Brazilian studio Coala Films has boarded the Portuguese animated feature “Una” from Oscar-shortlisted “Percebes” producer BAP – Animation Studios. With the new backing, production is now ready to kick off in the new year.
“Una,” highlighted during a Portuguese Projects Pitch at Annecy last June, marks the feature film debut of David Doutel and Vasco Sá, producers at BAP – Animation Studios whose own shorts as directors, such as “Soot” (2014), “Augur” (2018) and “Garrano” (2022) have earned the duo plaudits around the world.
With “Una,” Doutel and Sá address increasingly urgent social issues, linking the rebellion of young Una against a smoke-belching lithium mine in her village mountain valley to other attempts to push back against the ravages of rampant eco-destructive capitalism around the world.
‘Una’
Credit: BAP – Animation Studios
“Una” is being made with the financial support of ICA (Portugal), ANCINE (Brazil), PIC Portugal – Cash Rebate and MEDIA Creative Europe, and is produced by Bando à Parte with co-producers BAP Animation Studios, which handled the film’s pre-production, and, now, Coala Filmes.
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“The co-production with our friends from Coala Filmes in Brazil proved to be fundamental as it allowed us to finally start the production of the film at the beginning of this new year,” Sá explained to Variety of the film’s new partner.
“We are really happy to know that a part of ‘Una’ will be made in a country that means so much to us and with whom we have such a close relationship, both in terms of the language that unites us and the very theme of the film, in which we share the same concerns,” he added.
Coala Filmes is an animation studio with more than 20 years of experience. It’s catalog includes the short films “Dossiê Rê Bordosa” and “Tempestade” as well as the standout feature “Bob Spit – We Don’t Like People,” the company’s first feature which premiered in the Contrechamp competition at Annecy 2021, where it won the section’s best film prize. It was also the first Latin American film to receive the Grand Prix at the similarly prestigious Ottawa International Animation Film Festival.
Although many of the main pieces of “Una’s” production puzzle are now in place, more collaborators could be on the way.
“We’re still working with some possible partners to see if they’ll join us on this adventure, so we’ll certainly have more news soon,” says Sá.