Dec 30, 2022

Italian Distributor Withdraws Animated Film from Festival After Accusations of Theft

Russian filmmaker Natalia Chernysheva was stunned to learn recently that her 2012 award-winning short film "Snowflake" was once again being screened at the festival.

But what shocked her even more was that her film had been retitled "Away from Home" and that another person, Brunella de Cola, had put her name in the credits as director.

De Cola, 33, is a worker in the Italian film industry who claims to have worked on such films as Oz the Great and Powerful, Maleficent, and Isle of Dogs. began to claim it as her own. (Cartoon Brew reviewed both films in question and found them identical except for the title and end credits.)

De Cola's strategy worked for a while, and the rebranded films were entered in major European film festivals such as PÖFF Short Film (Tallinn, Estonia) and Cinanima (Espinho, Portugal).

In a December 2020 interview with the Italian publication Scenografia&Costume, De Cola spoke of having produced the film "entirely on her own" and lamented Italy's lack of funding for animated short films. In the same interview, she talked about her visual inspiration ("I saw Aki Kaurismäki's 'Beyond Hope' at the Berlin International Film Festival. It didn't have much to do with my short film, but while I was drawing I thought a lot about the film and the director's framing choices"), as well as her production techniques ("I drew mainly in Photoshop, using the mouse. Curiously, I am faster in Photoshop than on a graphics tablet.").

The film she was talking about, however, was Natalia Chernysheva's graduation project, released in 2012 by Moscow-based Studio Pchela.

De Cola did not respond to multiple requests for comment or clarification from Cartoon Brew.

Chernysheva, who is well known in the world of short films and whose work has previously been featured by Cartoon Brew, remains perplexed that someone would claim her work "Snowflake" as their own. Chernysheva's film has screened at dozens of international film festivals and won 17 international awards, including Best Film by an Emerging Director at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival and the Audience Award at the New York International Children's Film Festival. In addition, Chernysheva told Cartoon Brew that countless witnesses saw her work on the film, including teachers, friends, and artists involved in its production

.

Chernysheva does not know de Cola and has no recollection of meeting her, so she admits that de Cola "has a very good imagination if I may describe the tools I used to produce my film."

Chernysheva first learned of the exploitation of her film from the French studio Folimage, which was also her distributor in France. They told me that someone from the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival committee had approved the film." Snowflake" is well known in France. In fact, it was selected in the same (Clermont-Ferrand) competition 10 years ago."

If anyone associated with De Cola was aware that the film was produced by Chernysheva, and it is unclear who, the film's Italian distributor Zen Movie and producer and agent A Little Confidence was apparently unknown to the film's Italian distributor Zen Movie and producer/agent A Little Confidence. Upon learning of the situation, the two companies issued a joint statement on December 5

that they were removing the film from the festival because they were "deeply concerned about a possible violation of the festival's rules."

They continued:

Stating that Ms. Brunella de Cola still self-identifies as the film's rights owner, [29] [30] and in light of the adverse facts endorsed, the distribution of the short film is immediately suspended and all films already submitted to the festival are withdrawn The decision was made to.

The signatories will, to the best of their abilities, adopt the most appropriate solutions in all areas of their activities to shed light on the effective chain of rights for short films and, if necessary, take further actions aimed at protecting their interests and professional reputation.

We ask for your help in restoring confidence in our sincere and loving professional activities.

Cartoon Brew also contacted Lorenzo Petruzziello, who is credited as the composer of De Cola's film, and asked about his involvement. The soundtrack for De Cola's film is not Petruzziello's, but is the same as that composed by Alexandre Babin for Chernysheva's "Snowflake."

Petruzziello confirmed to Cartoon Brew that the film's music, despite being credited, is not his. He explained that while studying music, he composed a light jazz piece called "Away from Home" with piano, drums, and double bass. (Cartoon Brew was able to independently confirm the existence of this piece.)

Petruzziello explained that De Cola had asked him to create a music video using his music and had sent him "various test clips" throughout the production process. However, the final film did not include any of his music.

Cartoon Brew also contacted the Italian Film Academy, which hosts the David di Donatello Award, Italy's equivalent of the Academy Awards. De Cola's film was submitted to the Academy this year as a candidate for the award, but the Academy subsequently removed the film from consideration without issuing a statement. The Academy did not respond to a request for comment on why it removed the work and how it would handle a situation in which an individual is found to have published someone else's work under his or her name.

While no legal action has been taken against De Cola so far, awareness of the situation is growing in the festival community, and De Cola's retitled film is no longer programmed. ASIFA, the international organization for the promotion of animation, has taken the unusual step of widely publicizing the situation,

even issuing an official statement requesting that de Cola's "Away from Home" not be programmed in any event.

ASIFA President Deanna Morse wrote on the organization's website:

We have never seen a work of animation art so blatantly ...... No, we can only call it plagiarism. We cannot believe that anyone would even think this is possible.

Our animation community supports the rights of animators.

Our animation community supports each other.

We abhor this situation where artists' work is not respected.

We stand with Natalia and ask others to recognize this possibility and situation.

Chernysheva, who continues to make new work, remains stunned that her 10-year-old film is being screened at a festival so many years after its debut. Given that "it's easy to re-screen the same film twice," she joked, "why bother making a new film?