- Europa Filmes, one of Brazil’s top indie distributors, has taken local distribution rights to Gustavo Steinberg and Gabriel Bitar’s Brazilian animated film "Tito and the Birds", set up at Sao Paulo-Based production company Bits Filmes, Variety reports.
One of the five feature film projects chosen to be pitched at Annecy 2016 Mifa market, action drama, "Tito" targets 6-10 year olds, young adults and family audiences.
Produced by Gustavo Steinberg ("The End of the Line"), co-author of the script alongside Ataliba Benaim ("What Is It Worth?"), the film project follows Tito, a 10-year-old boy that takes off on a journey to save the world from a frightful epidemic: People are falling ill whenever they get suddenly scared.
Tito will find out that the cure is somehow related to the research of his father, an inventor who had to leave home when he was 6 years old. Tito’s search for the antidote indirectly becomes a search for his missing father and for his own identity.
"The film has a very powerful and universal subject: Fear seen from the point of view of a kid in a big city. It is a visually sophisticated project, but at the same time a very fun and engaging adventure," Steinberg told Variety.
"Tito’s" key craft features significant names in Brazil’s currently booming animation industry, such as Annie Award-nominated composers Gustavo Kurlat and Binho Feffer, creators of the score of Oscar-nominee and Annecy 2014 Cristal winner, the Ale Abreu-directed "The Boy and The World," and Daniel Greco, the production supervisor on Luiz Bolognesi’s "Rio 2096 A Story of Love and Fury," Crystal Award winner in 2013.
Top Brazilian film and TV actors Matheus Nachtergaele ("The Dead Girl’s Feast "), Mateus Solano ("Trail of Lies"), Denise Fraga ("The Best Things in the World") and Otavio Augusto ("Brazil Avenue") have recorded "Tito’s" original voices.
Using a technique of cut-outs combined with 2D computer work, production is scheduled to kick-off in October 2017, while post-pro will finish by March 2018.
After raising half of the $2.2 million budget in Brazil, mostly through public funds and investors, at Annecy the producers are looking for international production and distribution partners to help close the gap financing, set in $1.1 million, Steinberg said.
Operating from 1990, Wilson Feitosa’s Europa Filmes, also an international sales company, has distributed or co-distributed in Brazil well-known local titles such as "Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury," "Lula, the Son of Brazil," "Big Family" and "The Regulars."
