\n\tSet in the 1950s, \u201cJuul\u201d follows 17-year-old circus acrobat Juul, whose life changes forever after a tragic accident leaves her in a coma and declared brain-dead. Facing financial ruin, her magician father takes a desperate and morally complicated decision: he steals her body from the hospital and presents her as a \u201cliving puppet\u201d to revive the failing circus. <\/p>\n
\n\tBut Juul is still conscious, trapped inside a body she no longer controls. As her anger and resistance grow, her body begins to transform into porcelain, becoming a powerful symbol of her silent rebellion and her fight to reclaim her own identity.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFrom the first time I read the script, I knew we had something very special in our hands,\u201d recalls Tom Van Gestel, CEO of Fabrique Fantastique, who also leads \u201cJuul\u201d as both director and producer. \u201cIf I\u2019m being honest, it was the first I experienced so many emotions and goosebumps while reading a story. And I\u2019ve read (and written) my share. \u2018Juul\u2019 drew me in, and I knew we had to be on top of it from the start.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tThe script of this rare young adult animated Belgian feature was brought to Van Gestel by An de Gruyter, refined over and over with the studio\u2019s teams. During that process, Fabrique Fantastique alum Liesbet van Loon was also brought on board as art director on the project, to craft this stop-motion like 3D-animated feature. \u201cThis technique was a clear choice for us, because of the physicality it brings to our story. \u2018Juul\u2019 is all about flesh, and how does one turn from flesh to porcelain, visually speaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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\t\t\t\t\tTom Van Gestel, director-producer of \u2018Juul\u2019, CEO of Fabrique Fantastique<\/p>\n
\n\tTo be able to bring this transformation to the screen, along with the character\u2019s spiraling descent into the darkest places they could actually go, 3D felt like the more natural technique the Belgian studio could use. Van Loon, whose artisanal approach to animation relied on hand-drawn ink, paint and pencils, brought her powerful artistry to the project, crafting unique characters, strange body shapes and spinning environments.<\/p>\n
\n\tThese spirals and movements also informed \u201cJuul\u201d\u2018s score, which Van Gestel developed with five-time Grammy Award winners Snarky Puppy. \u201cLike a carousel, they draw you in as well, into these dark places,\u201d adds Van Gestel. \u201cAnd as we kept exploring, it all came together. Form met substance, and our story informed our technique as well. Animation can sometimes do that, and as a creator, it\u2019s a very nice feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tTurning this promising story into a fully animated 90-minute feature has been (and still is, as the film is still deep in post-production with an estimate delivery by the end of 2026) a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the CEO-producer-director. \u201cDoing three is not ideal,\u201d confesses Van Gestel. \u201cBut on the other hand, I\u2019ve always liked to be a director who actually knows where the money\u2019s going to. Sometimes, foolish discussions emerge if production and direction are not in sync, and I think our approach helped us keep a transparent and cleverly used budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAnd as for his responsibilities at the studio, the CEO found (as he did for his film) smart, talented people he could trust to handle the business, and plan the next years for the ever-busy animation studio. <\/p>\n
\n\tMuch as Van Gestel was struck by de Gruyter\u2019s story, Studio 100 Film\u2019s teams fell in love early with the project. But being so apart from their usual trade, it took almost a year for Van Gestel to hear back from the sales agent. \u201cThey called me and basically said \u2018look, it\u2019s now been a year, and we\u2019re still thinking about this movie. We can\u2019t get it out of our head. So even though it goes beyond our catalog, we just feel that we need to do it,\u2019 and that was it. They came on board, helped us find a German co-producer and wrap the financing, and have been supporting all the way. It\u2019s truly a joy.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tLorena Booth, senior manager sales & acquisitions at Studio 100 Film, shares this enthusiasm and has been eager to present the project to buyers for a long time. \u201cFor us, \u2018Juul\u2019 represents the kind of ambitious animated storytelling we are increasingly looking to bring to international audiences,\u201d she adds. \u201cIts remarkable visual identity, emotional depth and universal themes demonstrate the creative breadth of animation today, and we are excited to present it at TIFF, and to continue expanding our slate with distinctive, filmmaker-driven productions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tLorena Booth, bringing \u2018Juul\u2019 to TIFF for Studio 100 Film<\/p>\n
\n\tAs production wraps up with a final sprint, Van Gestel reflects on his own journey with the film. \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a black-or-white person,\u201d he confides, \u201ceither things are terribly bad, or they\u2019re super awesome. And building an animated feature, you have to trust in the process because when you look at the work-in-progress images, there\u2019s always something to redo, to improve. But with \u2018Juul\u2019, when we hit the approved button in our projection room, I am amazed at how good every shot looks. That\u2019s both the joy and torture of making animated movies.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tVan Gestel, as animators hardly ever do, doesn\u2019t forget to thank his teams, and the artists who jumped on this passion dream project turned reality. <\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFinally being able to share it, and to get people\u2019s reactions (and we\u2019ve been getting a lot), it\u2019s truly a joy. I\u2019m very enthusiastic to see how audiences will react, and how we will build the promotion around the world we\u2019ve crafted.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n\tStudio 100 Film brings \u201cJuul\u201d to TIFF Market along with its extensive slate, but there is indeed something special about this title. And, beyond its distinct look, it\u2019s the love that radiates from all who\u2019ve gravitated around this film, born in the heart of Belgium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How far would you go to keep a love one close? Belgian studio Fabrique Fantastique\u2018s debut animated feature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,358615,358616,206,349695,46686,46687],"class_list":["post-847773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-fabrique-fantastique","tag-juul","tag-movies","tag-studio-100-film","tag-tiff","tag-toronto-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}