The fall market season is in full swing, and next week it will be the international animated features players’ time to shine at the American Film Market (AFM), kicking off next week in Santa Monica, California from November 1-6. One of the banners to watch, Munich-based Studio 100 Film will be back on the SoCal coast presenting several upcoming titles, including a sequel to one of its global hit titles, an updates on classic stories and a brand-new family fantasy adventure.
Studio 100 Media’s Director of Operations, Thorsten Wegener, recently gave us a sneak peek at what buyers can peruse at the market next week. Find Studio 100 Film during AFM at the Loews Hotel, office #554.
Animation Magazine: Can you tell us about your AFM slate?
Thorsten Wegener: Studio 100 Film is looking forward to attending AFM in person again, as this will be the first time since 2019. We are thrilled to bring a slate of exciting films currently in production such as Quixotes — The Greatest Adventure Ever, written by Carlos Kotkin (Rio 2), and Being Betty Flood — both scheduled for delivery in the second half of 2023.
There are also a couple of brand-new projects, already in pre-production stage, which we will present for the very first time at AFM: 200% Wolf — the much-anticipated sequel to the internationally successful feature film 100% Wolf, available in late 2023, and Heidi, a new animation film with a new story about the famous little girl from the Swiss Alps, written by Rob Sprackling (Gnomeo & Juliet) and planned for delivery in 2024.
What are the development histories of these new projects?
Studio 100 is the rights holder to the classic 1974 anime series of Heidi and the producer of the CGI series from 2015 (Season 1) and 2019 (Season 2). All the series have been adapted from the timeless novel written by Johanna Spyri and to date, the adventures of the orphan girl from Switzerland have still not lost any of their sparkle and fascination. Coming up with a new storyline was very challenging since we wanted to stay true to the spirit of the original work and its characters. But we will remain loyal to Heidi’s personality, being a brave, cheerful, and extremely sensitive girl, combining all the qualities of a positive heroine, whilst touching on environmental topics — all set for a global audience.
Planned for completion in 2024, this film is a co-production between Studio 100 Media and Fabrique Fantastique, with Studio 100 Film acting as international sales agent.
For 200% Wolf, Alexs Stadermann returns to the director’s chair, along with writer Fin Edquist and producers Barbara Stephen and Alexia Gates-Foale. Based on the books 100% Wolf and 100% Hero by renowned Australian author Jayne Lyons, the first movie 100% Wolf has been successfully sold worldwide, with strong theatrical releases in the U.K., France, Russia and Italy, despite the 2020 global pandemic. The movie also performed extremely well on video-on-demand services like Amazon U.S. 100% Wolf was a Rockie Awards nominee at the 2021 Banff World Media Festival and director Alexs Stadermann was nominated for Best Direction of an animation project at the Australian Director’s Guild Awards 2021.
200% Wolf is a co-production with Spain’s Atlantika Films and Western Australia’s Siamese, produced with major production funding from Screen Australia, and financed in association with Screenwest and Lotterywest. The Canary Islands’ 3Doubles will be joining for animation services on the 85-minute comedy-adventure film which will be available in late 2023.
What can you tell us about Being Betty Flood?
Being Betty Flood is a 3D animated feature film revolving around the magical and weird Flood family. Betty, the film’s heroine, like almost all 13-year olds is trying to discover where she fits in the world. In wanting to grow up fast, she inadvertently puts her family at risk and must truly discover her own self to save the day. The film is a story about the power of music, friendship and family. It’s spooky, dark-comedy style makes it also suitable for releases around Halloween.
It is one of the first animated feature films to take advantage of the official co-production treaty between Ireland and Australia, and this relationship is reflected in many of the key elements introduced in the film. The inspiration for much of the score has been taken from the traditional sounds of the Irish fiddle, thus creating a sense of power and magic. The film itself aims to resonate with kids and adults alike — telling the universal story of the journey everybody makes between childhood and teenage years and how difficult it can be as a parent to let their children take that journey, allowing them to grow and understand who they are.
The inspiration for Being Betty Flood came from an Australian children’s book series called The Floods, written and illustrated by award-winning Australian author Colin Thompson.
Can you tell us more about the project’s use of Amazon Nimble Studio?
Pop Family Entertainment and Telegael decided to produce Being Betty Flood with Amazon Nimble Studio (part of Amazon Web Services), a cloud-based animation studio, which is another first for this film. Processes are constantly refined, and tools are optimized to streamline the production. Apart from the enormous computing power that is used to render all of the 3D scenes, Pop Family Entertainment and Telegael also rely on Amazon Web Services for all the computing interfaces as well as storage and increasing security requirements. By using Amazon Nimble Studios, Pop Family Entertainment and Telegael virtualize their content production infrastructure, allowing them to scale computing resources based on specific project needs, and with effortless collaboration across continents.
How is the production of Quixotes coming along?
The Quixotes film is at the optimum phase of production. Lighting has started at Studio Isar Animation in Munich, compositing is about to start in Stuttgart/M.A.R.K.13, with the animation completed by mid-November. Post- production will start at GF Films in Argentina at the beginning of next year and, overall, we are on track for delivery in Q3 2023. We are all delighted that the vision from the awesome Gonzalo Guiterrez as director is coming to life and that the first images/scenes look absolutely amazing. We truly believe that we have a great movie in our hands for next year.
What is your take on the global feature animation scene?
We feel that the feature animation market is growing and will continue to do so over the coming years. There are plenty of very interesting projects in the works reflecting the demand from audiences for animation films. This of course also adds pressure and stronger competition in the industry, therefore leading to strategic partnerships among key players, higher quality productions, and storylines appealing to a global audience looking to identify with current topics.
Great kids’ entertainment leaves room to change the point of view, to create, dream, imagine and grow. This is exactly what we pursue at Studio 100 with our films, programs and brands, on top of entertaining kids and families. And, animation especially is a fantastic way to educate and engage audiences through stirring stories.
But of course, the developments and advancements in technology have also contributed to and influenced the growth of the global animation scene.
What are Studio 100’s goals for 2023?
For 2023, we are eager to see the completion of Quixotes – The Greatest Adventure Ever as well as Being Betty Flood, since we have very high expectations for both of these amazing films.
We have a few projects in development with really compelling stories, some of them are developed internally while others come from third parties, which we have carefully selected for sales activities. All these films will be family entertainment at its best.
As a producer we are working on a new project with Flying Bark Productions and Rob Sprackling, aiming for finance and starting production in 2023. We are also teaming up with SKYFOX Media (Grimmlings Canada), producers of the Nut Job films, on another exciting family film that will undoubtedly tickle your funny bones. We look forward to presenting these at the markets in 2023.
See more of Studio 100 Films’ animated feature slate at studio100film.com.
