All eyes on SA s D-animated rhino movie the Crash

South Africa is a relative newcomer to making 3D-animation movies but The Crash which is still in production is getting a lot of international attention. By Claudia Padayachy

The Crash, a 3D-animated feature film is about a rhino named Spike who experiences a crisis of masculinity when he is robbed of his horn.

While the movie is still in the development phase, it is garnering impressive accolades, starting with being selected to pitch at the prestigious Annecy Animation Festival in France for their International Animation Film Market (Mifa) category.

Following on the heels of Golden Planes' Hillbrow and Triggerfish's Sea Monster, this is the third year in a row in which a South African feature concept has been accepted for the international pitch sessions at Annecy.

Just last month, The Crash was also invited to the London Production Finance Market (PFM), an exclusive financing market where only 25 projects are admitted globally a year.

Now in its ninth year, PFM aims to matchmake financiers with producers at an intensive two-day event. The Crash was one of just five projects selected for a special live pitch to an expert panel at PFM.

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Writer and producer Julia Smuts Louw of Sparks Flew Development Studio says: We are thrilled to see that this story is resonating with the global film market.

The project has also been recognised locally, and was recently accepted into the initial phase of Triggerfish's Story Lab initiative, a script incubation programme launched with the support of the Walt Disney Company and the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa.

Triggerfish have a good track record with animated movies, having worked on SA's very first 3D movie, Khumba.

Smuts Louw, who runs Sparks Flew with partner Daniel Snaddon, has partnered with Sisanda Henna of Diamond Hill as the financing producer. Diamond Hill develop and package motion picture projects for export.

Hopefully this enchanting tale will also do its bit to raise awareness about rhino poaching. Tragic statistics from Save the Rhino show that poaching is reaching a crisis point, with 1 215 rhinos poached last year. This year, to 27 August 27, 749 rhinos were poached. If the current rate of poaching continues, the organisation says that rhino deaths will overtake births in 2016-2018, meaning rhinos could become extinct.

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Animation, Films in Development

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