Gao Shan Pictures is the animation studio that, with assistance for film production from the Region, made Réunion an important and recognized player in independent animated cinema on the French and European scene. Gao Shan means “high mountain” in Chinese. It is in the light of the animated films which feature the names of this studio and the Réunion Region that the path traveled by the local creative industry to rise to the top can be measured.. An open path, thirty years ago, by the visual artist Alain Séraphine, founder of the first local animation studio, Pipangaï, and the Indian Ocean Image Institute (EXCELLENCE). We also owe him the installation on the island of the producer Arnauld Boulard, figure of French animated cinema, founder of Gao Shan Pictures, ten years ago. The entire Reunion creative industries sector, which also includes video games, now walk this path, of which the next two stages are set. The first will see the opening, next September, from the Reunion campus of the Rubika school, a very high-level specialized establishment which will develop local skills in the field of video games and animation. At the end of the year, this will be the call for projects, as part of France 2030, to which the file will compete, also initiated by Gao Shan Pictures, of the territorial center of the image and sound industries. A project carried out in partnership with the Western Territory, the Réunion region and the commune of Saint-Paul. “The intangible economy is an immense opportunity for an island territory like Reunion” : for Meeting Leader, Arnauld Boulard explains this message he is sending, more particularly, to the young people of Reunion.
Meeting Leader : The Gao Shan Pictures studio is making headlines again these days with the 2024 César nomination of two animated films, Mars express and The Forest of Mademoiselle Tang, in the production of which the studio participated. On the other hand, the Réunion Region now appears regularly in the credits of French animated films that it helped to finance. Can we say that, with Gao Shan Pictures and the Region, Réunion is becoming an important player in French animated cinema ?
Arnauld Boulard : Reunion Island is clearly identified today as a land of activity on a national level. Since 2017, Gao Shan participated in 30% of films approved by the National Cinema Center, and all of these films were supported by the Réunion Region. We are almost every year in the winners of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. We have had several selections for the César – like this year indeed with Mars express and The Forest of Mademoiselle Tang. Last year, My Afghan Family received the César for Best Animated Film and was selected for the Golden Globes. All these films benefited from financial assistance from the Réunion Region. So yes, Reunion Island is now known as a land of entertainment in the professional cinema world.. If Ile de France remains a heavyweight in cinema in general, if the Nouvelle Aquitaine region and the Charente department are a mecca for animated series, if the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes and Hauts de France regions demonstrate dynamism, it is entirely true that, in this panorama of animated cinema, Reunion occupies a position recognized by institutions such as the CNC and by producers. Ten years ago, when I founded Gao Shan Pictures, people looked at me with big eyes when I explained that I was making an animated film in Reunion. Today, there is no more discussion.
Gao Shan Pictures is both a film production company and an animation studio. Can you specify the nature of these two professions?, and how they fit together within the structure ?
They are two different professions. We started with studio activity. We provide services for producers who have started film projects, funded them and are looking for a team to make them. This is executive production. Then, a few years ago, we wanted to develop our own projects, to bring to life stories that carry values that are dear to us, like respect for others, consideration of nature. This profession is called delegated production. We launch the project, we mobilize authors, screenwriters, directors, artistic directors, we finance it and we guarantee its completion, that is to say, we guarantee to deliver the film on time and with the expected quality. This second job is much more risky, but it has the advantage of allowing us to constitute a catalog of films, which is an asset of the company. This configuration combining executive production and delegated production is not uncommon in animation. However, we are in the process of seeing how to separate them, in order to clearly distinguish the two economic models, which are different even if they feed each other.
On average, Gao Shan Pictures employs 120 different people over the course of a year.
What is your role in the making of films? ?
It varies greatly and depends on the financing of the films.. The financing of French cinema is indeed very particular due to the cultural exception. Up to 50%, funding comes from public funds : national, regional, departmental, etc. An animated film is expensive. In France, we have budgets between four and twelve million euros. Very far from American budgets, which can rise to one hundred or one hundred and fifty million euros, but all the same these are large sums to raise. Hence the multiplicity of sources of financing for films, in particular public funding. Local funding in return for economic activity, the production of the film is distributed between the different regions which provide financing. for example, we did twenty minutes of animation on the film in 2D Sirocco and the kingdom of air currents, released at the end of December. On the animated science fiction film Mars express, hybrid 2D and 3D, we made the entire 3D. We were involved in almost every stage of the film's production..
The company’s two professions – delegated production and executive production – feed off each other.
Under what circumstances did you settle in Reunion?, territory a priori rather far from the main cinema markets ?
