France tv distribution has boarded sales on Claude Barras’s upcoming animated feature You’re Not The One I Expected ahead of the project’s presentation at the Cartoon Movie co-production meeting in Bordeaux from March 8-10.
It will be Swiss director Barras’s third feature after My Life As A Courgette which was nominated in the best animated film category of the Academy Awards in 2017, having won a slew of awards on the festival circuit including at Annecy, European Film Awards and French Cesars.
The new film is adapted from the bestselling 2014 autobiographical French graphic novel Ce N’est Pas Toi Que J’attendais by Fabien Toulmé.
It charts the author and illustrator’s personal struggle when his second daughter is unexpectedly born with Down Syndrome after it was not diagnosed during his wife’s pregnancy.
Christelle Berthevas, whose credits include Arnaud des Pallière’s Orpheline and upcoming film Party Of Fools, is the main scriptwriter on the adaptation.
You’re Not The One I Expected marks the first foray into feature-length animation for France tv distribution, which is the autonomous film and TV sales arm of French state broadcasting group France Télévisions. France tv distribution has, however, worked on a number of animated TV series in the past.
As well as handling international sales, France tv distribution has boarded the project as a co-producer and co-developer and is fully financing development.
“This is another first for us,” said Renan Artukmaç, deputy SVP of international sales. “We’ve co-produced and co-developed five, six TV series in the past, but this is the first time we’ve taken this approach with a feature. With the market changing, we need to come on board projects earlier than in the past.”
Alain Benguigui’s Paris-based company Sombrero Films is the main producer while Barras’ Lausanne-based studio Helium Films is involved as a co-producer.
Like My Life As A Courgette, the film is being made with stop-motion animation. France tv distribution will unveil a teaser from a key moment in the film at Cartoon Movie.
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