/ˌgrat.taˈkek.ka/
Summer, sibling love, shaved ice.
An animated short in pre-production.
Synopsis
Gio, and her big brother, Marco, live alone in a city they are yet to call home. Summer's scorching sun prompts Marco on a quest to make the heat bearable.
Setting
A port city on the Southern European coast. The 60s, where fridges were common but not AC.
Characters
Gio
Distinctly quieter since moving to their new city, Gio longs for the comfort of the familiar. Despite her strong and fierce exterior to the world, her love for Marco keeps them both grounded in their new home away from home.
Marco
A long day of work in the sweltering heat washing dishes at the fanciest hotel in the city doesn’t stop Marco from putting his sister first. Endlessly stoic, pragmatic, and resourceful, he helps remind Gio that life doesn’t always have to be so hard.
Grattachecca is in development
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Meet the team
Giulio Martella
Director
While reminiscing about his childhood summers spent in Rome, Giulio came up with the idea for Grattachecca. Emigrating first to Germany, then to the US and now living in the UK, he is leveraging his experience in TV and Feature animation to conjure images of nostalgia with a sprinkle of homesickness.
Oliver Hulme
Producer
Oli moved to London from the North of England after studying Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. His 5 years experience in Feature Animation has seen him work on animated projects for 20th Century Studios, Disney, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Netflix, and Warner Bros. In summer you can find him, camera in hand, in a museum or dining outside the BFI and soaking in the sun.
Álvaro Xoán Vidal Pazos
aka Alariko
Environment visual designer
Álvaro has always had a pencil in his hand, learning to draw before he could read or speak. His fascination with architecture is inspired by unique details in buildings, inhabited or abandoned. This, and a bit of Google Maps, helps him create evocative designs purely from memory. Since completing an illustration course at the EASD "Pablo Picasso", he has been studying Fine Arts at the University of Salamanca.
Eden Hea-Ryung Chyun
aka Tulli
Characters visual designer
Eden is a Korean-American character designer, illustrator, and fashion enthusiast based in Los Angeles, California. Queerness, fantasy, intimacy, and their cultural background are major themes in their wide variety of work in animation, games, comics, and theatre. Outside of art, they also enjoy exploring communities in their hometown and thrift shopping.
Howard Kung
aka Bixels
Story artist
Howard is a Taiwanese-American storyboard artist, animator, and character designer based in the Bay Area and San Diego. He is currently attending Stanford University as an Art Practice and Film & Media Studies double-major. Animation production has been his passion since he was 10 years old, when he first began making animated shorts. He loves 90s anime, analog technology, and Y2K fashion!
Federica Vommaro
aka PHYSALIArt
Graphic Designer
Federica, inspired by her childhood love of Sailor Moon, pursued her love for drawing while studying at the International School of Comics in her hometown of Rome. Since then she’s acted as a concept artist for ILBE Animation on projects like "Il Segreto di Liberato", "Mahmood", "Jipo & Baby Puffins", "Arctic Friends", and "Puffins".