Little Animocje: Chicken for Linda!, dir. Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach

OPIS WYDARZENIA

Chicken for Linda! is a sweet and funny film the whole family will enjoy: a film that speaks of childhood from a child’s perspective, without being overly sentimental or exaggerating, but with humor. In this film, there are no fantasy worlds: the story takes place in the present day in a small, ordinary household, on the day of a general strike. There are no witches, no missions to save the world, and the only character that can fly is a… chicken!

The chicken drives the story. It provides an opportunity for a mother and daughter to come together and grieve the husband and father who passed away several years earlier, when Linda was just one. His death created a chasm between Linda and Paulette that the film will seek to bridge. Yet the focus is not at all on death; on the contrary, it’s a story about life. The narrative gradually takes on a societal dimension: Paulette and Linda magnetically draw an increasing number of people into their activity. We move from a small two-room apartment to the main courtyard of a household from a single-parent family to an entire neighborhood.

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Festivals and Awards

– Cristal Award for Best Feature and Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, Annecy International Animation Festival, France, 2023;

– Best Animated Film, César Awards, France, 2024;  Best Children’s Film, Cinekid Festival, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2023;

– Lumières Award, Best Animated Film, Paris, France, 2023; Torino Film Festival, Best Screenplay Award, Italy, 2023;

– Best International Feature Film in the Category „Junior Film”, International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience SCHLiNGEL, Chemnitz, Germany, 2023;

– Best Feature Film, Manchester Animation Festival, UK, 2023; 

– Nominee – Best Animated Feature, Ottawa International Animation Festival, Ontario, 2023 Canada;

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Chiara Malta & Sébastien Laudenbach

‍Chiara Malta –  has directed several short films including a trilogy on childhood that have been awarded at numerous international festivals. After her feature-length documentary Armando e la politica, she became an artist-in-residence at the Villa Medici (Rome). Her first feature film, Simple Women, was the opening film for the Discovery category of the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019. She regularly directs episodes for French TV series Chronicles of the Sun. Chicken for Linda! is her first feature animation.

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Selected filmography

2022 – A Comme Azur – short, drama, animation;

2019 – Simple Women – drama;

2017 – Histoire de Stefano – short; 

2015 – The Existence According to Gabriel – short, drama; 

2010  – Waiting for a Woman – documentary; 

2008  – Armando e la Politica  – animation, documentary; 

2006  – L’Isle  – documentary, short, animation; 

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Sébastien Laudenbach – Director, illustrator, and professor at ENSAD (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs). He has written a dozen award-winning short films selected by numerous international festivals. With his feature film The Girl Without Hands, presented at Cannes, awarded at the Annecy International Animation Festival, Sébastien Laudenbach has developed a lively, signature style.

Selected filmography

2017 – Vibrato – short, animation;  

2016 – The Girl Without Hands – animation, drama, fantasy; 

2014 – Daphné ou la belle plante – animation, documentary, short;  

2010 – Vasco  – short, animation; 

1998 – Journal – short, animation;