Annecy Festival Residency: The 2023 mentors

A two-phase mentorship was arranged for the artists: assistance with the script before they arrive, then an on-site mentorship dealing with the project’s graphic choices.

The mentoring’s first phase allows the artists to take a step back from their film’s storyline and reflect on their objectives in terms of visual development. It is a kind of checkpoint providing the authors the opportunity to question themselves and subsequently confirm the elements which are ready enough to be explored from a graphic point of view.
The mentoring’s second phase is key. A real catalyst, it boosts creation and encourages the authors to think about their directing, explore new tangents, challenge their limits and allow themselves this experimental phase, which is so valuable in animation.

Discover the mentors who will be assisting the authors during this Residency.

The mentors for the script aspects:

Fabienne Gambrelle

Scénariste, accompagne le projet "Le Royaume des oiseaux" (O Reino dos Pássaros)

Biographie

Anne-Claire Lehembre

Scénariste d’anim’, accompagne le projet "Le Dernier des cailloux"

Biographie

Patrick Somerville

Romancier et scénariste, accompagne le projet "Shadow Work"

Biographie

The mentors for the graphic development aspects:

Tomm Moore

Cofondateur Cartoon Saloon & directeur de la création, accompagne le projet "Le Royaume des oiseaux" (O Reino dos Pássaros)

Biographie

Benjamin Renner

Director, assisting the project Le Dernier des cailloux

Biography

Marc Caro

Réalisateur, accompagne le projet "Shadow Work"

Biographie

Fabienne Gambrelle

Scriptwriter, assisting the project The Bird Kingdom (O Reino dos Pássaros)

Fabienne Gambrelle is a French scriptwriter working mainly on animated TV series for children: Belfort & Lupin, Anatole Latuile, La Famille Blaireau Renard, Max & Maestro, Les P’tits Diables, Martine, Vic the Viking, Les Triplés, Sam & Julia, César et Capucine, Magiki, La Fée Coquillette, Lulu Vroumette, Fish 'n' Chips, etc.

Fabienne Gambrelle also writes books. When she isn’t writing, she’s dancing. She enjoys doing the samba, forró and frevo because of her passion for Brazil, which she also refers to in several of her works: Julien, apprenti capoeira (2005), Le Goût du Brésil (2012), and Hänsel, Gretel et Sací Pererê (2015).

Fabienne Gambrelle has collaborated several times with the Mifa to share her scriptwriting and script-doctor expertise with authors.

Anne-Claire Lehembre

Animation Screenwriter, assisting the project Le Dernier des cailloux

Anne-Claire Lehembre has been an animation screenwriter for 17 years.

She started out her career doing TV series with Les Minijusticiers and has been a part of many series since then, ranging from 7 to 52 minutes in length.

In 2015, Delphine Maury (Tant Mieux Prod) invited her to join her on an ambitious project: adapting the novel Tobie Lolness by Timothée de Fombelle. Anne-Claire collaborated in writing this multi-episode series (13 x 52min) over 7 years alternatively co-writing the series bible, story arc, scenarios and was Script Editor.

Currently, Anne-Claire is working on a feature film project, The Hermit and the Bear, writing the script alongside Delphine Maury and Marine Blin. She is also co-writing the next short film by Héloïse Ferlay, Dans nos gorges.

Patrick Somerville

Screenwriter and Novelist, assisting the project Shadow Work

Patrick Somerville is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter and novelist. He most recently created, show-ran and executive produced Station Eleven, which debuted to rave reviews. The series was nominated for seven Emmy awards including a personal nomination for his writing. Somerville previously created, wrote and executive produced the critically acclaimed Netflix series Maniac, which received two nominations for both WGA and PGA Awards. He also served as Writer/Producer on HBO’s The Leftovers and wrote on FX’s The Bridge and FOX’s 24: Live Another Day.

Somerville's books include two collections of stories, Trouble (2006) and The Universe in Miniature in Miniature (2010), and two novels, The Cradle (2009) and This Bright River (2012). The Cradle was nominated for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. It was also a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick for Spring 2009, a Target Emerging Writers Pick, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. This Bright River was a New York Times Editors’ Choice as well and The Universe in Miniature in Miniature was short-listed for the 2010 Story Prize.

Somerville's writing has also appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Esquire and more. He is a MacDowell Fellow and the winner of the 2009 21st Century Award, given annually by the Chicago Public Library.

He grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later earned his MFA from Cornell University. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife and three kids.

Tomm Moore

Co-Founder & Creative Director, Cartoon Saloon, assisting the project The Bird Kingdom (O Reino dos Pássaros)

Over Cartoon Saloon’s history, Tomm Moore has worked as Director, Art Director, Storyboarder, Animator and Illustrator across a range of the studio's projects. Tomm has directed 3 universally successful feature films. All three were nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards: The Secret of Kells in 2010 (Audience Award at Annecy 2009), and the spiritual follow-up, Song of the Sea in 2015. His latest feature film Wolfwalkers, which he co-directed with Ross Stewart, received several prominent critics’ awards including the LAFCA Award and NYFCC Award as well as nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and wins in several categories including Best Director and Best Independent Feature at the 2021 Annie Awards. He is currently working as a producer across several of Cartoon Saloon’s new film and series projects as well as refocusing on his personal art training.

Benjamin Renner

Director, assisting the project Le Dernier des cailloux

Benjamin Renner was born in 1983. After graduating with a Science Baccalaureate at Jean Monnet de La Queue-les-Yvelines high school, Benjamin Renner attended an arts preparatory class to then study at the Beaux-Arts d'Angoulême, where he graduated with a national diploma in Comic Book Art. Next, he attended La Poudrière animation school at the Cartoucherie de Bourg-lès-Valence. Here he made short animation films including his graduation film, A Mouse’s Tale in 2007, in which a mouse is captured by a lion and must talk his way out to stay alive. Upon graduation, Renner was hired to work on a feature-length animation film project for Gabrielle Vincent’s children’s comic book series Ernest & Celestine, where he first worked as Artistic Director. Then, Producer Didier Brunner suggested he move onto directing and work with two more experienced animators, Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier. Benjamin Renner thus co-directed Ernest & Celestine with them.

Marc Caro

Director, assisting the project Shadow Work

Marc Caro is a comic book author who began his career in the magazine Metal hurlant at the end of the 70s. He is also an electronic musician and filmmaker who comes from a background in film animation and experimental video. He is known for co-directing Delicatessen with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, which won numerous Césars, and The City of Lost Children, which was presented as the opening film at the Cannes Film Festival. He directed Dante 01 and a documentary about robots in Japan. He is also responsible for posters, music and set designs for choreographers Régine Chopinot and Philippe Decouflé, but also some art direction for the films Alien: Resurrection by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Enter the Void by Gaspar Noé and Earwig by Lucile Hadzihalilovic, among others.