Netflix Partners With Nexus Studios And Leading Indie Animators For ‘The House’

Nexus Studios, the award-winning production house based in London and L.A., is at work on an animated project for Netflix called The House. Here are the details.

• The House is described as “an eccentric dark comedy” which “centers on a house and the surreal tales of three generations of families who made it their home.” While this hasn’t been explicitly confirmed, the project is likely to be stop motion, as that is the medium for which its directors are known.
• Those directors are Paloma Baeza (image at top, right), Niki Lindroth von Bahr (left), and Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels (center), who work together — a stellar lineup of striking, unorthodox stop-motion filmmakers. Each will direct one of the project’s three chapters.
• Baeza, who was born in the U.K. and spent her childhood in Mexico City, made waves with her graduation film Poles Apart, which won an Annie and a BAFTA. The director has kept busy since then: beside The House, she is at work on hybrid feature The Toymaker’s Secret and a new animated biopic-of-sorts of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
• The films of Swedish animator-director Lindroth von Bahr have been turning heads on the festival circuit for some years. Her last short, 2017’s The Burden, took top prizes at Annecy and Toronto International Film Festival. She tends to explore dark existential themes with a deadpan humor.
• Marc & Emma, as the Belgium-based duo are known, most recently completed This Magnificent Cake!, an absurdist 44-minute anthology film about their country’s colonization of the Congo Basin. They previously made Oh Willy…, another festival favorite which set something of a trend in needle-felt stop motion.
• Nexus is a studio with an eclectic portfolio and a particular interest in emerging technologies. Its credits include the Oscar-nominated short This Way Up and Back to The Moon, which was produced for Google’s now-defunct vr division Spotlight Stories. The company was also behind a recent augmented-reality experience at the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium.
• Charlotte Bavasso, co-founder and producer at Nexus, said in a statement: “The House is a collection of cinematic stories that are intelligent, witty, inquisitive, warm, and yet packed with offbeat humor. For this project, Nexus are bringing together, for the very first time, three of the most unique and multi-awarded voices in independent stop motion animation today… This production is an organic collaboration between brilliant and like-minded storytellers.”
• Mike Moon, head of adult animation for Netflix, added: “Nexus Studios has a remarkable history of working with the best animators from all over the world. We’re thrilled to partner with Nexus and their incredible directors to bring The House to life.”