Tom Van Gestel founded Fabrique Fantastique to create meaningful new animation concepts with global appeal. Most recently that includes Interstellar Ella, co-produced with Apartment 11 in Canada, and season two of Sir Mouse, co-produced with Avalon films in Ireland.
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Interstellar Ella
Ella in the animated series Interstellar Ella is a young girl who lives in space with her friends and family. In each 11-minute episode she goes on an adventure and the audience learns something new about space.
The series won multiple pre-sales deals, a substantial minimum guarantee from distributor Aardman Animation, and a grant from the EU’s Creative Europe programme. This investment allowed Fabrique Fantastique to leverage the Belgian tax shelter system and Screen Flanders funding.
With the Flanders Audiovisual Fund in the mix, this helped us to retain 70% of the production.
Fabrique Fantastique handled direction of the series, and part of the writing, with everything from the storyboard to compositing carried out in its own studio, Studio Fantastique, which had a permanent staff of 40 artists.
This studio sets us apart from other animation producers in Flanders. It allows us to minimise ramp-up times for productions, and we can get everything going efficiently and quickly.
Audio and video post-production for Interstellar Ella was also handled in Flanders, by Optionmedia in Mechelen.
Juul
Next up for Fabrique Fantastique is Juul, a magic realist 3D animation feature for young adult and adult audiences. The title character is a 17-year-old girl who performs as an acrobat in her father’s circus. When a terrible accident leaves her locked into her own mind, her father decides to make the girl a living puppet in his freak show. In silent protest at this indignity, and at the loss of her free will, Juul slowly turns to porcelain.
Fabrique Fantastique is the lead producer on this five-country co-production, with support in Belgium coming from Screen Flanders, the Flanders Audiovisual Fund and the Belgian Tax Shelter. Van Gestel directs, from a script by An de Gruyter. The international co-production partners on Juul are Kepler Film (The Netherlands), Mr Miyagi Film (Spain), Toon2Tango (Germany) & ...
Co-producing with Fabrique Fantastique
Fabrique Fantastique is currently developing new series concepts, such as Gardener Gavin, for very young kids, and working on a new hybrid feature film called Crash Test Donny.
We are interested in meaningful animation projects, with global appeal and big licensing and merchandising potential, which are also a perfect fit for live entertainment spin-offs.
Fabrique Fantastique
Why co-produce with Flanders?
The Flanders Region boasts highly skilled talent both in front and behind the camera, authentic film locations, state-of-the-art studio complexes, animation studios, and post-production services. Want to learn more about co-production possibilities and partnerships with Flanders? Discover our testimonials archive, which can be searched by key word.
Apply for funding
With a budget of 3.5 million euros the Screen Flanders Economic Fund invests in approx. 20 projects each year. Producers wanting to collaborate with Flanders can apply for funding to cover part of their production expenses in the Region. Foreign producers interested in applying can co-produce with a Belgian producer.
Interesting in applying for funding?
Get in touch and discover what Flanders can offer your next project.