Fantastic news for Irish animation as Kilkenny based animation studio Cartoon Saloon has secured a number of deals for their forthcoming animated film Song of the Sea, by director Tomm Moore.
Variety is reporting that sales representatives WestEnd Films has secured deals to distribute the film across Europe, with Studiocanal distributing in the U.K. and Ireland, Haut et Court in France and Brother Distribution in the Benelux countries.
These new deals come on top of the existing contracts for North American rights to the pic, which were acquired by GKids, South Korean rights by JinJin Pictures, Balkan countries by VTI, Polish by Vue Cinemas, Indonesian by Soraya Intercine Films, and ECS for the Middle East.
Song of the Sea marks Moore and Cartoon Saloon’s first feature length animation since he and they were Academy Award nominated for The Secret of Kells.
The story Ben and his little sister Saoirse, the last selkie, who can transform from seals to people, and her journey to the sea, to find her voice and sing the “Song of the Sea” to save all of fairy kind from being lost forever.
An all-star voice cast features in the film, including Brendan Gleeson, Fionnula Flanagan, David Rawle, Lisa Hannigan, Pat Shortt, and Jon Kenny. The score comes form The Secret of Kells collaborators Bruno Coulais and the Irish band Kila.
Speaking on the new WestEnd Films’ Eve Schoukroun stated that “Traditionally, pre-sales are rare for an independent animation. Independent distributors are reluctant to pre-buy an animation, unless a film is led by a studio in the U.S., but people who loved the quality and commercial narrative of the script, then fell for the promo.”
Further deals are imminent with a pan-Latin America distribution deal in advanced negotiations, with Australia and Scandanavia to follow.