“You know, when I was a boy, I fell in love with the Virgin Mary. It happened in a little Bavarian town called Altötting.” Mesmerizing, haunting, and deeply personal, Altötting is a coming-of-age story about love, faith, mortality, and shattered illusions.

Interview with Writer/Director/Animator Andreas Hykade

Congratulations! Why did you make your film?

I always need more than one reason to make a film. With Altötting, I wanted to make a personal film that takes a universal approach. I also wanted it to be a film about the loss of religion. And I wanted to tell a love story. I wanted the film to be a bridge towards all my other films. And I wanted to work with the Queen of Spades of Animation, Regina Pessoa.

Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?

Because it will take you to a place you’ve never been to before.

How do personal and universal themes work in your film?

The personal theme is an autobiographical love story between a boy and a goddess. First, the love is set on fire, then it runs dry. The universal theme is the story of mankind and religion: we created religion to overcome our grim existence. We’ve been comforted and shaped by religion. But now, we are overcoming religion and moving towards a secular world. How are the personal and universal themes connected? By the Holy Spook of animation.

How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?

At first, it was much more sexual. Explicit scenes. Penises and vulvas. This had a good and vitalizing effect, but it was overshadowing the whole film. So I changed the concept, executed these scenes more in a 1940s kind of way. Now you can concentrate on the narrative. It’s good (in its old-fashioned way).

What type of feedback have you received so far?

People with a religious background seem to strongly connect with the film. This is natural, as the film is abstract and provides the space for the audience to connect. With people who have no religious background, it seems to be more difficult, but we’ll see. Almost nobody has seen the film yet.

Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?

No.

What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?

The project is at the very beginning of its festival career. I hope the film will have an impact on people I like. For now, it has to be online. But I’m also looking forward to enjoying the film in a theatre with an audience one day.

Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?

The project developed quite naturally and to my pure satisfaction. I had the idea for a while, but the film got kickstarted when I met Marc Bertrand, a producer at the NFB, in Zagreb a couple of years ago. We talked about the Virgin Mary and we agreed to do the film. Then I got Studio Film Bilder and my long-time producer Thomas Meyer-Hermann involved. He reached out to the local film fund, MFG, and they gave us money. So we’ve been able to execute the animation with high-profile artists. Then Regina Pessoa, artist extraordinaire, and her partner Abi Feijó came on board. Abi got us some money from the Portuguese side, so the artwork for the “Virgin Mary” scenes could be done in Portugal with Regina’s top team. Then all the sound was done in Montreal with the support of the NFB. And now a highly motivated team is taking care of distribution, promotion and festival submissions. Everybody is really devoted, so I’m really thankful.

What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?

I want the film to become a cornerstone film about the loss of religion. I want the film to still be relevant 50 years from now. And I hope the film can contribute to a society that’s moving towards secularism.

What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?

Have you ever fallen in love with a god?

Would you like to add anything else?

“I wanted all things to make some sense
so people could be happy, yes, instead of tense
and I made up lies and they all fit nice
so I turned this sad place into paradise.”
(From the “Books of Bokonon” in Kurt Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle.)

What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?

I’m preparing a film about my Nazi grandpa. I’m also thinking about writing a children’s book about a mole. And I’m trying to deliver more episodes of Myself’s Online Animation Mentoring. I also try to take care of the young ones.

Interview: June 2020

We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela

Altötting

Length: 11:00

Director: Andreas Hykade

Producer: Marc Bertrand (NFB), Abi Feijó (Ciclope Filmes), Thomas Meyer-Hermann (Studio Film Bilder)

Writer: Andreas Hykade

About the writer, director and producer:

ANDREAS HYKADE has created animation for young audiences and adults, combining distinctive minimalist design with moments of lavishly detailed, psychedelic-inspired imagery. His stories deal with childhood memories and touch upon themes of identity, love, desire, death, and addiction. His award-winning shorts include We Lived in Grass (1995), Ring of Fire (2000), The Runt (2006), Love & Theft (2010), and Nuggets (2015). Since 2015, Hykade has been the director of the Animationsinstitut at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and the Chairman of FMX: The Conference on Animation, Effects, Games and Immersive Media.

