Our little indie animation village is comparatively small and, nicely, a bit boring. A lot of the “scandals” are restricted to bitching concerning the Oscars, competition choices, and competition prizes. Sometimes, there’s speak about inappropriate habits at festivals, however for probably the most half, it’s a reasonably calm and respectful panorama.
That each one modified in late November of final yr.
Whereas attending the Animateka competition in Ljubljana, I obtained wind of a narrative spreading round. A movie that had been accepted to a number of festivals was out of the blue withdrawn. It was alleged that the movie, Away From House, directed by Brunella De Cola, was a duplicate of Natalia Chernysheva’s 2012 quick, The Snowflake (which we screened on the Ottawa Worldwide Animation Competition in 2013 and you possibly can view additional down on this article). I did not pay a lot consideration to the story as a result of I used to be within the haze of competition mode and affected by signs of what would develop into my second temporary non-love affair with COVID.
Again residence, although, within the midst of COVID restlessness, I began studying a bit extra concerning the story and rapidly turned mystified by all of it. Perhaps it was the results of spending part of my childhood with a stepfather who was a detective, however anyway, I out of the blue felt fairly fascinated with this story and decided to seek out some semblance of reality. A scandal of this magnitude—hell, of any magnitude—is just about alien to our little village of indie animation shorts. In my 30 years, I’ve not heard of such a factor allegedly (you’ll hear that phrase rather a lot) occurring.
I contacted Anna Gaschutz on the Dresden Movie Competition. They had been the competition that first raised a pink flag. “I first noticed solely a glimpse of the movie [Away from Home] when my colleague was watching it and I discussed Snowflake to her. My colleague stated it is not, so I first thought that the director had made a brand new movie in an analogous model. Nevertheless, then our youngsters programme supervisor watched the movie within the submissions and wrote to the workforce that it’s the identical movie as Snowflake… So I watched it and checked out Snowflake once more, and certainly, it was the identical movie.
Gaschutz ultimately wrote to the quick’s distribution firm, Zen Film. “They had been tremendous shocked and did not find out about it, they usually instantly spoke to the producer and took all of the authorized steps they wanted to,” provides Gaschautz. “I’m additionally fairly shocked somebody would do that.”
Whereas Zen Film and A Little Confidence (the movie’s producers) had been reluctant to touch upon the scenario on condition that De Cola is adamant that she didn’t steal the movie and is pursuing authorized avenues, it’s clear that they’re fairly floored by the entire scenario. They took De Cola at her phrase when she offered the ultimate movie to them.
On December 5, the 2 firms did subject a press release:
This joint assertion is signed by Zen Film and A Little Confidence, respectively as Distributor and “Producer”/Agent of the animated quick movie “Away from House”. Zen Film and A Little Confidence initially specific their absolute extraneousness and profound shock about what they’ve acknowledged on November twenty eighth 2022 relating to the dispute over the appropriate’s possession of the quick movie, raised by a 3rd get together.
On April nineteenth 2022 Ms. Brunella De Cola supplied the Agent with the quick movie which was already full, totally realized in all of its components, giving full ensures that she was its producer, writer and director, whereas solely later did the Agent suggest to Zen Film to maintain the competition profession of the quick movie; Zen Film, after watching the quick movie, accepted such task and situated the work in its catalog known as “Tiny Distribution”.
In specifying that Ms. Brunella De Cola remains to be affirming herself because the proprietor of the rights of the movie, the undersigned, given the opposed revindications, have determined to instantly cease the distribution of the quick movie and to withdraw all of the submissions already made to festivals. The undersigned, insofar as it’s inside their respective competences, will undertake, in each space of their exercise, probably the most acceptable options in an effort to make clear the efficient chain of rights of the quick movie and, if essential, will take any additional motion aimed toward defending their pursuits {and professional} popularity.
Chernysheva first discovered of the brand new movie whereas at work at Folimage animation studio. “Folimage is the distributor of my movie in France,” Chernysheva wrote through electronic mail. “They instructed me that somebody within the committee of Clermont Ferrand Movie competition acknowledged the issue. Snowflake is well-known in France and actually it was chosen for the competitors program in the exact same competition 10 years in the past. At first I assumed it was a joke. I don’t know Brunella De Cola. Now we have by no means met.”
Now, initially I had not seen the Away From House model, so I used to be making an attempt to maintain a considerably open thoughts. One story that handed by my ears was that De Cola was claiming that 10 years in the past or so she’d participated in a free course or workshop on the French college, ESMA. De Cola is allegedly claiming that the unique materials was first created throughout this course/workshop, and that Natalia Chernysheva was additionally a part of this workshop group and used the fabric for her movie The Snowflake with out the permission of different college students.
If that’s true that there was such an occasion, why did it take 10 years for this subject to come up? Was De Cola maybe not even conscious that The Snowflake existed.
