Jun 8, 2023

France.tv Invests in “My Dad The Bounty Hunter” Studio Dwarf Animation

France.tv, the production arm of France Télévisions, has acquired a majority stake in Montpellier-based Dwarf Animation Studio.

Under the terms of the agreement, france.tv will provide Dwarf with “a solid operational infrastructure. In return, france.tv will accelerate its plans to establish a creative hub in the South of France.

Dwarf has worked on big-budget international film and television productions such as “My Dad the Bounty Hunter” and “Trash Truck” for Netflix and “Monsters at Work” for Disney+. He has also worked on French programs such as La tribu des Monchhichi, Pirata et Capitano, and Drôles de Petites Bêtes.

The studio was founded in 2010 by Olivier Pinol. Olivier Pinol is a VFX veteran who has worked for major international studios such as Weta Digital (Senior Lighting Director for the original version of “Avatar”), DreamWorks (VFX for “Shrek”) and Passion Pictures. The Montpellier, France-based company prides itself on embracing and adapting to new technologies. [Regarding the new partnership, Pinol said, “We are very pleased to join forces with the great team at france.tv Studios and welcome the creative community to the South of France. To have this opportunity to grow and develop Dwarf Animation Studios and build a creative hub together is a truly gratifying and eye-opening experience.” [Our ambition is to help shape the next phase of the animation production pipeline by adding greater flexibility through a faster iterative process. We have set up a Discord server dedicated to real-time animation and VFX to help build community and share knowledge with studios around the world,” said Laurence Schwob, CEO of France.tv. The partnership with Dwarf Animation Studio, which aims to push the boundaries of real-time animation, is part of the France.tv studio's recent France 2030 initiative, which aims to develop advanced technologies related to new entertainment production innovations in France. It comes at an exciting time, as we have been awarded a donation.”

he added.

Under the new agreement, France.tv and Dwarf plan to build the studio's front-end pre-production, including visual development, storyboarding, and editing.