A Multi-stop Bolero Aiming for an Animated Oscar Nom; GKIDS Creates New Label for ‘Chico & Rita’

Although it was announced just yesterday, we know that GKIDS, the animation distributor folks who brought us Michel Ocelot’s Azur & Asmar, Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues and Tomm Moore’s The Secret of Kells, were dancing the bolero around Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Chico & Rita when it was presented at TIFF last year. After a year of festival play and favorable reviews, fans of animation can expect to see the musical romance drama circa 1948 sometime in 2012, and LA folks can see it during its Oscar qualifying run in the month of December. GKIDS will release through its new Luma Films label – animation geared towards adults.

Gist: Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey – in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero – brings heartache and torment. From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love.

Worth Noting: This was Trueba (best known for Foreign Oscar winner Belle Époque) first foray into animation. Trueba met with Mariscal a decade ago when he asked him to create the one sheet for the popular jazz docu, Calle 54.

Do We Care?: Perhaps its the mix of jazz and Havana and the Buena Vista Social Club in us that had us put it on our radar last year — we missed this at TIFF 2010 but we’ll be seeing the film within a couple of weeks at the Festival Du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal.