Dandelooo Boards ‘Acorn’s Adventure’; Raman Djafari First Look

Greatness from (very) small beginnings.

After bringing Filip Mašek’s “Acorn’s Adventures” to MIFA and winning the Eurimages Co-production Development Award earlier this year at Cartoon Movie, German co-producer Fabian&Fred revealed today that Dandelooo had acquired global sales rights to the buzzy CG Czech-German animated feature, scheduled for release in 2029.

Fabian&Fred co-founder Fabian Driehorst, who joined the project back in 2024, worked closely with Czech Main Producer Kristina Husová (Pure Shore) to polish this original idea by animator, director and former Boy Scout leader Filip Mašek. 

It is the latter experience that brought “Acorn’s Adventure” to life. Driven by his amazement at children’s vivid imagination and their ability to tell whole stories with twigs and acorns, Mašek started from kids’ designs to build a lush, colorful CG forest environment in which quirky characters (elaborated with children as well) set off on a quest to rescue their quiet forest village.

“This story is about acceptance and finding who you are”, explained Mašek back at Cartoon Movie. “We made several workshops with U.K., Brazilian and Dutch kids to discuss the project with them, and they were equally enthusiastic about it. It’s great to see that these characters can create strong responses from children worldwide.” 

“What I love about Filip’s approach is that, to him, it’s still a Czech film”, added Husová. “Czech people will recognize their forests in the feature, and we’ve received some great support from the Czech Audiovisual Fund, amidst a very competitive landscape.”

Drieshorst, who shares the same enthusiasm for this tiny acorn’s adventure and helped secure MOIN Film Fund and the support of Creative Europe Media, underlined the appeal of the now Dandelooo-backed project. But for him, “Acorn’s Adventures” still suffers from the lack of support from a German broadcaster. An issue that is, according to the seasoned animation producer, crippling German production companies for a while. 

“With Fabian&Fred, we have demonstrated that all of our films have earned an outstanding international reputation and are celebrated by critics”, he added. “We are known for our diverse range of films, which covers every genre – from animated documentaries and children’s films to films for teenagers and adults.

Yet our biggest challenge has always been the lack of support for animation talents from German broadcasters. While there are fantastic programs for feature films and documentaries, I feel sad to say that there isn’t a single initiative for animated films.”

Drieshort doesn’t want to blame anyone for this state of affairs, but he desperately hopes that one day – sooner than later –, there will be more awareness for the beauty and power of animation. 

The Fabian&Fred co-founder does know a lot about animation talents. Along with the sales development on “Acorn’s Adventure,” Drieshort has brought Lizzy Hobb’s latest film “Daughters of the Late Colonel” to Cannes as part of its Directors’ Fortnight section, and shared the company’s solid animation slate for the upcoming years.

This includes Raman Djafari short film debut “Throwing Sticks at the Sun,” on which Fabian&Fred has shared a first-look image with Variety.

On the feature front, Fabian&Fred is deeply involved in Award-winning Director Signe Baumane’s next feature film, “Karmic Knot”, which is well under development and also slated for 2029.

“Throwing Sticks at the Sun” marks Djafari first fiction short, after his globally revered works with Elton John & Dua Lipa (“Cold Heart”) and Coldplay’s mesmerizing “Feelslikeimfallinginlove.” The 14-minute coming-of-age drama follows a group of teens as they accidentally kill a bird, and the response they display is confronted to how they really feel. 

On the short side, Fabian&Fred also brings to Cannes the MIFA selected debut short 2D documentary “Daylight” by Ayala Shoshana Guy, and the stop-motion professional debut short “Two For Me, One For You” from Student Oscar winner Jan Gadermann (“Laika&Nemo”). 

“Karmic Knot”, Baumane’s latest feature project co-produced with Studio Locomotive rounds up Fabian&Fred eye-catching line-up.

With Tony-Award-nominated actor Patrick Wilson (“The Conjuring”), “Succession” talent Dagmara Dominczyk and “Just in Time” Broadway lead Gracie Lawrence already announced as voice cast earlier this year, “Karmic Knot” is already deep in development, and supported by both Latvian Film Centre and MOIN Film Fund. Yet it would also benefit from the backing of a German broadcaster.

“We do see that there are some very dedicated editors,” adds Drieshorst, “but even for them, the opportunities to support German filmmakers like Raman Djafari or to promote established directors like Signe Baumane and exciting new talents like Filip Mašek are extremely limited. Most of our animated short films are co-productions involving at least two or three countries.”

Even as the lead producer on German animation projects, Fabian&Fred often ends up as the weakest partner, as productions companies lack support from broadcasters and have only limited access to automatic funding. 

“We hope that the international recognition and support our projects receive will have a positive impact on our German partners. And I’m known for being an undying optimist.”

“Acorn’s Adventure” surely benefited from Fabian Drieshorst’s optimism. Now with French heavyweight sales agents Dandelooo on board, the film heads to a CMC presentation in July.