. Exploitation clearly is as much in fashion now as it was in 1870.
The physical aspects of this French-British-South African production are terrific with all the period details in Africa and Europe in place, strongly backed by Patrick Doyle's robust music and cinematographer Laurent Dailland's muted colors for that gas-lit era.
MAN TO MAN
A Vertigo Prods. production in association with Skyline (Man to Man) Ltd./France 2 Cinema France 3 Cinema/Boreales
Credits:
Director: Regis Wargnier
Screenwriters: William Boyd, Regis Wargnier
Based on a story by: Michel Fessler, Frederic Fougea, Regis Wargnier
Producers: Aissa Djabri, Farid Lahouassa
Director of photography: Laurent Dailland
Production designer: Maria Djurkovic
Music: Patrick Doyle
Costumes: Pierre Yves Gayraud
Editor: Yann Malcor
Cast:
Jamie Dodd: Joseph Fiennes
Elena van den Endee: Kristen Scott Thomas
Alexander Auchinleck: Iain Glen
Fraser McBride: Hugh Bonneville
Toko: Lomama Boseki
Likola: Cecile Bayiha
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 122 minutes...
It's a unique look at a staggering example of human ignorance, exploitation and racism. Unfortunately, in the film's second half, another carry-over from the 19th century -- that of overripe melodrama with hiss-able villains, staunch heroes and midnight skullduggery -- emerges. This saps much of the life out of a truly fascinating subject. This is a not unnatural consequence of an approach by filmmakers who do not trust their audience to "get it" without a lot of Hollywood flourishes.
The film thus falls between the camps of intriguing independent filmmaking and commercially calculated entertainment. So despite a cast that includes Joseph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas, the film will challenge its marketers to find an audience curious about the subject yet willing to forgive melodramatic excess.
An 1870 expedition into unexplored Equatorial Africa by ambitious Scottish scientist Jamie Dodd (Fiennes) and entrepreneurial widow Elena van den Ende (Scott Thomas) captures along with wild animals for European zoos a male and female pygmy (played with much dignity by Lomama Boseki and Cecile Bayiha). Like many scientists of that day, Jamie and his colleagues back home -- the imperious Alexander Auchinleck (Iain Glen) and dogged Fraser McBride (Hugh Bonneville) -- are deluded by the theory that pygmies represent a living "missing link" between man and ape.
The two kidnapped Africans survive a rough ocean voyage to the U.K., where they are thrown into a makeshift Scottish prison and poked and prodded as if they were animal specimens. The arrogant Victorians grant no human connection between themselves and these Africans.
The image of local villagers, alarmed at rumors of "savages" in their midst, surging through woods at night guided by lighted torches, can only remind us of the Frankenstein movies of James Whale, still one of cinema's best evocations of science run amok. It's an apt image, for these are truly "mad" scientists, who in their crude study of these two individuals choose to note or ignore only what falls into line with preconceived racist theories.
Then, of course, our hero, Jamie, breaks from the pack. He no longer is willing to disregard clear clues of the pygmies' human emotions and intelligence. Elena is torn, innately sensing what Jamie does but mindful of her financial interest in the pygmies, whom she wants to display in human zoos all over Europe.
In the nearly silent communication between the scientist and his two subjects, the film finds its heart and soul. The actors have only their faces, their eyes, expressions and gestures with which to communicate across such a great divide.
But the break among the scientists gets treated less as a sharp difference of opinion than an opportunity for Wargnier and his co-writer, William Boyd, to indulge in more kidnappings, a false imprisonment, an assassination attempt and a second murderous mob. Exploitation clearly is as much in fashion now as it was in 1870.
The physical aspects of this French-British-South African production are terrific with all the period details in Africa and Europe in place, strongly backed by Patrick Doyle's robust music and cinematographer Laurent Dailland's muted colors for that gas-lit era.
MAN TO MAN
A Vertigo Prods. production in association with Skyline (Man to Man) Ltd./France 2 Cinema France 3 Cinema/Boreales
Credits:
Director: Regis Wargnier
Screenwriters: William Boyd, Regis Wargnier
Based on a story by: Michel Fessler, Frederic Fougea, Regis Wargnier
Producers: Aissa Djabri, Farid Lahouassa
Director of photography: Laurent Dailland
Production designer: Maria Djurkovic
Music: Patrick Doyle
Costumes: Pierre Yves Gayraud
Editor: Yann Malcor
Cast:
Jamie Dodd: Joseph Fiennes
Elena van den Endee: Kristen Scott Thomas
Alexander Auchinleck: Iain Glen
Fraser McBride: Hugh Bonneville
Toko: Lomama Boseki
Likola: Cecile Bayiha
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 122 minutes...
- 2/10/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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