TGFM’s 2023 project “LITTLE AMÉLIE” won the Audience Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and was selected as an official selection of the Cannes International Film Festival 2025. TGFM conducted an email interview with producers Claire La Combe (Puffin Pictures) and Nidia Santiago (Ikki Films).

TGFM: Congratulations on winning the Audience Award at Annecy 2025! This is a truly valuable award for filmmakers. Why do you think this film was so loved by the audience?

The film depicts the early life adventure of a 2 and half baby girl who comes to understand that she is not the center of the world. She has to adapt, and she struggles for it. We all have been through this evolution step, even if we don’t really remember that age. One of the most impactful things about the film is that the camera and point of view is always at Amelie’s heigh, and every drama (or joy) is felt through her eyes. It’s really immersive. And it makes the audience recall many memories from one’s early age. People get really moved by this childhood sensation.

TGFM: How did participating in TGFM 2023 help you complete ‘LITTLE AMELIE’? Also, we heard that ‘LITTLE AMELIE’ will be released in Japan. Could you tell us how that came about?

At TGFM 2023 we met a lot of interesting people in only 48 hours. At the market with one-to-one meetings, but also outside in Tokyo, where we had time to organize meetings with stakeholders from the animated industry. We met mostly a lot of international distributors looking for projects linked with Japan. A concrete example is the meeting with Eve Gabereau for MODERN FILMS who will be distributing LITTLE AMELIE in the UK. Even though she bought the film in Cannes this year, our previous encounter at TGFM 2023 was precious. We also could meet in really person our music composer for the film Mari Fukuhara and the music producer Watanabe. Physical meetings are the best. GOODFELLAS, our sales agent for the film, could be present too at the market, and that made a huge difference too thanks to their industry knowledge. They could arrange a meeting with Mr. Nakagawa from COMSTOCK, and – being there, on site at the market, we were able to discuss the film in real quality conditions (rather than in other sale markets outside Japan).

TGFM: The film will be released in France on 25 June, and the soundtrack for ‘LITTLE AMELIE’ will also be released on the same day. The original score was composed by Japanese artist Mari Fukuhara. How did you discover her music, and were there any challenges in working with her, given the cultural differences?

The whole artistic team has a great knowledge of the Japanese anime production, and it’s Eddine Noel, our artistic director for the film who introduce the team to the artistic world of Mari Fukuhara. He’d really liked her music play composed for the short film FUTON by Yoriko Mizushiri. We started an early collaboration for the pilot of the feature in 2020. Even though they were working together remotely (Mari in Japan, our creative team in France), we were all super fan of the first composition she did. We were lucky to have talents on both sides who are precise and accurate in artistic choices. Even though sometimes the mother tong got us into some misunderstandings, we could say that they all shared an artistic common language in the hand. And Mari was proactive in pouring traditional Japanese instrumentals. It really was amazing. We just regret we couldn’t find any financial partner in Japan to help us with the music production. Mari worked with a restricted budget with money coming from France, and we couldn’t reunite the whole creative team in one place. That was the most difficult part. And still is something we feel sad about.

TGFM: It is based on Amélie Nothomb’s autobiographical novel “The Character of Rain”, which uniquely and poetically depicts her childhood memories of Japan. Why did you choose this novel to be adapted into an animated film?

The adaptation was an idea of Liane-Cho Han who had read the book when he was 18 years old, and in 2018 he approached us (Ikki Films and Maybe Movies) as well as Maïlys Vallade, who directed the film, and brought all the sensibility about childhood and its fragility. The book represented the quintessence of what the team wanted to put on screen: a coming-of-age story, lots of colored poetry, high sensibility. As producers, we had complementary reasons to follow the creative team in the adaptation challenge, and we all agreed on the fact that only animation could transpose this fantasy autobiography.

TGFM: Even overseas, the perception that animation is only for children and anime enthusiasts is now a thing of the past. This film can also be enjoyed as a family film, with both children and adults finding something to appreciate. What kind of projects would you like to take on in the future? Or if you have any projects in the works, could you tell us about them within the limits of what you can share?

On my side, Claire, after 8 years at Maybe Movies, I recently created a new company based in Brittany, “Puffin Pictures”. Named after an aquatic bird which leaves in community. Precisely, we develop features for all ages, from 3 up to 103-years-old with this idea that we need cinema to help transmission through all generations. We are always looking for that type of films that can be shared within the family with different levels of understanding. We currently are developing a collection of films for kids based on a 7 years-old girl character “Adelidelo” who’s “job is to reveal the happiness of life”. Another example of what we develop, is a live feature film for kids +8 with animated characters in it (Roger Rabbit’style) which brings the topic of losing a close friend and how to deal with it at an early age.

As for Nidia, Ikki Films, we like to work with a wide variety of styles, subjects and audiences. We are currently financing Cursed Children by Matisse Gonzalez, a coming-of-age film for ages 10+, which tells the story of a teenage girl, Kiki, who discovers her grandfather’s darkest secret and reveals it in order to break the curse that has struck the family. Kolaval is a family film (age 7+) about a young girl trying to find her way as a warrior in a family of embroiderers. And The Autonauts of the cosmoroad, a live-action film adapted from the book of the same name by Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop. We are also working on two animated TV series, one for adults (The hall of fail) and the other for children (Mutants), among other projects.

TGFM: If you have any advice for producers who wish to participate in TGFM in the future, please let us know.

The European market is very different from the Asian market, so it’s important to have projects with a strong identity, and to target specific territories you would like to collaborate with. Going to the TGFM with an international sales agent who knows the sector very well, also helps to facilitate discussions. Get straight to the point in terms of the goal of what you’re looking for. At TGFM everything was organized perfectly, so we do not have any other advice rather than the common “prep yourself” which works for every market. Thanks again for this unique opportunity !