Country: Germany

TV series

|

13 x 4′

|

What the Old Moon Tells

Was der alte Mond erzählt

Animated stories from the world of Lusatian and Sorbian legends and fairytales for children aged 4 to 6.

Apr

27

Mon 11:30

TV Series Pitching Session

"What the Old Moon Tells" is a series of 4 minute animated films, each dedicated to a different character from Lusatian legends and fairy tales: the Midday Woman, the Waterman, the Will-o'-the-wisps, the Dragon, the Devil… … The farmer Jakubasch wishes to be richer than everyone else. The money-bringing Dragon visits him. But everything the dragon brings him has been stolen from others. Will Jakubasch manage to outwit the dragon?… The Devil wants to plough his field, but he is a choleric man. He treats his oxen so badly that they run away from him. The ashamed Devil cries and the furrows created by the oxen's plough fill with water. Is this how the Spreewald landscape comes into being?… And many others!

Director’s statement
Legends and fairy tales are an incredibly important genre of text. They contain wisdom that has been passed from mouth to mouth for centuries. In my search for suitable fairy tales to film, I came across the Sorbian ones. They enchanted me not only because they are less known, but also because of the special Lusatian landscape in which they take place. Our idea for combining this old cultural asset with the modern medium, is not a classic short film format. Visually, we imagine the series as a kind of "fairy tale peekaboo". The humorous plot takes place in this fantastic and magical world full of secrets. The mythical creatures and magic mix with our everyday reality. The devil cries, the dragon wants millet porridge. The result is humorously whimsical. The stories are entertaining, magical and at the same time instructive - as is known from sagas, they always end with an important moral.

Director

Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez
eliza.p.alvarez@gmail.com
Producer

Carol Ratajczak
carol.ratajczak@googlemail.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

children 4-6

Animation technique

3D (CGI)

Production company

Blaue Pampelmuse

Looking for

co-producer, financing, sales agent

Student / Rising Stars

|

12′

|

Orange You Glad

Orange You Glad

Dr. Shari Tremor is finding herself seduced by one of her botanical test subjects, and her 16-year-old, Nadav is secretly writing an explicit gay erotica in his bedroom. Lust can be a funny thing ...

Apr

29

Wed 10:00

Rising Stars Pitching Session

Carrots are sexual creatures, especially Femme Carrot, a magnificent seductive carrot that is so alluring, she has caught the attention of the gaping mouthed Fertility Botanist studying her: Dr. Shari Tremor. Meanwhile, Shari’s 16-year-old son, Nadav, is secretly writing an explicit gay erotica in his room. A sensual male narrator, Erotica Narrator, is the empowered voice of Nadav’s writings, and narrates events in both Nadav and Shari’s lives. Nadav is often getting advances from gay men in public spaces: situations that inspire his constantly growing erotic story. At the same time, a tangible possible partner–his classmate Joseph–is making advances but Nadav is too uncomfortable to reciprocate. As Nadav struggles to navigate a chance for a real gay relationship with Joseph through the haze of erotic fantasy, Shari struggles through a fantasy of her own, with F. Carrot permeating her thoughts and dreams of lust and desire and the voice of E. Narrator whispering sweetly in mind.

Director’s statement
Orange You Glad is a project of a new kind of genre that I intend to champion. Queer representation in animation–stop motion particularly–is practically non existent. Most queer fiction (live action included) is limited to stories about coming out with male protagonists. With this film, I am pushing to develop a new absurd method of queer storytelling, highlighting the awkwardness of queer puberty and the sexuality of a single queer mother. I aim to showcase human narratives with a strong queer lens. I am also taking the opportunity to experiment storytelling with a triple narrative concept. Nadav’s story, Shari’s story, and that of the protagonist in the erotica are told at the same time. The viewer is taken along an, at times, confusing progression of events that offers elements of surprise and coincidence in an otherwise traditional story. I am excited by the concept of using animation to succeed in communicating otherwise impossible narrative.

Director and Producer

Daniel Sterlin-Altman
daniel.essay@gmail.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

14+

Animation technique

stop motion

Production company

Filmuniversity Babelsberg Konrad Wolf

Looking for

financing, sales agents, sponsoring, distribution opportunities

Short

|

10´

|

Paolo´s Happiness

Paolos Glück

Paolo Piangino is a very happy man – because he can cry. His tears make other people happy. They can pick this happiness like flowers. But they cannot hold on to it.

Paolo Piangino is an unremarkable, short, happy man. He lives with his cat and he likes to cry – because his tears are his happiness. When he is sad, his tears cheer him up, and when he is happy they make him even happier. The townspeople watch with fascination as one day Paolo’s tears make red flowers bloom wherever they fall. These tears make Paolo famous. The people are thrilled – there is media hype – and everyone wants to invite Paolo into their home, hoping that he’ll shed a few tears for them. But soon all the buzz is too much for Paolo. He secretly leaves the town, leaving behind only a couple of flowers. The people of the small town begin to cry bitterly of sadness. Who knows – maybe one day their tears will be tears of happiness?

