Indie Sales Acquires Punkrobot’s Debut Feature ‘Brave Cat’ Ahead Of The American Film Market

Nearly a decade after making history with Chile’s first-ever Oscar win for the short film Bear Story, director Gabriel Osorio and producer Pato Escala are nearly ready to debut their first feature, Brave Cat.

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired rights to the feature and will introduce Brave Cat to international buyers at this year’s American Film Market (AFM). Accompanying today’s announcement, broken by Variety, the company unveiled a first teaser that showcases the film’s stop-motion-inspired CG animation.

Backed by Osario and Escala’s Santiago-based studio Punkrobot, producers of the standout Star Wars: Visions Season 2 episode “In the Stars,” the feature marks a major leap for the creative duo whose storytelling helped place Chilean animation on the global map. The project is also supported by Chile’s Ministry of Culture, Arts, and Heritage, and the Universidad de las Américas (UDLA).

Set in a world where animals live under the shadow of human dominance, Brave Cat follows Kona, a teenage forest cat who embarks on a perilous journey to rescue her kidnapped mother. Joined by Colin, an abandoned guard dog, and Bernard, a runaway circus bear, Kona’s cross-country adventure becomes a meditation on loss, forgiveness, and the enduring power of friendship.

The new film is positioned as a spiritual successor to Bear Story, although not a sequel or adaptation, which drew from Osario’s grandfather’s exile during the Chilean military dictatorship. “Brave Cat draws from those who stayed — families still searching for their loved ones,” he told Variety. “It’s the kind of story that defines us as a studio: a heartfelt adventure, made with great care and skill, but above all, a message of hope in times of division.” As a director, he said he felt “compelled to imagine a world where forgiveness shows us a new path.”

Indie Sales has long championed high-quality animation, recently handling My Life as a Zucchini, Richard the Stork 2, and Michel Gondry’s Berlin Crystal Bear-winner Maya, Give Me a Title.