Yahoo News Kinology Boards Buzzy Animated Musical ‘Ogresse’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Paris-based Kinology will handle international sales for “Ogresse,” a musical directed by Grammy-winner Cecile McLorin Salvant and acclaimed animator Lia Bertels.
Spearheaded by Miyu Productions and adapted from a stage show that Salvant has toured since 2019, the animated fable mixes digital 2D and stop-motion alongside a wealth of musical styles ranging from ballads to jazz waltzes to baroque lamentos, setting to song the plight of a misunderstood outsider living alone in the woods and the heartache of young knight sent to fatally win her heart.
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After claiming two prizes out of the Annecy Animation Festival’s Mifa pitch session last year, the international co-production has emerged as an industry buzz title, winning support from the likes of Claude Barras, who will co-produce and provide stop-motion assistance through his Lausanne-based Helium Films banner.
Other production partners include Belgium’s Umedia (“How to Have Sex,” “The Taste of Things”), Luxemburg’s Melusine Productions (“The Swallows of Kabul”) and American music, animation and art-world stalwart John Carlin.
“We’re thrilled to finally partner with Miyu, which is without a doubt the most inspiring animation creator at work today,” says Kinology’s Grégoire Mélin. “And we’re all the more excited to join on such a magnificent project. Everything we’ve seen and heard from Cécile McLorin Salvant and Lia Bertels’ film has been mesmerizing. We cannot wait to get to work.”
“We’re at a particularly exciting moment in animation,” says Miyu’s Emmanuel-Alain Raynal. “Audiences, possibilities and narratives are all opening up. This project originated as an American stage show, but it wasn’t so easily financed in the U.S. That we could set up a film of this caliber as a European co-production is what our work is all about.
“By creating bridges, we can support projects that might not otherwise have seen light,” Raynal adds. “There’s nothing more rewarding than combining our respective industries to support artists and to bring their visions to the screen.”
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