Nina Gantz's Stop-Motion Animation 'Wander to Wonder' Generates Record Number of Tickets in The Netherlands

London-based animation director (and BAFTA-awarded for her stop-motion 'Edmond') Nina Gantz has hit a record mark with her latest short film (also a stop-motion animation) 'Wander to Wonder'.

The film had a rock solid theatrical run in the Netherlands, selling more than 25,000 tickets, paired with the feature-length documentary 'The Gullspång Miracle', a multifaceted documentary by Maria Fredriksson. The film is expected to have 30,000 tickets sold in another two weeks' time. 

In 'Wander to Wonder, three tiny human characters, Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton are the stars in a kids' TV series called “Wander to Wonder”. After the creator dies, they are left alone in the studio. Struggling to find enough to eat, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and continues its festival run.

The old tradition of pairing shorts before features here has proven a successful one once more - here led by  Wiepko Oosterhuis, the head and founder of Bantam Film, which specializes in animation features for adults and theatrical documentaries. Ooesterhuis used the same strategy with Nina Gantz's 'Edmond', pairing it with the Hungarian animated feature 'Liza, the Fox-Fairy'.

'Wander to Wonder' packs more deep emotions than quite many features. So, I had to bring them to an audience and to the cinema. The only way is really to combine them with a feature, which you have to select very carefully to be successful. They should complement and not overwhelm one another, and they should share a certain sensibility. With Wander to Wonder we tried to present both short and feature with the same amount of attention, marketing and publicity. So, two posters, two trailers, and two publicity campaigns. With all of them including a notice about the film being shown together with the other film - Wiepko Ooesterhuis

Let's see how the trend continues. MIYU Distribution head Luce Grosjean is positive, citing the Hungarian release of the Cannes-awarded '27' by Flora Anna Buda before Molly Manning Walker's 'How to Have Sex' (Mozinet distribution).  

Watch the 'Wander to Wonder' trailer

'Wander to Wonder' has won awards at SXSW, Tampere, Chilemonos, and Anima, and recently took home the Golden Calf for Best Short Film at the Nederlands Film Festival (NFF).

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