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In a year of change and growth for Mexico’s Guadalajara Intl. Film Festival (Ficg), the revamped animation competitions, godfathered by Guadalajara native Guillermo del Toro, stand out as key examples of ambitions shared by the event’s new leadership, headed by Vendo Cine co-founder and longtime Ficg Industria head Estrella Araiza.

Where many animation-focused festivals and awards programs in Latin America tend to celebrate domestic or Ibero-American productions – think Mexico’s Pixelatl, Spain’s Quirino Awards – this year’s selected films at Guadalajara demonstrate a global inclusion with less peers – France’s Annecy Festival and Los Angeles’ Annie Awards are good examples.

“I think it’s important that every festival has its idiosyncrasies,” explained Carolina López, Ficg’s animation section curator. “Ficg is a festival with a specific DNA and we are adding to that DNA with what will be almost a festival within a festival.”

Previously Ficg did...

Madrid — Finalists in nine categories for the 2nd Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards were announced last week in Madrid’s stunning Casa de América. The awards will be held again this year in the Spanish Canary Islands city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on April 6.

In total, 25 films representing seven countries received recognition on the day in nine distinct categories. Spanish animation bagged 13 nominations, while Brazil scored 7, followed by Colombia (5), Argentina (4), Chile (4), Portugal (3) and Mexico (1).

Having already won best short film at Mexico’s Pixelatl Awards, Carlos Baena’s “La Noria” (The Ferris Wheel) scored the most Quirino nominations with three. Pan-Latin-American series “Paper Port Season 2 – The Lives of Others” and Colombian feature “Tropical Virus” were the only other entries with multiple nominations at two each.

This year’s feature competition looks to be one of the event’s most competitive. Raúl de la Fuente and Damian Nenow’s “Another Day of Life...

The far-right has now aggressively infiltrated the politics of countless nations, developed and otherwise, advocating malicious rhetoric that targets vulnerable groups, preaches ethnocentrism, and weaponizes religion. Outside of what happened in the United States in 2016, last year’s presidential election in Brazil, which crowned a candidate holding such extreme views, is a testament to the harmful powers of alarmist populism.

Although produced prior to the recent rise of these traditionalist forces in the country, Brazilian animated feature “Tito and the Birds” is a shrewd response to bigotry, packaged as a spooky adventure achieved through the integration of artisanal and digital techniques. The outcome is a stylistically singular treasure with tonal and aesthetic hints of Laika’s horror-inspired “ParaNorman” and the animated Van Gogh biopic “Loving Vincent.”

São Paulo native Gustavo Steinberg, the creative commander propelling the entire operation, co-directed the film with animators Gabriel Bitar and André Catoto. Steinberg made...

We don’t want to overwhelm you, but while you’re catching up with our top 50 films of 2018, more cinematic greatness awaits in 2019. Ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films (all of which have yet to premiere), we’re highlighting 50 titles we’ve enjoyed on the festival circuit this last year (and beyond) that either have confirmed 2018 release dates or are awaiting a debut date from its distributor. There’s also a handful seeking distribution that we hope will arrive in the next 12 months. U.S. distributors: take note!

The Image Book (Jean-Luc Godard; Jan. 25)

Another miraculous, meticulously feat of cinematic collage, The Image Book finds the French New Wave icon continuing his boundary-pushing editing techniques, both in video and sound (to see this at Alice Tully Hall during New York Film Festival was something truly special). Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “Split into five sections of various lengths titled Remakes,...

While you catch up on the best films of 2018, it’s time to turn to the handful of highlights as we enter the first month of the new year. Along with a handful of festival favorites finally getting U.S. releases, there are a few promising studio features amongst Hollywood’s dumping ground.

Matinees to See: Communion (1/4), Rust Creek (1/4), Buffalo Boys (1/11), The Standoff at Sparrow Creek (1/18), Girl (1/18), Adult Life Skills (1/18)

10. State Like Sleep (Meredith Danluck; Jan. 1)

Starring Katherine Waterston and Michael Shannon, State Like Sleep follows a widow who must dig up a dark past a year after her husband died. A premiere at Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year where it received favorable reviews, it looks like a strong showcase for the Inherent Vice star as she goes down the rabbit hole of a criminal underworld.

9. Touch Me Not (Adina Pintilie; Jan. 11)

After winning Berlinale nearly a year ago,...

The more animation you watch, the clearer it becomes that only a few titles deliver something original in terms of both visuals and storytelling. Tito and the Birds is one such rarity. Hailing from Brazilian filmmakers Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar, and André Catoto, this beautifully animated tale has definitely earned its Annie Award nomination for Best Animated Independent Feature, alongside two of my other favorites of the year: Mfkz and Mirai. And with Shout! Studios releasing Tito and the Birds in an Oscar-qualifying run starting today--with a wide theatrical rollout in early 2019--audiences everywhere will get a …...

With Tito and the Birds, his first animated feature, Gustavo Steinberg took on the most timely and complex of themes, striving to make them accessible to children. Based in a dystopian city that looks a lot like São Paulo—but could really be any metropolis—Shout! Factory’s Brazilian Oscar entry watches as the world is overcome by a disease of fear. Seeking a cure for the contagion in birds—creatures of mythological weight, which have quietly observed human life since the dawn of time—young protagonist Tito discovers that the salve may well exist within himself.

“The idea was to tell a story to kids about this culture of fear that is brought by the media, by the social networks, this new kind of fear that is emerging in the world,” the director says, sitting down with executive producer Daniel Greco. Seeing the world falling ever further into a demented,...

