Studio 100 Film Picks Up Belgian Animated 'Juul' for TIFF Slate — SkimNews
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- Studio 100 Film picked up "Juul," Fabrique Fantastique's debut animated feature, ahead of TIFF Market — a departure from the sales agency's family-driven catalogue that took nearly a year to commit after the project first caught their interest
- "Juul" follows a 1950s-set story of 17-year-old circus acrobat Juul, who is declared brain-dead after a tragic accident; her magician father steals her body from the hospital and presents her as a "living puppet" — while Juul remains conscious, trapped, and increasingly transforms into porcelain in silent rebellion
- Tom Van Gestel leads "Juul" as Fabrique Fantastique's CEO, director, and producer, working from An de Gruyter's script with art director Liesbet van Loon, whose hand-drawn ink, paint, and pencil approach informs the stop-motion-like 3D technique chosen for its physicality
- Snarky Puppy, five-time Grammy Award winners, are collaborating with Van Gestel on the score, with Van Gestel describing the music's spiraling quality as drawing viewers "into these dark places" like a carousel
- The 90-minute feature remains in post-production with an estimated delivery by the end of 2026, having already secured a German co-producer with Studio 100 Film's help in wrapping financing
- Lorena Booth, senior manager of sales & acquisitions at Studio 100 Film, called "Juul" representative of "the kind of ambitious animated storytelling we are increasingly looking to bring to international audiences"
Why it matters: Studio 100 Film's pickup of "Juul" formalizes a deliberate expansion into mature, young-adult animated storytelling beyond its family-friendly core, giving Belgian studio Fabrique Fantastique a route to international buyers and a German co-producer. For Studio 100 Film, the deal positions the agency as a more versatile partner for ambitious, filmmaker-driven animation rather than a catalog narrowly defined by children's IP.
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