Guru Studios Joins Production, GKIDS Heads to Exec Produce and Distribute Cartoon Saloon's "The Breadwinner"

Toronto’s Guru Studio and GKIDS, the well-known New York-based distributor of international animated features, have come onboard the production of two-time Academy Award nominated animation studio Cartoon Saloon’s The Breadwinner, which moved into animation production last month.
Guru, which produces TV series like Netflix’s Justin Time and the Nick Jr. series Paw Patrol, will contribute to the production of the film. Additionally, two artists from Guru will take on major roles: Stuart Shankly (Ever After High, Song of the Sea) will serve as assistant director, spending several months in Ireland at the start of production, and Sanatan Suryavanshi will work as production art supervisor, alongside Cartoon Saloon’s sequence director and art directors, to develop the look of some of the film’s key sequences.
“Guru was the clear choice when considering Canadian animation studios to work with,” said producer Anthony Leo, of Aircraft Pictures, an existing Canadian partner on the film. “They will bring another level of creativity and artistic vision to this picture.”
Guru’s president and creative director Frank Falcone and EVP content and strategy Mary Bredin will serve as executive producers on the film.
Established in 2000, Guru's mission is to entertain children around the world with innovative storytelling. Guru specializes in the visual and conceptual development of story and character driven projects using industry-leading digital production techniques to tell traditional and non-traditional stories. The Breadwinner is the studio’s first feature film.
"We are thrilled to be collaborating on this important story to ensure it reaches children and parents around the world," said Guru's Frank Falcone.
“Engaging an audience through the power of storytelling in a full length feature is an exciting challenge and we have an amazing opportunity here to work with such a talented creative team,” added Guru's Mary Bredin.

Also announced this week, GKIDS, which distributed Cartoon Saloon’s previous Oscar-nominated features The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, has increased its involvement in the film. The company’s two figureheads, CEO/founder Eric Beckman and SVP of distribution David Jesteadt, will come onboard as executive producers.
For GKIDS, it is the first time they are serving in a producing and financing capacity, in addition to distribution. They’ve slated The Breadwinner for a fall 2017 theatrical release in North America.
“We’ve been long-standing friends with everyone at Cartoon Saloon since those heady days when we celebrated our first Oscar nomination together for The Secret of Kells, and again five years later for Song of the Sea,” Beckman and Jesteadt said in a statement. “We knew we needed to be involved with The Breadwinner once we learned Nora [Twomey] would be bringing Deborah Ellis’ beautiful and compelling story to the big screen. We’re thrilled that this film marks our first foray into the creative process and we look forward to supporting Nora and the team in bringing their vision to audiences everywhere.”
The Breadwinner is based on the award-winning, best-selling young adult novel of the same name by Deborah Ellis, telling the story of Parvana, a brave young girl living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan who, after her father’s unjust and unfair imprisonment, cuts her hair and disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family and become the breadwinner. Ellis wrote the screen story, and Anita Doron contributed the screenplay. The film, according to its producers, “celebrates the culture, history and beauty of Afghanistan with a cast that includes many performers of Afghan descent.”
The Breadwinner is directed by Cartoon Saloon’s Nora Twomey, who co-directed The Secret of Kells alongside Tomm Moore. A powerful and riveting story of self-empowerment and imagination in the face of oppression, The Breadwinner boasts the breathtaking hand-drawn animation that has made Cartoon Saloon one of the world’s most well-loved and respected animation studios.
The Breadwinner is produced by Aircraft Pictures’ Anthony Leo and Andrew Rosen, Cartoon Saloon’s Tomm Moore and Paul Young, and Melusine Productions’ Stephan Roelants. It also has involvement from Canada’s Aircraft Pictures and Luxembourg’s Melusine Productions (Song of the Sea, Ernest & Celestine), and is being executive produced in association with Angelina Jolie Pitt’s Jolie Pas Productions.
An official Ireland-Canada-Luxembourg co-production, The Breadwinner will be produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, the Irish Film Board, Film Fund Luxembourg, the Harold Greenberg Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund, the OMDC and the BAI along with Gaia Entertainment and the Artemis Rising Foundation. Published by Groundwood Books, The Breadwinner novel has been in print for over 15 years and is recommended reading in numerous middle schools throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.