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Barcelona – Rémi Chayé’s “Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary,” Anca Damian’s “The Island,” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player,” and Enrique Gato’s “Tad the Lost Explorer and the Curse of the Mummy” are among the sixty-six projects from twenty countries to be pitched at the 22nd Cartoon Movie, Europe’s leading animated movie co-production event. Cartoon Movie will take place in the French port city of Bordeaux, kicking off March 3rd.

Projects will be accessible for buyers and potential partners and will be pitched in different stages of production: 28 in concept, 27 in development, six in production and five sneak previews. The five projects at the sneak preview showcase and the six in production have previously been to Cartoon Movie in preliminary production stages. Twenty-three projects are co-productions.

A family adventure, Rémi Chayé’s (acclaimed “Long Way North”) sophomore feature depicts the...

Zombillenium announced as opener; China named as guest country, Guillermo del Toro to return.

French animator and illustrator Arthur de Pin’s child-friendly comedy-horror tale Zombillenium (pictured) - set against the backdrop of an amusement-terror park were the staff are a motley crew of vampires, zombies and werewolves - will open this year’s edition of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, running June 12-17 this year.

It is among nine special event screenings including Pixar’s Cars 3, which will be proceeded by a presentation of footage from Mexico-set, Day of the Dead-inspired drama Coco in the presence of director Lee Unkrich, producer Darla K. Anderson and co-director Adrian Molina; Despicable Me 3 and The Big Bad Fox And Other Animals.

Zombillenium will also compete in the 10-title feature film competition.

Other contenders for Annecy’s Cristal for best feature film include Iranian director Ali Soozandeh’s Tehran Taboo, exploring sexuality...

Scott Christian Sava is partnering with China’s Beijing Wenhua Dongrun Investment Co. and China Film Co. Ltd. on animated feature Animal Crackers. The film, about a family whose life is turned upside down when they inherit a rundown circus and a mysterious box of animal crackers, is being produced by Sava’s Blue Dream Studios.

Sava is co-directing with Tony Bancroft (The Lion King) and co-writing it with Dean Lorey (Arrested Development). George Lee and Marcus Englefield from Storyoscopic Films, James Thomason, and Leiming Guan are on board as producers. Wenhua Dongrun’s Mu Yedong, China Film board chairman La Peikang, and Landmark Asia’s Sam Chi are executive producing. Chinese co-producers are Han Lei and Wu Panpan.

Jaime Maestro (The Smoke Seller) has been tapped for overseas director for Blue Dream Studios Spain. Harry Mok, Michael Favelle, Nathalie Martinez, and Taylor Huang round out the team as exec producers.