The “outbreak” started years ago when the twenty-four hour news cycle broke onto the scene by stoking fear for ratings out of a necessity for content. We used to only get an hour of local news every night — itself needing to be bolstered by a public interest story or two — with a few national programs enlightening us on world events. Information dispersal became editorializing. Editorializing became for-profit politicization wherein truth was filtered through a partisan prism pre-packaged for Election Day rather than relevancy. News became entertainment, snuff videos of beheadings and tragedies a click away on the internet for us to bask in a nationalist fervor of retribution and bloodlust. Race, religion, sexual orientation, and culture became our enemies as that pre-manufactured fear transformed into strength through hate.

America isn’t alone in this. Nations around the world are beholden to state-sanctioned news sources feeding a skewed truth and their...

As Brazil falls heedlessly into far-right political clutches, the liberal message of Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar and André Catoto’s ravishing animated feature “Tito and the Birds” turns out to be more unhappily timely than its makers would have hoped: Put simply, a society gripped by fear will never take flight. If the boy-against-the-world allegory carrying this moral is painted with a broad brush, so — often quite literally — is the film itself. Employing a darkly iridescent fusion of oil paint and digital embellishment, it renders a growing dystopia in shifting, seasick colors, distorted into about as much exquisite, Expressionist-inspired nightmare fuel as its family-film remit will allow.

A classy acquisition for newbie distributors Shout! Studios, this Annecy and Toronto premiere is among the 25 titles submitted in this year’s animated feature Oscar race. Comparisons to fellow Brazilian dazzler “Boy and the World,” a surprise 2015 nominee, are both obvious and merited,...

The Brazilian animated feature “Tito and the Birds,” which makes its North American premiere at Tiff, has been picked up for distribution by Shout! Studios (“Big Fish & Begonia”) for Oscar consideration.

This exquisite-looking movie, about a 10-year-old boy who saves the world from an epidemic of fear, was created by Split Studio in Brazil with oil paintings (like last year’s innovative “Loving Vincent”), digital drawings, and graphic animation.

“Tito and the Birds” was directed by animation newcomer Gustavo Steinberg (the live-action “End of the Line”), Gabriel Bitar (“Cidade Cinza”), and André Catoto (“Say I Am Only Seventeen”). In addition, it features an original score by Gustavo Kurlat and Binho Feffer (the Oscar-nominated “The Boy and the World”). The producers are Daniel Greco, Felipe Sabino, and Brenda Wooding.

“Tito and the Birds” tells the story of the titular boy and his two friends confronting a pandemic created by fear...

Shout! Studios has acquired North American distribution rights to the Brazilian animated movie “Tito and the Birds.”

Shout plans a rollout across multiple entertainment distribution platforms, beginning with a theatrical launch later this year.

“Tito and the Birds” is directed by Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar and André Catoto from a script by Eduardo Benaim and Steinberg. Producers are Steinberg, Daniel Greco, Felipe Sabino, and Brenda Wooding.

The story centers on Tito, a shy 10-year-old boy, who lives in a world on the brink of pandemic. Fear is crippling people, making them sick and transforming them. Tito realizes, based on his father’s past research, that there may be a way to utilize the local pigeon population and their songs to create a cure for the disease.

The film premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and won the best feature for children at Anima Mundi 2018. The film will have...

Feature premiered at Annecy earlier this year.

Shout! Studios, the distribution and production arm of Shout! Factory, has picked up all North American rights from Indie Sales to the Brazilian animation and Toronto selection Tito And The Birds.

Gustavo Steinberg (End Of The Line), Gabriel Bitar (Cidade Cinza), and André Catoto (Say I Am Only Seventeen) directed from a screenplay by Eduardo Benaim and Gustavo Steinberg.

Tito And The Birds premiered at Annecy International Animation Film Festival earlier in the year and won the Best Feature for Children at Anima Mundi 2018. It will receive its North American premiere in Toronto next month.

Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 6-16) has added a world premiere screening of Neil Jordan’s Greta and the North American premiere of Natalie Portman-starrer Vox Lux to its Special Presentations program, which now numbers 24 films.

Jordan’s Greta tells the story of a young New York woman named Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) who strikes up an unlikely friendship with an enigmatic widow named Greta (Isabelle Huppert). Co-written by Jordan and Ray Wright, pic also stars Colm Feore, Maika Monroe, and Stephen Rea.

In musical drama Vox Lux, Brady Corbet’s second feature as writer-director tracks its heroine’s path from childhood tragedy to a life of fame and fortune. Starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law, the film begins with teenage sisters Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) and Eleanor (Stacy Martin) who survive a violent incident that changes their lives.

Tiff has also revealed the 46 movies taking part in its Discovery lineup for emerging filmmakers.

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired “Tito and the Birds,” the Brazilian animated family tale directed by Gustavo Steignberg (“The End of the Line”), Gabriel Bitar (“Cidade Cinza”), and André Catoto (“Say I Am Only Seventeen”), which will world premiere at Annecy International Film Festival.

The film follows the journey of Tito, a shy 10-year-old boy who lives with his mother. One day, a pandemic starts spreading, making people sick and transforming them. The 10-year-old realizes, based on his missing father’s past research, that there may be a way to utilize the local pigeon population and their songs to create a cure for the disease. Tito sets off to find a cure and find his father again, along with his own identity.

The original score is composed by Gustavo Kurlat and Binho Feffer, who are known scoring the “The Boy and The World,” the Oscar-nominated Brazilian feature which won Annecy...