Panique! At Annecy: A Guide on How To Stop Worrying And Love (Animated) Belgian Cinema
With Hugo Deghilage, producer at Panique!, we took a short Annecy dip in what the Brussels-based production company behind beloved stop-motion characters by Patar & Aubier has to offer.
Beyond big premieres and flashy showcase events, Annecy is also the perfect opportunity for Belgians to meet… other Belgians!
Because even if we boast one of the tiniest and most densely populated country in Europe, it’s still in Annecy that the Belgian animation industry manage to meet, and where I get to have informal chats with Belgian producers and artists alike.
Annecy is also the reason why I first connected with Hugo Deghilage, producer at Panique! Between my piece on Cinergie about financing animated cinema in Belgium, and the first Animation Magazine piece I wrote, he has been a big help and a very interesting person to hang with!
This year, between two screenings, I had the pleasure to meet with Hugo, who has now been with Panique since 2019 and helps perpetuate the legacy of founder and producer Vincent Tavier, along with bringing new and exciting talents on board. Here’s what we talked about.
Sidenote: I hope I get to the bottom of this newsletter without losing my sanity, as Substack seems to experience a refreshing issue, and keeps reloading this page. Technical failures, beware!
Standing on the shoulders of acclaimed global yet very Belgian successes
Panique!’s story started back in 1992 with Man Bites Dog, an infamous live-action student-made feature which brought fame — and for some, like Belgian star actor Benoit Poelvoorde, fortune— to all who had a hand in it, including soon-to-be producer Vincent Tavier.
With a knack for surrounding himself with many talented artists, Tavier started collaborating with Belgian duo Vincent Patar & Stéphane Aubier on their series Pic Pic André and A Town Called Panic, the latter’s success allowing them to produce a full-blown feature film in the same universe back in 2009.
Since then, Panique!’s ties with animation have always been strong, and the Town Called Panic franchise has thrived through beautifully animated and extremely silly-yet-funny short films and specials.
Moreover, the production company also developed ties with French TV and feature producers, and has worked on Benjamin Renner’s Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, as well as TV hits such Jean-Michel Caribou, Chien Pourri, and Flippé.
Last year, Panique! co-produced Sauvages, Claude Barras’ stop-motion feature. An impressive achievement for Panique and for first assistant director Dorien Schetz, whom I had the pleasure of interviewing back in 2022, when she was working at Beast Animation.
Here’s an excerpt of what I already published on that film for Skwigly Magazine, as coverage of the Anima 2024 Making of session:
“European animators, puppeteers, French and Belgian puppets designers and French set builders all gathered in Martigny, Switzerland, for a 4-month shoot in a 2000-square meters empty storage unit, fully redesigned to fit the needs of this unique production. Sixteen full sets, two test sets and one demo-set were built, with 40 to 50 crew members working on site at the peak of production. Shooting took place from March 6 to late September, 2023. A 6-month period which, multiplied by the number of animators ranging from 2 to 10, represents a whopping 225 weeks of animation, according to Head of Production Ludovic Delbecq (Panique! Productions).
How was such a feat accomplished? Thanks to an amazing team, supervised by first assistant director Dorien Schetz, who had previously been working as Studio Production Manager at Belgian Beast Animation studio for more than a decade. With a delightful cheery tone, she took a captivated audience through her breaking sheets and full shooting schedule. “There are more than 800 shots in Sauvages, and it was essential to know, for each, how many puppets were to be used, how many animators, for how long, etc”, explained Schetz while taking us around her 80-columns wide Excel sheet, a both mesmerizing and nightmarish journey.
“But even with all this preparation”, she added, “there’s always a big difference between theory and reality. When you go into shoot, you have to know that there will be some changes along the way. What’s important to keep in mind is that every production is unique, and that everybody stays motivated and on board during the whole process. We had weekly meetings with the whole crew, daily meetings with Claude and second assistant director Clémence Pun, and many other meetings to make sure everything ran smoothly. And in the end, we pulled through! Thanks to a wonderful crew, and permanent communication through every department.”
A Packed Annecy Slate
And now, what’s next for Panique? This year, Panique had several co-productions up its sleeve in the Official Annecy Selection. Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake, by Irene Iborra, was selected in the Feature Competition and took away the GAN Foundation Award. A well-deserved prize for this lovely stop-motion feature telling the tale of Olivia and her little brother, who are forced to leave their home in the midst of their mom’s dismissal. Tackling meaningful topics with honesty and heart, this anticapitalistic stop-motion wonder deserves every praise, and I look forward to sharing it with Belgian audiences in January 2026.
Meanwhile, episodes for both Jean-Michel Caribou and Flippé were also selected in the TV categories, making Panique’s slate quite impressive among Belgian companies represented this year in Annecy.
In the WIP program, Panique! also was present as co-producer of In Waves, with Silex, Anonymous Content, and Charades. An adaptation of the eponymous graphic novel directed by Gobelins/La Poudrière alumni Phuong Mai Nguyen, this 2D feature film looks truly beautiful, and I can’t wait to see it next year in Anima or Annecy.
And beyond that?
Deghilage went on teasing me a sneak peek of Panique’s upcoming schedule. “Les Minus”, a cg-animated series helmed by French studio Miam! Animation, is among 2025’s biggest projects for Panique. A 50x11’ + 22’ + 52x4’ series that tells the tale of old toys living in an attic, “Les Minus” is also coproduced by Belgian company Lunanime, and will feature 52 short episodes encouraging children to craft their own toys and objects in today’s world.
Panique! is also starting a new Town Called Panic Special in October, with 10 weeks preparation and 10 weeks shooting already planned.
Finally, the production company is also aiming to be part of the New Claude Barras movie “Ce n’est pas toi que j’attendais”, adapted from eponymous graphic novel by French author Fabien Toulmé. Per Deghilage, the idea is to build yet another French-Belgian-Swiss coproduction, modeled after what brought Sauvages to the big screen.
Yet for all these great projects, things are not all happy and merry in Brussels, where Panique! has its headquarters. Sauvages, which sadly failed to attract big family crowds in Belgium, was a project in which Panique! was deeply involved, yet only weighed in for 15% of the production overall budget.
“The animation feature business still struggles in Belgium, and there is not much perspective for a majority-financed Belgian feature film in the near future”, concluded Deghilage, recalling what he discussed with me last year about the state of Belgian animation finances. “Yet with every project we board, we put the same energy and heart, and consider them as our own.”
I honestly have no doubt about that, and I look forward to seeing those projects come to life, along with Petite Casbah, another series Panique! is involved in which was presented at Cartoon Forum some years ago.
In the meantime, I leave you with several animated treats, as Substack keeps on being unstable.
First, the trailer to Sauvages, where you can witness the quality and beauty of the stop-motion created by the teams:
Second: a Town Called Panic trailer (bear in mind, the film was released in 2009)
Last but not least: a making of dating back from the same movie! Weirdly mesmerizing…
Have a great animated weekend!
Kevin
