Goya-Winning ‘Nocturna’ Director Adrià García Returns With First Animated Feature in Almost Two Decades in ‘The Treasure of Barracuda’

Almost 18 years after his debut feature “Nocturna” won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film, Adrià Garcia is back to animation with “The Treasure of Barracuda.” Sold by Filmax, the film, which has its world premiere at the San Sebastián Film Festival (Sept. 19-27), is adapted from the eponymous book by Llanos Campos and follows a young orphan girl who accidentally ends up on a pirate ship led by the titular captain.

Speaking with Variety ahead of the Basque festival, García attributes the long break between two animated features (he directed the live-action “My Family and the Wolf” in 2019) to the time it takes to get such a project off the ground. The idea for “The Treasure of Barracuda” originated from renowned producer Valérie Delpierre at Inicia Films during the pandemic, when García had the time to sit with it at home and think about the best way to approach the story.