“The Last Bar”: Louis Wick’s animated film nominated for Lotte Reiniger prize at Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film

Heading to Hollywood? Who knows where the Erdmannhäuser Louis Wick will end up. The graduate of the Ludwigsburg film school is celebrating success with his thesis “The Last Bar”. The 13-minute animation strip was nominated for the Lotte Reiniger Prize at the International Festival of Animated Film in Stuttgart. This honors the best animated film that is produced as a thesis at a film school. The film will be shown at the festival in Stuttgart on Saturday, April 29 at 11:30 am.

Mr Wick, did you expect your film to be nominated?

In fact, the nomination surprised our team. The Stuttgart Festival of Animated Film has been around for 30 years and is an authority. We submitted our film to be shown there. There are a total of around 2,300 submissions from 77 countries for the festival. In the international area where we are represented, 43 films are shown. We think it’s cool to be there and to have been nominated for the Lotte Reiniger Prize.

What do you think is the value of The Last Bar?

On the one hand, we devote ourselves to the topic of suicide, which doesn’t happen often in the film. We spoke to many experts about this. The stop-motion technique in the animated film could be a unique selling point. We built dolls with steel skeletons and posable limbs. It was all very complicated. The puppets speak and the sound is synchronized with the movements of their lips. Stop motion is therefore rare, but is currently enjoying a small revival.

How difficult is it to address the taboo of suicide in animated films?

It’s a tightrope walk. We definitely wanted to avoid the Werther effect and not subliminally encourage people to take their own lives. This is contrasted by the Papageno effect: using a last bar in front of a cliff, we show that talks and therapies help to find joy again even in difficult situations and to gain courage.

Your film is only 13 minutes long. Is that an opportunity or a handicap?

In terms of effort, a longer film was initially not possible. But there could be a series. On the other hand, the film is short enough to serve as an introduction to an evening of talks on the subject.

The work is a joint production. How many people were involved and what was your part in the overall process?

A total of more than 100 people worked on the work – nine alone moved the puppets. The idea came to me five years ago. The project picked up speed in 2020. I led the writing team, took care of the production planning with co-producer Svenja Weber, later the team, the contacts to festivals and to broadcasters and streaming services. I also had to direct the voice overs, which were recorded in London and Switzerland, among other places.

Has working on the film changed you personally?

In any case. Working on this topic has given me a lot. During the corona pandemic, there were moments in the team when we had to resolve conflicts – also due to absences due to illness.

What could you gain if your film comes out on top at the end?

10,000 euros will be awarded for the first prize. Of course, a win would be good for reputation. I would like to continue producing the animated film as a series. There have also been talks with streaming services. It turned out that animated film has a longer tradition abroad than in Germany itself. Greater potential could lead to success there.

Who is Louis Wick?

Career
Louis Wick was born in 1996 and grew up in Erdmannhausen. After graduating from high school, he studied at the film school in Ludwigsburg and completed his studies in 2022 with his diploma. In 2014 he founded the company Vikingerfilm, of which he is the managing director. He has been on the municipal council for the Greens since 2014.

projects
The greatest success for Louis Wick so far has been the award for the 2018 film “Summer War”, shot in Ukraine, as best documentary at the Baden-Württemberg Film Show, in which he took part.