Projects

Projects

Cannes Docs

Anna Borges do Sacramento

Directed by: Aída Bueno Sarduy

Produced by: Rafael Sampaio | Klaxon Cultura Audiovisual, Brazil, Aída Bueno Sarduy, Wendy Espinal | Ibirí Films, Spain

Country of Production: Brazil, Spain

Runtime: 80'

Expected Release: May 2026

Production Stage: Post-production, animation and editing

Budget: €332,000 (55% in place)

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales agents, gap financing, festivals, strategic guidance

Synopsis:

Anna Borges do Sacramento was an enslaved woman who fought for her freedom in 18th century Brazil. Her story, forgotten in a file gnawed by insects, is now unarchived through the imagination and ancestral knowledge of a group of quilombola women. As they reflect on her struggle, they weave their own experiences, forging a strong connection between past and present, a powerful portrait of Anna and themselves

Director’s Profile:

Aída Bueno Sarduy is a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology by the Complutense University of Madrid. She’s carried out research in Cuba and Brazil on African religions from the perspective of feminist critical theory. She specialized in African diasporic culture and interethnic relationships in Latin America, and studies purchases, freedom letters and freedom purchase documents of African and afro-descendant women in Brazil in the 18th and 19th centuries. She’s been a lecturer in universities such as New York University, Middlebury College and Stanford. She directed the documentary shorts “1939 Days” (2015) and “Guillermina” (2019), screened in festivals such as Clermont-Ferrand, FIPADOC and SANFICI, as well as the documentary feature films “Rezadeira”, now at the production stage and “Anna Borges do Sacramento”, in post-production, awarded by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund.

Producer’s Profile:

Rafael Sampaio is a Brazilian producer and curator, founder of Klaxon Cultural Audiovisual, production company based in São Paulo, since 2008. At Klaxon he has produced the documentaries “Let it Burn” (Brazil, Maíra Buhler, 2019, Prix des bibliothèques at Cinéma du Réel, 2019), “A Marriage” (Brazil, Mônica Simões, Brazil, 2017) and has produced or co-produced the features “Fever” (Chile/Brasil/Peru, Elisa Eliash, 2022) “Zafari” (Peru/Chile/Brasil/França, Mariana Rondón, 2024), “On Wheels” (Brazil, Mauro D’Addio, 2018), “Contactado” (Marité Ugás, 2021), among others. He worked as producer and programmer in cultural venues such as MIS-SP, Cinemateca Brasileira and cooperated with different national and international funds. He also is the head of studies for different training initiatives, such as the BrLab, an annual training and meeting event which he created and has directed since 2011.

Cannes Animation

Julián

Directed by: Louise Bagnall

Produced by: Catherine Keane | Cartoon Saloon, Wychwood Media, Melusine Productions, Aircraft Pictures, Sun Creature

Country of Production: Ireland, UK, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg

Language: English

Completed in: 2026

Wide-eyed Julián spends a summer of discovery in Brooklyn with his Abuela. Nearly strangers, they brace themselves for tense conversations and new adventures. Julián explores the magic of his Caribbean heritage, Abuela’s Brooklyn neighborhood and his own assertion that he is really a mermaid!

Cannes Animation

Sunny

Directed by: Michael Arias

Produced by: Rodney Uhler, Noriko Matsumoto, Hiroki Ito, Mie Onishi-Shimoka | GKIDS, dwarf

Country of Production: Japan, USA

Language: Japanese

Completed in: 2029

In 1970s Japan, Star Kids is a foster home for children with nowhere else to go. Navigating lives of heartbreak and isolation, newcomer Sei, streetwise Haruo, scrappy Junsuke, and their ragtag friends find joy in « The Sunny », a rusted-out vintage car sitting in the yard. The Sunny is both a clubhouse and an escape in which kids can travel anywhere their imaginations will take them.

Cannes Animation

Ana, en passant

Directed by: Fernanda Alves Salgado

Produced by: Fernanda Alves Salgado | Apiario Creative Studio, Sardinha Em Lata

Country of Production: Brazil, Portugal

Language: Portuguese, French

Completed in: 2026

After the death of her grandmother, Ana finds herself adrift in her own city, Paris. Following her clues, Ana travels to Brazil and finds Alice, her double, renting her grandmother’s old apartment. In deciphering the affective cartography of the city, its memories, and ancestral connections, Ana and Alice unravel what it means to become who they are.

Cannes Animation

Dante

Directed by: Linda Hambäck

Produced by: Linda Hambäck | Lee Film Stockholm, Nørlum, Mikrofilm

Country of Production: Sweden, Denmark, Norway

Language: Swedish

Completed in: 2026

10 million disappear and the suspect, Helge, is forced to flee and ends up in the dump, where he meets Dante the rat. In the search of the truth, two heads clash, but does friendship have a price? The search goes through trash, gold and dynamite.

Cannes Animation

Mu Yi and the Handsome General

Directed by: Julien Chheng

Produced by: Chorok Mouaddib | Studio La Cachette, Duetto

Country of Production: France

Language: French

Completed in: 2026

Mu Yi, 14, lives on a secluded mountain in China, which is forbidden to men. With her two friends, she encounters an opera troupe renowned for The Handsome General play. As she invites them to perform in her village, an angry spirit awakens. To restore balance, Mu Yi embarks on a life-changing journey through old China, uncovering the secrets of love, courage and self-made destiny.

Goes to Cannes

The Run

Category: Adelaide Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Stephen de Villiers

Produced by: Chloe Gardner | D2V Entertainment Pty Ltd T/A Watchpost. Exile

Country of Production: Australia

Genre: Thriller

Language: English

Completed in: 2025

In a dystopian near-future plagued by lockdowns and widespread infertility, Mac has turned to smuggling contraband through the wasteland. His morals collide with his means of survival when he meets Alia, a teenager on the run, who is mother to the first baby born in three years.

Goes to Cannes

Diabolic

Category: Adelaide Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Daniel J. Phillips

Produced by: Daniel J. Phillips | Empire Road Pictures & Sunjive Studios

Country of Production: Australia

Genre: Horror

Language: English

Completed in: 2025

A decade after her excommunication, Elise returns to a fundamentalist Mormon settlement at the behest of her psychiatrist. She undergoes a healing ceremony, which uncovers buried memories of her forbidden love, and invokes a 19th century witch who resurfaces to unleash brutal revenge.

Goes to Cannes

Troublemaker

Category: Adelaide Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Jared Nicholson & Ben Lawrence

Produced by: Rebecca Barry (Producer) | Media Stockade, Scott Baskett (Co-Producer) | Run Wild Productions, Madeleine Hetherton-Miau (Producer) | Media Stockade, Deanne Weir (Executive Producer) | WeirAnderson Films

Country of Production: Australia

Genre: Documentary

Language: English

Completed in: 2026

After discovering Port Arthur Massacre survivor Wendy Scurr on InfoWars, director Jared Nicholson starts observing her and her paranoid inner circle but is soon drawn in himself. Troublemaker is a true-crime psychological thriller exposing the unprecedented crisis of belief threatening our society.

Goes to Cannes

Acts of Forgetting

Category: Adelaide Goes to Cannes

Directed by: Rhys Graham

Produced by: Philippa Campey | Film Camp Pty Ltd & Daybreak Films Pty Ltd

Country of Production: Australia, Spain

Genre: Documentary

Language: English & Spanish

Completed in: 2025

As contemporary Spain experiences political upheaval, a group of formidable Australian and Spanish artists gather in Madrid over several years to resurrect painful stories of Franco’s dictatorship in pursuit of a new and bold work of theatre.