Flanders / We are co-production – Lunanime

The group has a particularly strong link with Scandinavia, with recent live-action co-productions including the series Hostage with Kärnfilm in Sweden and State of Happiness with Maipo Film in Norway.

Its animation co-productions include the Oscar-nominated A Cat in Paris, Phantom Boy, Funan and La Sirène. Animators working in-house for LumièreStudio frequently contribute to these projects, as well as generating original content. In addition to this focus on 2D animation, Lunamine works in stop-motion thanks to a partnership with leading Flemish studio Beast Animation.

State of Happiness is a drama series exploring the changes in Norwegian society following the discovery of oil in 1969. The recently completed third season takes the story up to the end of the 1980s. Lunanime has been able to cover a third of the production budget for the series, combining financing from Screen Flanders, Screen Brussels and the Belgian tax shelter, together with a minimum guarantee from Lumière’s distribution arm.

Some 95% of the series was shot in Belgium, including all the interiors and studio work, with the water stage at Lites Studio making possible the dramatic scenes set at sea.

Also on Lunanime’s live-action drama slate is Milano, a feature directed by Christina Vandekerckhove about a hearing-impaired young boy with a precarious home life. It is also beginning work on Vero Forever, a comedy drama series about a man who wants to get rid of his wealthy wife, co-produced with the Netherlands.

Lunanime is currently in post-production on the animated feature Allah is not Obliged, an adaptation of the novel Allah n'est pas obligé by Ahmadou Kourouma. This tells the story of a young Guinean boy who is forced to become a child soldier.

“We did the 3D animation in Wallonia, sending some animators from Flanders to work in the studio with their French-speaking colleagues, and we did all the backgrounds in Flanders,” says producer and Lunanime co-founder Annemie Degryse.

The co-production brings together Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Canada, with Belgium accounting for around 17 per cent of the budget. Support came from cultural funds and the regional funds Screen Flanders and Wallimage, along with the Belgian tax shelter, organised by Lumière’s in-house intermediary LumInvest.

“We focus on animation for adults and young adults, but that does not mean that we do nothing for children. We are also looking for high-end children’s content,” Degryse says. This can be seen in up-coming projects such as the feature film Big Bang Parade, an anthology for small children, and Fluffy Four, a stop-motion feature film and TV series.

In addition to top-quality animation projects, Lunanime is interested in high-end drama series and feature films. “That matches the company’s DNA on many levels,” says Bruyneel. In return, it contributes to multiple aspects of a co-production.