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The film will also be directed by Hertzfeldt, drawing on his signature visual style.
“Don Hertzfeldt is my favorite animator, and I’m ecstatic that we have this opportunity to help bring Don’s brilliant vision of Antarctica to life,” said Keith Calder, President of Snoot Entertainment.
“Antarctica is an unusual project that’s been turning around in my head for a very long time, uncertain how it would get made, and I’m excited to actually have the chance now to take the plunge with Keith, Jess, and their brave team. After twenty years of animating alone, this will also mark the first time I’ll have the opportunity to work with a talented team of animators, and I’m looking forward to being able to walk into a room of hard-working artists every day and telling them that everything they’re doing is wrong,” said Hertzfeldt.
Hertzfeldt is premiering his new short film World of Tomorrow during the opening night of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. With World of Tomorrow as his seventh short film in competition, he has had more films play in competition at Sundance than any other filmmaker. Other projects Hertzfeldt has helmed include the Academy Award® nominated cult favorite Rejected and Everything Will Be OK, which was awarded the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award in Short Filmmaking.
Snoot Entertainment’s Keith Calder and Jessica Calder will produce along with Hertzfeldt. Hertzfeldt’s manager Jeremy Platt will executive-produce and Snoot’s Roxanne Benjamin will co-produce.
Hertzfeldt single-handedly animated his previous film, It’s Such A Beautiful Day, requiring the story to be originally released as a three short film chapters over the course of many years. The film was named runner-up for Best Animated Feature at the 2012 LA Film Critics Circle Awards, beating films like Pixar’s Brave and Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, and was most recently #3 on Time-Out London‘s Top 10 Films of 2013.
He also helmed a couch gag for The Simpsons‘ 26th season, joining the ranks of auteurs who have contributed their own versions including Guillermo Del Toro and Banksy. Collectively, Hertzfeldt’s animated films have received over 200 awards and have been presented at thousands of film festivals and venues worldwide. Before the age of 30, his films were already the subject of several career retrospectives, and he has been featured on several lists for most influential animators of all time.
