FROM DIRECTORS MARC JAMES ROELS AND EMMA DE SWAEF
FILM PREVIOUSLY PLAYED CANNES, TELLURIDE AND TORONTO FESTIVALS
LOS ANGELES THEATRICAL RELEASE SET FOR MARCH 1, 2019
NEW YORK (January 18, 2019) – GKIDS, the acclaimed producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, announced it has acquired the North American distribution rights for the animated feature THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE!. GKIDS will release the film theatrically in Los Angeles on March 1, 2019.
THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE! is a mid-length stop-motion animated film set in the bitter milieu of Belgium-occupied Congo in the late 19th century that turns a critical gaze on the colonists themselves. An official selection at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Toronto International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and Animation Is Film Festival, the film received an Annie Award nomination for Best Independent Animated Feature, the Andre-Martin Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and the top feature animation prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The all-rights deal was negotiated by GKIDS President David Jesteadt and Marcin Łuczaj of New Europe Film Sales.
“This Magnificent Cake! is like nothing I have ever seen before,” said David Jesteadt, GKIDS’ President. “It is a triumph of filmmaking and craftsmanship, to tell a story of such power and nuance through detailed stop-motion animation. As a critical examination of a dark legacy whose effects are still being felt today, this is a timely and provocative film that has already sparked conversations at film festivals around the globe.”
“We are very happy that Marc and Emma’s film has found a home at GKIDS, which is the best place for quality animation in the US,” said Jan Naszewski, CEO of New Europe Film Sales.
SYNOPSIS
An official selection at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Toronto International Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, THIS MAGNIFICENT CAKE! (CE MAGNIFIQUE GÂTEAU!) is an unforgettable work of stop-motion animation exploring the bitter milieu of Belgium-occupied Congo. In the late 19th century, keen to compete with other European imperial powers on the continent, King Leopold II of Belgium proclaimed, “I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.” The subsequent occupation of the Congo would come to attract a contingent of servants, merchants and miscellaneous bourgeois driven by everything from insatiable greed to existential fear. From the intimate stories of these characters — many of whom pass through a luxury hotel in the middle of the jungle – emerges a greater narrative concerning the imperialist mentality. In a film by turns surreal, darkly comic and brutal, directors Marc James Roels and Emma de Swaef ultimately turn their critical gaze on the colonists themselves in a work of stunning, mysterious beauty.