I admit that, at that moment, I didn’t have Reunion on my radar ! I was coming out of a very big studio that had just been bought by Universal – the studio behind films like Me, Despicable and Bad, The Minions, Super Mario Bros, the movie... I was looking more towards Los Angeles or Shanghai when Alain Séraphine called me. We met during a round table devoted to animation at Peking University in 2011. Alain told me : “Arnauld, we are going to make a 3D feature film in Reunion, we need someone like you. » Reunion ? But hey, why not, let's see. I saw that there was almost everything to do to set up a 3D studio but that the environment was favorable. A nice challenge. And the movie was very interesting : it was Adama, by Simon Rouby. After working on the pre-production of the film in Paris, I arrived in Reunion with my family in January 2014. I thought I would stay a year, for the movie. Ten years later, I'm still here. The team we put together for Adama was really great. Azmina Goulamaly, who ran the Pipangaï studio, encouraged me to develop my own studio. This is how Gao Shan Pictures was born. And the films ended up coming together.
You made yourself known easily ?
Non, it was not at all obvious. We have made our place through the quality of our images. We quite quickly showed that we had an artistic singularity. The films we support are distinct from animation mainstream for children, which represents the largest share of the market. We are positioned in creative animation for adolescents and adults.
Animation, today, allows you to talk about everything and show things that would be very difficult to achieve in real shots. for example, a movie like I lost my body would have been extremely complicated to do other than in animation. There are great directors and many great stories to tell with this cinematographic technique. The other essential element, for our development, was the attractiveness of the production aid fund of the Réunion Region which is well positioned among French funds.
How to define the artistic signature of Gao Shan Pictures ?
As providers, we work in the artisanal side of animation. We do tailor-made, we have this ability to produce very different images from one film to another. Few animation studios have this positioning. In delegated production, we produce quite committed films, which express social values, environmental. One of these films, The Fire Keeper, is the adaptation of a novel by Pierre Rabhi. Another film we are developing, The Winter of Holy Iron, is the adaptation of a fascinating novel by Joseph Marshall III, a Lakota Sioux author, which recounts the encounter of a Native American tribe with the first white man and with his rifle, and how this meeting transforms their society. We wish, with the films we produce, carry strong messages that seem essential to us in today's society.
What assessment do you make of your ten years of presence in Reunion? ?
With the team, we are proud of how far we have come. This current recognition of the studio and La Réunion in the European animation world is very gratifying for us.. We have a great team. Today 30% of our teams are made up of Reunion Islanders, while on Adama we just had four interns from ILOI.
Local talent pool continues to grow. A major Parisian animation studio, 2 Minutes, established itself in Reunion. We also see things moving in video games. Careers in the creative industries constitute a sector that is developing with the support of communities. We try to contribute to this development with our films.
How many people are in the Gao Shan Pictures team? ?
It varies depending on the production. Between 35 and 70 people, which gives around 45 in full-time equivalent. Over a year, we employ an average of 120 different people.
Eventually, Quite a few people are still aware that Reunion Islanders have worked on films as recognized in the cinema world as Adama, Zombillénium, Little Nicholas, I lost my body, Mars Express, and that there is a source of pride there. Do you think it is important to let people know? ?
In my opinion, it's super important. First, a little pride, it's not bad. Above all, this proves what we are capable of ! We are in professions that provide jobs, where you can work almost anywhere in the world.
The intangible economy is an immense opportunity for an island territory like Reunion. No need to exploit physical resources. We can create wealth which is practically 100% exported.. It’s a fabulous source of income.. Communities have understood this, but we need to make decision-makers more aware, to institutions, the importance of this sector for the island’s economy. Making young people in Reunion aware of this, that they understand that, oui, we can make cinema in Reunion ! After being rather discreet, we have communicated a little more for two years, because we realize that it is important to make it known what this activity represents and its potential.
Is it thanks to you that the offer of animated feature films is relatively rich in the island's cinemas? ?
We try to make it so. However, certain films made in Reunion have never been seen in theaters locally, what saddens us ! I find it a shame to tell the people of Reunion to go watch these films on Netflix. So My Afghan family by Michaela Pavlatova, Annecy Jury Prize 2021, César for best animated film in 2023, selected for the Golden Globes ! We are pushing for these films to be broadcast. In 2017, Zombillénium was released on the two local networks thanks to a lot of support work that we carried out with Pipangaï. We are currently in particular contact with Laurence Ethève, by MauRéfilms. To organize regular meetings. Like last year, a local preview of Mars express. We have just produced a thriller documentary on the story of a very talented Brazilian pianist who disappeared while touring Argentina in the 1970s : They shot the piano player, by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. We are trying to organize special screenings for this film and, wider, for local production.
Other news from Gao Shan Pictures, it’s the September opening of Rubika Réunion, a higher education school for animation and video games. Who is this school for? ? Where will it be located, how many students will it be able to accommodate ?
