Apr 3, 2016

Polish animators tease fantasy animation feature "Privisa"

It's impossible to predict nowadays where the next intriguing feature animation project will emerge from: it might be South Africa, perhaps Brazil, or as we learned this past week, Poland.

The latest attention-grabbing project that has appeared online is a concept trailer for Privisa, a collaboration between three different Polish studios: Platige Films, Juice, and Flat Foot Films:

The children's film was one of 55 animated films pitched last month at Cartoon Movie, the annual European pitching and co-production forum where many feature film deals are made. Don't hold your breath for the film though. It was pitched as a project in “concept phase,” and according to its producers, has now moved into development. In other words, it's still quite a ways from reaching theater screens, and there's no guarantee that it'll even find the funding to be produced.

The 80-minute or so children's feature is set to be directed by Marcin Karolewski, who created concept art for the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but whose approach to animation can be seen more clearly in this music video he directed a few years ago for a group called Oszibarack:

The story, conceptualized by Julita Olszewska, is fantasy-oriented with Eastern European roots:

While we'll have to wait to find out whether Privisa will become an actual animated feature, Platige is currently working on another film that should be finished soon: Another Day of Life, an atypical animation/live-action hybrid that will recount the life-altering experiences of Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski during the Angolan Civil War in 1975.

Here are the credits for Privisa: Production: Platige Films Co-production: Juice, Flat Foot Films Project development co-funded by Polish Film Institute

PLATIGE FILMS Producer: Magdalena Bargiel Executive Producer: Katarzyna Fukacz, Jaroslaw Sawko

JUICE Directing, Concept, Art Work: Marcin Karolewski Script concept: Julita Olszewska Concept Art: Mathias Zamecki, Hanna Czyzewska, 3D Artist: Tomasz Dyrdula, Jaroslaw Handrysik Producer: Natalia Lasota

FLAT FOOT FILMS Head of Animation: Leszek Nowicki Animation: Maciej Krowinski, Piotr Sitek, Krzysztof Swiderski, Malgorzata Mianowska