Teaser: Animated Feature ‘Brave Cat’ from Oscar-Winning Chilean Studio Punkrobot Set for AFM

Brave Cat, the feature debut from the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning animated short Bear Story, will be introduced to international buyers at the upcoming American Film Market in L.A. by newly onboarded Paris-based agency Indie Sales (Maya, Give Me a Title; Dandelion’s Odyssey). The project was announced in June 2024 ahead of Annecy Festival/MIFA.

The film is produced by Chile’s Punkrobot Studio (Bear Story, Star Wars: Visions – “In the Stars”), directed by Gabriel Osorio and produced by Pato Escala. Osorio and Escala were the director-producer team behind Bear Story (2015), which made history as the first-ever Chilean film to win an Academy Award. The duo are co-founders of Punkrobot, alongside Antonia Herrera and Mari Soto-Aguilar.

Punkrobot and Indie Sales shared a new teaser trailer today through Variety.

Synopsis: Kona, a teenage forest cat, decides to face her fears and search for her missing mother, who was kidnapped by dogs working for humans. Along with Colin, an abandoned guard dog puppy, and Bernard, a runaway old circus bear, she embarks on a cross-country search for their lost families. Despite their differences, they will stick together and go on a wild journey that will change them forever.

As noted during the project’s initial announcement, the story is inspired by the mass disappearances and flight of hundreds of thousands of political refugees during the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile from 1973-1990; some of these people have never been found to this day. Despite its dark origins, Brave Cat seeks to transform these events through a melancholic yet resilient lens. “Ultimately, the film will try to explore forgiveness of the unforgiveable,” Osorio told Variety last year. Bear Story was inspired by the director’s grandfather’s stories of his exile after military coup.

Brave Cat is supported by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage of Chile and Universidad de las Américas (UDLA).

[Source: Variety]