Claude Barras: Last News

Carlos Aguilar A mother’s death set the stage for “My Life as a Zucchini,” the heartsore 2016 Swiss stop-motion that landed director Claude Barras an Oscar nomination for best animated feature. Now, the passing of a different maternal figure at the hands of unscrupulous men ignites the filmmaker’s eco-conscious, anti-colonial follow-up “Savages.” When a female orangutan is killed by loggers on the Indonesian island of Borneo, 11-year-old Kéria (Babette De Coster) and her father Mutang (Benoît Poelvoorde) adopt her adorable offspring and name it Oshi.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The European Film Academy has revealed the nominations in the animated feature film category of the European Film Awards. The nominated films are Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” Kristina Dufková’s “Living Large,” Claude Barras’“Savages,” Isabel Herguera’s “Sultana’s Dream,” and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player.” “Flow” won the main jury and audience awards at Annecy, and the award for original music. It played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival will debut 17 world premieres, including new works by Hong Sang-soo and Wang Bing, as part of its 2024 competition program. This year’s event runs from August 7 – 17. 

Ben Croll 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. 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.

Alex Ritman In live-action filmmaking, a continuity error may be very annoying, but is usually straightforward to fix — simply reshoot the scene again. In the painstakingly slow world of stop-motion animation, where seconds of footage can take months to shoot, it can be something of a headache. So when Claude Barras realized that that he’d filmed several segments of his new film, “Savages,” with his lead character, the teen girl Keria, not carrying the rucksack she’d had on earlier in the story, he had a problem.

Ben Croll Stop-motion maestro Claude Barras (“My Life as a Zucchini,” “Savages!”) will back “Ogresse,” a tragicomic musical directed by three-time Grammy winner Cecile McLorin Salvant and Belgian animator Lia Bertels. Variety can share this first look.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Oscar-nominated Swiss animator Claude Barras (“My Life as a Zucchini”) will be honored by the Locarno Film Festival with its Locarno Kids Award given to personalities credited with infusing younger generations with a love for cinema. Barras’ beloved stop-motion film “Life as a Zucchini,” about an orphaned boy who lives in a foster home, played at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes in 2016, and went on to be nominated for best animated feature at the Oscars and secured distribution in over 50 territories.

Anton, a European studio that has backed titles including Paddington and His Dark Materials, has raised €100M ($108M) in financing through investors led by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled fresh news details about its 77th edition (May 14-25), including a Rendez-vous with…Valeria Golino event.

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 2024 edition, running from June 9 to 15. (scroll down for full list of titles and events)

Switzerland has been named as the Country of Honor at the 2024 edition of the Cannes Marché du Film, running alongside parent event the Cannes Film Festival from May 14 to 22.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent The Cannes Film Market, which runs alongside the festival, has named Switzerland as Country of Honor for the 2024 edition that’s set to run May 14-22. As part of the tribute, Cannes will highlight Switzerland’s contributions to the audiovisual industry and provide a platform for emerging Swiss talents and projects in development.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International “My Life As a Zucchini” director Claude Barras has set up his latest stop-motion animated feature, “Savages!” Production company Gebeka International — a Hildegarde-Goodfellas company formed in 2021 — and production, financing and sales studio Anton are behind the project, which will be written by Barras and Catherine Paille (“Magnetic Beasts”). The project will be shopped to buyers in Cannes next week. “Savages!” follows the emotional journey of a girl, her father and a rescued baby orangutan. The film has a strong environmental and conservationist message, exploring the crisis of the destruction of rainforests.