Brisbane Animation Studio Lines Up Seven New Features, With Sola Media Handling Overseas Sales

Like a Photon Creative, a Brisbane-based studio that makes content for children, has lined up seven new animated features. It has also handed international distribution rights for the whole slate to Sola Media, according to Variety.

International distribution means selling a film to cinemas, broadcasters and streaming services outside its home market. Sola Media already handled that job for The Pout-Pout Fish, the studio's earlier hit.

The first film in the slate is called Familiar. It is an original story developed in-house, and it is set at Ironclaw Academy, a school for familiars, the animal companions of sorcerers. Its central character is Josie, a young cat. The film will be made as a treaty co-production with the Irish company Elephant Goldfish, meaning an agreement between two governments that lets both countries' companies count the film as their own. Production is expected to start in March 2027.

Another title, The Neverending Pillow Fort, is the first feature from Crayola Studios, made with MIMO Studios. Allison Brownmoore directs, and the film is due in early 2027. Elizabeth Cullen and Sofia Rose voice best friends Maggie and Abby. The cast also includes Guy Pearce, David Tennant, Teresa Palmer and Marsai Martin. Sola Media will oversee its international distribution as well.

Money for the slate comes from two production finance companies, Elevate Production Finance and Alceon Entertainment Partners. Maslow Entertainment has taken Australian and New Zealand distribution on the seven features. The studio says the lineup could create as many as 1,000 jobs in Australia and Ireland.

The Pout-Pout Fish has had a busy run of its own. Maslow released it in Australian cinemas on January 1, and it now ranks as the fourth highest-grossing Australian film of 2026. Viva Kids handled its U.S. release on March 20, and it opened at No. 9 at the U.S. box office. On Amazon Prime Kids it hit No. 1, and it reached No. 6 among all Prime viewers.

Alongside each of the seven features, the studio will make short videos built from footage that does not appear in the films. Those clips will roll out across online and social platforms, giving young audiences more to watch between releases.

Like a Photon Creative CEO Kristen Souvlis will attend the upcoming American Film Market, the deal-making marketplace where sales companies and buyers meet to line up films before they are finished. Teaming with Screen Queensland, the state's screen agency, the studio has also launched the Escalate: Feature Focus Writers Initiative. Six Queensland-based screenwriters will each write a script for a possible 3D animated feature, based on concepts the studio supplies. Writers' rooms begin in February 2027.

The studio has backed and made 10 animated 3D features for worldwide theatrical release since 2017. The seven new projects, and the writers now being recruited, add to that run. Any of them could still change shape as development moves forward.