Animated feature TITO AND THE BIRDS is a socially relevant film and tells a timely tale of a marvelous dystopian adventure of heroic children battling a culture of fear that is infecting their world. Eight years in the making, this film further captures the political allegory in Brazil and select countries around the world.
Filmmakers Gustavo Steinberg (End of the Line), Gabriel Bitar (Cidade Cinza), and André Catoto (Say I Am Only Seventeen) use a striking palette to create indelible visuals, mixing expressionist influences with a variety of animation techniques (oil paintings, digital drawings, and graphic animation). The film features an original score composed by Gustavo Kurlat and Ruben Feffer (Academy Award®-nominated animated feature Boy and the World). TITO AND THE BIRDS premiered in competition at the 2018 ANNECY International Animation Film Festival to great audience enthusiasm and critical praise and won the Best Feature at Anima Mundi 2018. The film recently had its North American festival premiere at Toronto International Film Festival 2018. The film garnered an ANNIE Award nomination in the Best Animated Feature – Independent category.
TITO AND THE BIRDS is a film about a little boy and his journey to save the world.
Tito is a shy 10-year-old boy who lives with his mother. Suddenly, an unusual epidemic starts to spread, making people sick whenever they get scared. Tito quickly discovers that the cure is somehow related to his missing father’s research on bird song. He embarks on a journey to save the world from the epidemic with his friends. Tito’s search for the antidote becomes a quest for his missing father and for his own identity.
Part action, part drama, Tito’s journey is at once an uplifting and insightful adventure about a boy fighting to find out what is right and to learn how to overcome his own fear.
Directed by: Gustavo Steinberg, Gabriel Bitar, and André Catoto
Written by: Eduardo Benaim and Gustavo Steinberg
Producers: Gustavo Steinberg, Daniel Greco, Felipe Sabino, and Brenda Wooding
Production companies: Bits Productions, Split Studio
Editor: Vânia Debs, Thiago Ozelami
Original Score: Gustavo Kurlat and Ruben Feffer
Sound: Ultrassom Music Ideas
Principal Voice Cast (Portugese): Matheus Nachtergaele, Denise Fraga, Mateus Solano, Otávio Augusto, Pedro Henrique
Brazil, 2018
Portuguese with English subtitles
Distributed by Shout! Studios