Yahoo News Annecy Animation Festival Prizewinner ‘Flow’ Sells Worldwide for Charades (EXCLUSIVE)
“Flow,” a director-driven animated feature which world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and just swept three awards at Annecy Film Festival, has been embraced by a raft of major distributors in key territories, including the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Germany, Spain and Italy. The movie is represented internationally by Charades.
Directed by Gints Zilbalodis, the Annie-nominated filmmaker of “Away,” “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.
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A Latvia-Belgium-France co-production, “Flow” is now well positioned to follow the path of other critically acclaimed animated features, such as “Robot Dreams” and “I Lost My Body,” which opened at Cannes, played at Annecy and became Oscar contenders. Variety’s review called it “hypnotic” and “radically different from the look or feel of other toons (and yet strangely video game-like in its design).”
Previously acquired by Janus and Sideshow for U.S. distribution, “Flow” has now been sold by Charades to the U.K. (Curzon), Germany (MFA), Italy (Teodora Film Distribuzione), Spain (Filmin), Switzerland (Xenix), Greece (Cinobo), Nordics & Iceland (Njuta Films), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), Czech Republic, Slovakia (Film Europe), Hungary (Vertigo Média Ltd.), Poland (So Films), Romania (Bad Unicorn), Israel (Lev Cinema), Lebanon & Gulf (Teleview International), Pan Latin America (Cine Canibal), China (BLUE MEDIA TIMES), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Japan (Fine Films, Inc), Philippines (Film Development), Singapore (Lighthouse Film Distribution), South Korea (Pancinema, Taiwan (Light Year Images) and India & Airlines (Pictureworks).
Zilbalodis penned the feature with Matiss Kaza at Dream Well Studio and Ron Dyens (“Barking Island”) at Sacrebleu Productions also acted as co-writers and producers. “Flow” was produced by Sacrebleu Productions, Dream Well Studio and Take Five.
Zilbalodis made his feature debut at the age of 24 with “Away” which won the Contrechamp Prize for best feature film at Annecy and went on to play at over 85 festivals and earn a nomination at the Annie Awards.
Charades has described “Flow” is an “allegory of the social and political situations we face in these difficult times, through the animals and their misadventures. Individualism and collectivism collide within this band.”
“Flow” will also be distributed in Benelux by Le Parc Distribution and UFO in France in October.
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