Festival News: ‘Little Nicholas’ Headed To Cannes, ‘My Love Affair With Marriage’ To Tribeca

A pair of animated features were selected to screen at major festivals this week with Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre’s Little Nicholas, Happy As Can Be (Le Petit Nicolas) set to screen out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival and Signe Baumane’s My Love Affair With Marriage picked to compete in Tribeca’s International Narrative competition.

Little Nicholas

• Adapted from a popular children’s book series created by René Goscinny (Asterix) and illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé, Little Nicholas turns on the playful misadventures of a young boy in Paris.
• Directed by Benjamin Massoubre (editor on I Lost My Body) and Amandine Fredon (an animator on A Cat in Paris)
• The film was animated using a “Chinese ink-wash animation” style, inspired by the look and texture of Sempe’s original artwork.
• Anne Goscinny, daughter of the original author, adapted the screenplay with Michel Fessler (March of the Penguins)
• Little Nicholas has been adapted several times in live action films and a 2009 cd animated series.
• On Entertainment (The Little Prince) produces, in co-production with Foliascope (The Tower), Luxembourg label Bidibul Productions (A Cat in Paris), and Canada’s Kaibou Production.
• Charades is handling global sales.

My Love Affair With Marriage

• The film turns on Zelma who, from an early age, has been convinced by popular culture that all she needs is love. However, with age comes a feeling that the more she tries to conform to societal norms, the more her body resists.
• It is director Signe Baumane’s sophomore feature. Her debut, Rocks in My Pockets, world premiered at Karlovy Vary in 2014.
• A U.S. and Luxembourg co-production, it’s produced by Roberts Vinovskis at Locomotive Productions, Sturgis Warner and Signe Baumane at The Marriage Project, and Raoul Nadalet at Antevita Films.
• New Europe Film Sales acquired global rights to the film earlier this week. The company also sold Baumane’s debut Rocks in My Pockets.