Director’s statement
Paolo’s Happiness – based on the children’s book Paolo’s Glück by Sandra Luchsinger – is a parable of our fast-paced and hectic world, which leaves little to no room for quiet moments. On the contrary, the media are always on the lookout for events that they can turn into a spectacle – and individual happiness is often secondary. But Paolo successfully manages to avoid all this. This story touches me deeply. I am convinced that all children will understand it and that it can encourage them to show their feelings. Crying is a relief: it’s not only an expression of pain, sadness and weakness – people can also cry because they are happy, like Paolo. It is my goal to tell Paolo’s story with a lot of charm, humour and empathy as puppet animation. The heart of the book’s illustrations will still be recognizable in the design of both puppets and sets. That this film will be realized without dialogue is a special challenge for me.

Director

Thorsten Drössler
thorsten.droessler@gmx.de
Producer

Grit Wisskirchen
grit@filmvermoegen.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

8-12

Animation technique

stop-motion

Production company

FilmVermoegen GmbH

TV series

|

26 x 7'

|

The Very Hairy Alphabet

Das zottelige Alphabet

The Very Hairy Alphabet is a transmedia concept for preschoolers – a playful way of learning the alphabet and the English language with a TV series, an app, games, books… and above all, with two amazing and unique characters: Nitso and Tebahpla.

Nitso is a big yellow monster, who wants to learn the alphabet. He also likes to eat a lot, so much that he even eats his ABC Book! Oh no, how will he get to know the next letter of the alphabet? He will ask the Great Master Tebahpla, who is the wisest of all people, lives on the highest mountain and knows everything and anything about everything. But will he manage to help Nitso?

Director’s statement
The Very Hairy Alphabet teaches English and the alphabet in its own unique way. First of all, we want to give children the opportunity to go beyond the same old “a is for apple” – Nitso gets to know the B with a “big bear in a bikini”, the H with “hilarious hiccups” and the S with “smelly socks”. I believe that the bold humour and smart gags will make even the most reluctant children love the alphabet! Learning by having fun is the most effective way of learning. Playing with humour, Tebahpla and Nitso form a great duo in showing children that even through failure, something wonderful can be created. TVHA is unique also in its visual style. The hand-painted cut-out elements catch children’s attention with their haptic texture and vivid colours. The events of the story feel much closer! TVHA is a transmedia concept – we want to combine the TV series with a picture book, an app and a game that will encourage active watching and provide entertainment for the whole family.

Director

Eliza Plocieniak-Alvarez
eliza.p.alvarez@gmail.com

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

4–6

Animation technique

digital cutout

Production company

Eagle Eye Filmproduktion

TV series

|

10 x 22’

|

Frickin’Times

Frickin'Times

The series follows the misadventures of the unequal twins Zoe and Adam, who are separated by time and have to get along with each other.

Oct

06

Tue 11:30

Pitching

Frickin’Times is a time travel series without the time machine. Instead, present and future are connected by the twins Adam and Zoe. Both live in the same house but in different times — Zoe in the future and Adam in the present. 
Everything starts as Adam discovers that he has a twin sister named Zoe, who is stuck in the future. Zoe needs Adam’s help to get back to the present. Unfortunately for Zoe, a dry do-gooder, the twins could not be more different. 
Adam is a professional procrastinator. The future hangs in the balance, constantly shifting, and mostly due to Adam’s missteps in the present. Luckily, help is at hand in the form of two unlikely companions: a vacuum-cleaner-robot with ambitions to become human, and a genius but shifty hamster who can travel through a tiny time portal. In each episode, Zoe attempts to get back home to the present day. If only the future would not change all along and her brother Adam would be less interested in living a cosy life than in supporting her.

Director’s statement
In Frickin’Times, we want to tell the story of twins who have to deal with their lives in different ways. Zoe, who gets lost in the future, has to deal with an uncertain world that she cannot control. Adam is lost in the present and does not know how to cope with the daily life and how to take responsibility.
Our goal is to create a world in which all the possibilities of the future can be experienced simultaneously, and we want to show the consequences of every decision made today. We want to show how the twins deal with everyday problems that usually turn into bizarre situations in the future.
Visually, we want to connect the two times in each episode through a split screen and jump back or forward through time-lapse sequences.
Frickin'Times is a series about crazy time-travel adventures, but also about a split family, loneliness, fear of the future and expectations in life. Throughout the show, references from pop culture provide satirical commentary on larger social issues.

Director

Irek Krett
irek.krett@xkopp.de
Producer

Ramin Sabeti
ramin.sabeti@xkopp.de

Country of production

Germany

Target audience

Young adults & adults

Animation technique

2D (vector based)

Production company

xkopp creative

Estimated budget

EUR 3,500,000

Funding secured

None

Looking for

Financing

Close

CEE Animation is supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union and co-funded by state funds and foundations and professional organisations from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

More info
facebook