Director César Luton, shortlisted for the Student Academy Awards this year as co-director of the extraordinary animated short La Diplomatie de l’Eclipse, just released this very intriguing trailer for his next project, “Mantis Garden.”

Newly signed to the roster at Paris prodco Eddy, Luton defines his style as a blend of realism and dreaminess: “I love creating animation that resembles live-action cinema without venturing into hyper-realism. My characters, while unmistakably animated, carry a distinct, stylized, and poetic aesthetic.

“My approach is to stage them in a manner akin to live-action, with slow, steady, and deliberate movements, to capture the elegant essence of real-life cinematography. The characters are distinguished by their minimalist styles, depicted in muted colors. This veil of mystery gives them an archetypal quality, thereby enhancing the emotional impact of their facial expressions.

“The aim with the character’s clothing was to disrupt any social identifications typically associated with attire. This choice maintains the mystery of the time and place of the story, which is deliberately undefined.”
 
 

 
Production: Eddy
Director: César Luton
EP: Stella Ramsden, Bruno Recorbet
Producer: Romane Belaisch
Development: Bruno Recorbet
Head of animation department: Emilie Walmsley
Image: César Luton
Technical support : Joseph Henry and Radouane Lahmidi

Music: Antoine Duchêne
Sound design/mix: Big Bite Records, Zakk Zahariev
VO: Marija Avramovic

Thanks: Jean-François Bourrel, Brunch Studio, Joanna Dineva, Monika Krasimirova