Folivari maps Sherlock Spin-off, lists author Animation Slate

In a sign of Folivari’s growing ambitions, the French animation giant will handle global sales of the Sherlock Holmes spin-off ‘The Baker Street Four’ through its recently launched distribution arm Folivari International.

The title is an adaptation of a local comic series in which Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective is paired with four street urchins. The title was developed in-house, with Folivari and Blue Spirit (“Blue Eye Samurai”) taking on the creative duties and Canal+ was appointed as client.

Led by Melissa Vega – former acquisitions and international sales manager at Dandelooo – Folivari International has picked up three additional titles, including the original Folivari titles ‘Nino Dino’ and ‘Kiki & Ailen’ and the Chilean/Brazilian preschool series ‘Guitar & Drum ‘. co-produced by Hype Animation and Punkrobot.

The fact that Damien Brunner, founder of Vega and Folivari, both share a French-Spanish background gives the budding distributor the desire to seek projects from further afield.

“What works in Latin America often works just as well in the United States,” says Damien Brunner, who envisions a handful of acquisitions each year. “Plus, we want to expand across the company – to meet people who are a bit surprising and not just buying from producers that are very established in Europe.”

This opening into distribution comes at an opportune time for the French company, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

Founded by father-son duo Didier and Damien Brunner along with producer Thibaut Ruby, Folivari has quickly become an industry leader, delivering award-winning feature films such as ‘The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales’, ‘Summit of the Gods’ and ‘Ernest & Celestine : A Trip to Gibberitia,” while simultaneously developing a TV show with series such as “Ernest and Celestine, the Collection,” “Stinky Dog” and “Samsam – Cosmic Adventures.”

Now Brunner wants to take the next step and build Folivari International into a major distribution player, while handling production services work through Fost – an independent studio that Damien Brunner and Thibaut Ruby founded in 2018. Although not a subsidiary, the Paris and Angoulême-based company Fost works closely with Folivari, providing R&D and production work for much of Folivari’s remit, while handling contract work for projects like Netflix and Ubisoft’s upcoming ‘Splinter Cell’.

“[Fost] is a tool that allows us to maintain the quality we need and want,” Brunner explains. “Having a production studio allows us to nurture, support and retain top talent from production to production, keeping them available to Folivari when needed. That gives us an incredible artistic advantage.”

Fost specializes in 2D and will handle production duties for most of Folivari’s upcoming films. The list is rich, with new projects from César winners Sébastien Laudenbach (“Chicken for Linda!”) and Patrick Imbert (“The Summit of the Gods”), as well as Folivari’s first-ever live-action title “Miss Mermaid” – a project that will be recorded this autumn and will not be passed by Fost for obvious reasons.

Bundling such projects represents a preference for artistic daring rather than more cynical calculations.

“We don’t necessarily follow the market,” says Brunner, pointing to Laudenbach’s sideways operatic adaptation “Love is a Gypsy Child – A Carmen Story” and Imbert’s “The Wild Inside,” which mixes queer romance with an imaginative survivalist story. Set in the Alaskan outback. “You could boldly say that neither film meets the market criteria. We are more proud of following our filmmakers, listening to their crazy stories and believing in them.”

Still, the producer can take solace in past achievements, as Laudenbach, Imbert and Léahn Vivier-Chapas – who co-direct Folivari’s upcoming World War II feature, ‘The Nazis, My Father and Me’ – have all previously worked with the studio have worked together. .

“Supervising authors is in our DNA,” says Brunner. “We want to build lasting relationships with our authors, see how they evolve, care for them and hope they trust us.”

Meanwhile, Folivari is also evolving and preparing the live-action feature film “Miss Mermaid” for production later this year.

“Our core business is animation,” says Brunner. “That is what we love, what drives our passions and what we will continue to do until the end of our days. But lately we’ve been receiving some incredible live-action projects, and we just don’t want to be limited. We cannot limit ourselves and prefer to think differently about every project.”

Looking ahead to the next decade, the producer will adhere to a similar vision.

“We will focus on projects that interest us, regardless of economics and technology,” he says. “We will believe in our luck, ignore market noise and go where we want without getting discouraged. I will continue to make exceptional encounters with artists that no one – or everyone – wants.”