Since joining the NFB’s French Animation Studio in 1998, MARC BERTRAND has produced more than one hundred films, including a number of award-winning titles. He’s worked with Theodore Ushev for many years, producing some of the filmmaker’s most significant works, including Tower Bawher (2006); Drux Flux (2009); Lipsett Diaries (2010), which received a Genie Award and a Special Mention at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival; Gloria Victoria, winner of the 2013 FIPRESCI Award at Annecy; and Blind Vaysha, which won both the Jury Award and the Junior Jury Award for a Short Film at Annecy before being nominated for an Oscar® in 2017. He also produced Patrick Doyon’s Oscar-nominated short Sunday (2011), which won the 2012 Jutra Award for Best Animated Film. Over the years, Marc has worked with both established and up-and-coming filmmakers, including Jacques Drouin (Imprints, 2004), Georges Schwizgebel (Romance, 2011, Genie Award), Nicola Lemay and Janice Nadeau (No Fish Where to Go, 2014, FIPRESCI Award at Annecy), Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre (Jutra, 2013, Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, Jutra Award, Canadian Screen Award), and Diane Obomsawin (I Like Girls, 2016, Ottawa International Animation Festival award). Marc’s most recent projects include Moïa Jobin-Paré’s No Objects (Special Jury Prize at Animafest Zagreb 2019), Theodore Ushev’s The Physics of Sorrow (winner of more than 20 festival awards), the 13-episode series by graphic novelists Iris and Cathon, The Great List of Everything, and Catherine Lepage’s The Great Malaise (selected at the Berlinale). Andreas Hykade’s new opus, Altötting, and Michelle and Uri Kranot’s short animated film and VR installation, Hangman at Home, will be released in 2020.

ABI FEIJÓ is a renowned animation filmmaker and producer. He made his first short film in 1985 during an internship at the National Film Board of Canada. His filmography includes Os Salteadores (The Outlaws, 1993), Fado Lusitano (1995), Stowaway (2000) and Our Lady of Presentation (2015), which was co-directed with Alice Guimarães, Laura Gonçalves and Daniela Duarte. Feijó has produced all of Regina Pessoa’s films: The Night (1999), Tragic Story with Happy Ending (2005, co-produced with Folimage and the NFB); Kali the Little Vampire (2012, co-produced with Folimage, the NFB and Studio GDS) and Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days (2019, co-produced with the NFB and Les Armateurs). Feijó is currently the director of the Casa Museu de Vilar, an animated film museum in Lousada, Portugal.

THOMAS MEYER-HERMANN studied graphic design at the Academy of Arts in Stuttgart and has directed six award-winning animated shorts. He has been producing auteur short films, music videos, commissioned films, and TV series at Studio Film Bilder in Stuttgart since 1989. He is also the producer and the protagonist of Andreas Hykade’s series Tom and the Slice of Bread with Strawberry Jam and Honey. From 2000 to 2019, he worked as an animation professor at the Art University in Kassel. He is currently preparing several children’s series as well as an animated feature film.

Key cast: Regina Pessoa (Artistic Director and Painting Supervisor), Andreas Hykade & Regina Pessoa (Design), Daniel Scott (Music), Olivier Calvert (Sound Design), Regina Pessoa & Sara Naves & André Marques & Alexandre Braga (Painting)

Looking for: film festival directors, journalists

Facebook: NFB

Twitter: @thenfb

Instagram: @onf_nfb

Hashtags used: #AltottingNFB , #AltottingONF

Website: www.hykade.de; www.nfb.ca/film/altotting-en

Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? 2020 Annecy International Animation Film Festival/Online - From 15th to 30th June 2020 / www.annecy.org