The official selection has been announced by the most important animation festival in Europe – Annecy (France), and for the program "Annecy presents" the feature animation film “Thelma’s Perfect Birthday”, produced by Rija Films, is included.
From June 8 to 14, the French city of Annecy will host the annual festival - a large-scale animation ecosystem event that brings together the industry's biggest players, talents, students, film distributors, exhibitors and streamers, honors diverse animation styles and techniques, focuses on the animation community, art, distribution and technology. The festival is visited annually by tens of thousands of animation professionals and enthusiasts, 3900 films from one hundred countries have been submitted for the festival selection in 2025. At the end of April, the festival team presented this year's festival selection, programs and other highlights to the press and the animation community. In this dynamic series of events, the official selection of the most prestigious animation festival for 2025, the extra-competitive program Annecy presents includes the film Thelma’s Perfect Birthday by Latvian director Reinis Kalnaellis.
The fairy-tale film, a Latvian and Luxembourg co-production, for the youngest viewers had its world premiere at the 29th International Children's and Young People's Film Festival Schlingel in Germany, where it received the prestigious European Children's and Young People's Film Association (ECFA) award for Best European Film for Children. The film tells the story of the Iceland penguin girl, Thelma, who will turn five in a few days, but Thelma is worried if only the Mother will manage to find her at all? What if they don't meet, and Thelma has four years left for the rest of her life?! Seeing that her parents' attention is drawn to computer screens, the inquisitive Thelma runs away from home to find and meet Birthday and her friends in person – cat Wilhelm and mouse Sophie. The film is a story about self-acceptance, courage, friendship and the true meaning of growing up
The scriptwriters of the film are Līva Eglīte and Cécile Somers, the artists – Andrejs Prigičevs and Laima Puntule. The author of the music is the composer Kārlis Auzāns, but the final song of the film was created by the group Carnival Youth, the lyrics of the song are written by Ivars Šteinbergs and Emīls Kaupers. The roles have been voiced by Baiba Broka, Gundars Grasbergs, Artis Bordernieks, Zane Allēna, Kaspars Zvīgulis, Jānis Kirmuška, Ieva Kerēvica, Edgars Lipors, Horens Stalbe, Maija Priedīte, Roberto Meloni and others, the voice of the main character Thelma is Rota Kalnaella.
The film was produced by the Latvian Film Studio RIJA and the Luxembourg studio PTD limited, the producers of the film are Vilnis Kalnaellis, Adrien Chef, Paul Thiltges.