We are having trouble finding people at the level we are looking for : this is the observation that we make with my video game colleagues. Loïc Manglou, you studio Pitaya, and me, we said to ourselves that the call for projects from THE great image factory launched as part of France 2030, with its training component, was a great opportunity. We contacted Rubika who, after the Goblins, is the second French school in the sector, in the top 5 of global schools. Rubika immediately responded positively to the plan to open a campus in Reunion, while this school is not particularly seeking to develop in France. The specificity of Reunion, overseas territory of great diversity where there is an eco-system of animation and video games, convinced her. We were the winner of this call for projects, which allows us to now offer this higher education over five years in 2D animation, 3D animation and video games. The opening takes place in September 2024. The first campus, to start with our first 40 students, will be located in the center of Saint-Paul. We are aiming for a definitive campus in 2026. The objective is to be able to accommodate up to 220 students. For the first year, the selection of candidates will be made on file. We will see, next year, if we enter a competition, like the Rubika school in Valenciennes. What is sure, this means that at the exit the level must be the same. We are of course seeking to attract young Reunion Islanders., but the school is open to all.
Beyond the school project, Gao Shan Pictures joined forces with the Western Territory to respond – successfully – to the France 2030 call for expressions of interest “Territorial clusters of cultural and creative industries”. What will be the function of this pole? ?
The idea of the territorial center is to generate synergies, to create a place of collaboration and emulsion, to bring together talents who, alone, would not have the skills or means to carry out certain projects. It is also to provide the territory with shared infrastructures which, in the private sector, would not be profitable, while there is a need. for example, a calibration room. We are in the phase of identifying the needs of the territory in this area, with the desire to bring together cinema actors, video game, digital creation and live performance. We are open to involving other sectors that come forward., like comics for example. There are things to invent together. On this project, we are moving forward in partnership with the Western Territory, the Réunion region and the commune of Saint-Paul. We will respond to the call for projects at the end of the year. We are currently in an engineering phase, of pre-figuration of what this territorial pole would be.
What will be the next film from Gao Shan Pictures studio? ?
We are at the end of production of the film In the dark and mysterious forest, by Vincent Paronnaud and Alexis Ducord, adapted from a comic strip by Winshluss. We are executive producer of this family feature film, which tells the adventures of Angelo, forgotten on a highway rest area by his parents and who must cross the forest to save his grandmother. I am very happy with the film, funny, taking, with emotion and very beautiful images. We hope for festival selections before its national theatrical release next October.
ALAIN SERAPHINE’S SUCCESSFUL BET
Visionary artist and cultural actor, assistant for culture of the city of the Port from 1983 to 2001, Alain Séraphine is at the origin of the creative industries sector in Reunion. A sector that he places in the “destiny” of the world island of Reunion.
The name of Alain Séraphine is associated with the first animation studio in Reunion, Pipangaï, and at the Indian Ocean Image Institute (EXCELLENCE), which he founded and still directs. But we have to go back a little further to know the very beginning of the history of animation in Reunion Island. : in 1983, he created the Village Titan association with the aim of locally developing higher arts education. The time is for the global relocation of animated cinema. Alain Séraphine says to himself : “Why not in Reunion ? » The Image Forum, in 1993, prefiguration of the Crossroads of the image of the Indian Ocean which will follow, is the first step in this direction. Besides the CNC, big names in animated cinema are making the trip, like Pierre Ayma, founder of the animated film department at the Gobelins school, and Jacques Peyrache, world-famous figure of the audiovisual avant-garde, founder of the Animated Film Producers Union. The ILOI was created the following year, follow up, in 1995, of the mixed economy company Pipangaï, associating the Océinde group, who accompanies, still today, the development of the Reunion creative industries sector. At the same time, the Réunion Region launches its aid for film production, which gave birth to the Film Réunion agency in 2001.
New ambition : artificial intelligence
Another name to mention among the external speakers who discovered Reunion thanks to Alain Séraphine : Jean-Michel Spiner, founder of the animation studio 2 minutes. This other important actor in animation has made Réunion, in 2017, one of its five global locations. Pipangaï will carry out its first production work on the children's series Cajou, 55 seven-minute episodes broadcast from 2009 on Playhouse Disney and on RFO. But it will be Adama, the first feature film made in Reunion, nominated for the 2016 César, who will play the true founding role. Its director, Simon Rouby, will come in person to train Pipangaï students. It's 2013 and, after his meeting with Alain Séraphine in Beijing, Arnauld Boulard is called for the production of Adama… Removed from production, Pipangaï today intends to play the role of a project incubator. And the digital revolution continues, Alain Séraphine now maintains, as part of an ILOI partnership with Stockholm University, the ambition to register Réunion, at the gateway to Africa, on the global map of a model rebalancing data production, source of artificial intelligence, towards the South.
