Warsaw-based sales outfit New Europe Film Sales has taken on international sales for the upcoming English-language dystopian animation Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust by Ishan Shukla, with Anonymous Content will co-repping for North America.
Ishan Shukla’s debut will world premiere in January in the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Bright Future section, aimed at up-and-coming filmmakers with innovative, original and daring work.
The animated feature is based on the short film Schirkoa, which was also repped by New Europe and played at more than 120 international film festivals and won 33 awards, including Best Animated Short award at LA Shorts Fest.
New Europe and Anonymous Content have recently worked together with the animated Polish Oscar entry, The Peasants.
Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust tells a story about a dystopian world where people are forced to wear paper bags over their heads. In this twisted reality, an anonymous citizen sparks an accidental revolution.
The film was shot entirely in Unreal Engine, the real-time computer graphics game engine.
“I have been developing a distinctive animation style for this film for years. The idea is to seamlessly fuse the intricacy of realistic CGI with the timeless charm of hand-drawn animation, as it is where my heart lies. The result is akin to viewing a meticulously detailed painting brought to life on the cinematic canvas,” said Shukla, who recently made a short for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Visions Vol.2.
The film is an Indo-French co-production between Shukla’s animation studio Red Cigarette Media and Paris-based production company Dissidenz Films founded by Bich-Quan Tran in 2012, who also brought on board German co-producer Stephan Holl from Rapid Eye Movies.
The film is also executive-produced by Anushka Shah from Civic Studios and co-produced by Samir Sarkar. Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust was supported by CNC Cinémas du Monde, Epic MegaGrants, Film¬ und Medienstiftung NRW and Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, in association with Civic Studios and Cofinova 18.
The principal voice cast for the animation includes Golshifteh Farahani, Asia Argento, SoKo, King Khan, Denzil Smith, John Sutton, and introducing Tibu Fortes and Shahbaz Sarwar.
Jan Naszewski, New Europe’s CEO said: “Schirkoa is a one of a kind movie. We can’t wait to show Ishan’s vision to the world in 2024.”
New Europe represents three national Oscar selections this year – Poland’s The Peasants (Sony Pictures Classics), North Macedonia’s Housekeeping for Beginners (Focus Features) and Iceland’s Godland (Janus).
Nick Shumaker and Beatriz Martins will co-rep Schirkoa in North America on behalf of Anonymous Content.
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