In an electronic mail from January 10, 2023, a consultant from ESMA instructed me, “After consulting our previous scholar lists, we couldn’t discover any title corresponding or near Brunella de Cola.”
Chernysheva, in the meantime, is adamant that she has by no means met De Cola nor has she ever stepped foot inside any ESMA campus (she was a scholar at La Poudriere in France).
Ultimately I managed to see a duplicate of Away from House. It was clear that apart from the title and finish credit, this was all footage that was utilized in The Snowflake. It has the identical soundtrack and just about the identical working time. So, the notion that De Cola was not conscious (if this story a few workshop is true) of the existence of The Snowflake is actually suspect at this level. Additionally, within the credit, the music was credited to Lorenzo Petruzziello – despite the fact that this model of Away from House has the identical soundtrack as The Snowflake.
The thriller deepens.
After performing some intensive novice investigating with the assistance of some colleagues, a public Fb submit (that has since been eliminated) by Lorenzo Petruzziello was despatched to me. Within the submit he talks about making music for the undertaking:
I am actually comfortable concerning the success that Brunella De Cola animated quick for my observe “Away From House” is getting. They performed with me the masters Lucio D’Amato on piano and Marco de Tilla on double bass, expertly recorded and missed by the nice Marco Ruggiero.
What caught my eye was the point out of a piano getting used as an instrument. There isn’t any piano in both the Away from House or The Snowflake variations I noticed.
Then, somebody despatched me a YouTube hyperlink (that, you guessed it, has since been eliminated) the place Petruzziuello posted a model of Away from House along with his rating. Apart from his soundtrack (which jives with what he wrote in his Fb submit), it was the identical Away from House that I noticed, containing what appears to be the identical footage as The Snowflake.
In consequence, we now have two variations of Away from House. How? Why?
In the meantime, within the December 2020 subject of the Italian journal Scenografia&Costume, De Cola is interviewed about her new quick animation movie, Away from House (Pg 57, Scenografia&Costume n. 18 – Dicembre 2020)
When requested concerning the origins of her undertaking, she says:
Lorenzo Petruzziello, my drum instructor, despatched me a chunk of his known as Away from House, asking me to make a video for this jazz composition he had recorded. Through the interval we had been all pressured to remain at residence, I questioned what could possibly be a option to make a journey, to go to locations distant from us. So I considered an African little one who, in contrast to us, does not likely have the means to maneuver around the globe; he doesn’t have the likelihood, for instance, of seeing a snowy valley or an enormous metropolis.
This actually differs from the story that every one this materials was created in a workshop 10 years earlier.
If Away from House is a plagiarized model of The Snowflake, one wonders why anybody would do that: some anti-Russian enterprise? (on condition that De Cola was interviewed concerning the movie in December 2020, that concept doesn’t fairly make sense for the reason that invasion of Ukraine occurred in early 2022); did somebody make up the title or use De Cola’s title with out her information? (once more, that’s unlikely on condition that De Cola traveled with the movie to the POFF competition in Estonia this yr and even did a video interview – since eliminated – concerning the movie.). Was it a option to get funding? Psychological well being points? What may the endgame probably be?
De Cola has not helped her trigger throughout the animation neighborhood. First, she’s not identified on the planet of animation festivals or the indie animation neighborhood. Her credit are extra related with tv and have movies. That’s actually not proof of any wrongdoing, however relatively than merely issuing a press release that overtly addresses the controversy, she selected to jot down a Fb submit (since eliminated) claiming she’d been slandered and that she had employed a lawyer to kind the matter out (and, in actual fact, ASIFA-Worldwide just lately obtained a letter from stated lawyer warning them to not denounce De Cola till all that info have been unveiled).
And, that’s truthful. Harmless till confirmed in any other case.
Alternatively, Chernysheva is a identified and revered artist within the animation neighborhood who has made a handful of movies since The Snowflake and has a reasonably recognizable model and voice. She has been fairly open and public concerning the subject. “I wish to cease the distribution of this forgery at festivals and on-line. I’ve ample proof at my disposal. First, it was my commencement undertaking. It was produced one yr after college by studio Pchela in Moscow in 2012. Secondly, my academics, mates and collaborators can all bear witness to the truth that I used to be the creator and director of Snowflake.”
With each events adamant that they’re in the appropriate, it appears that evidently will probably be left to authorized avenues to kind this weird scenario out. No matter unfolds, this controversy will certainly function a wake-up name to the animation neighborhood.
Neither Brunella de Cola nor Lorenzo Petruzziuello responded when requested to touch upon the scenario.
“The reality,” my granny as soon as instructed me after she noticed me take Christmas cookies from her jar and I denied it, “isn’t pure and by no means easy.”
To your viewing pleasure, try Natalia Chernysheva’s The Snowflake:
A well known determine on the planet of unbiased animation, author, writer & curator Chris Robinson is the Inventive Director of the Ottawa Worldwide Animation Competition.
