“Moonfish”, interview with director Daniel Zvereff and producer Mireia Vilanova

Moonfish is one of the four projects supported by Biennale College 2026 and screened this year in Venice Film Festival. We talked to the director, Daniel Zvereff and producer, Mireia Vilanova (Lucky Accident Productions). The film had its official screenings on September 6th, and it is the first animated project supported by Biennale College, and also, the only one animation film present in this year selection of Venice International Film Festival.

Moonfish: how Daniel Zvereff created this story

Daniel Zvereff said that, being his  first film, it was very helpful to write something that feels close. For him, the story was really kind of rooted in this human condition that we’re experiencing. He set it on an asteroid because he wanted to give the sense of   disconnection and isolation which we feel more and more often today. The environment itself is an allegory to that. The theme of the beating heart, moreover is something he explores in his work, related to the arrhythmia he’s experiencing and to a misdiagnosis he had when he discovered this. Moonfish is the first work by Daniel Zvereff  with sound, the previous short were silent: the films  has two important voices: those of. Lucy Liu and Morgan Spector. Zvereff said it was easy to have them on board once they read the script, because they really loved it.

The Biennale College experience in  San Servolo

Mireia Vilanova knew Daniel Zvereff’s work because his previous short “Drago” was selected in  Sundance Film Festival. So she reached for him and they decided to work together.
For both of them the Biennale College experience  was really wonderful. It took place on the island of San Servolo, which was a monastery for 8 centuries and then an insane asylum: Daniel Zvereff  points out how this combination of energy is really perfect to write in.

Mireia Vilanova adds that they had little expectations to be selected, so being even supported financially it was a great gift for them. The movie was made on the tight budget of 200.000 euros,: it wouldn’t have been possible  if the movie was live action. The black and wait choice, explains Daniel Zvereff is related to an experience he had as a child, of a tourist submarine in Hawaii, that lost its colour going under water. While  the aspect ratio, 4-3 was used to give the idea of the claustrophobia.

A Spanish Producer in LA

Mireia Vilanova is a Catalan born producer, from Barcelona, who moved to Los Angeles in 2018. She  did a master at the University of Southern California, which she defines as the number one film school in the United States. She was  producing even before moving to the States, where she opened Lucky Accident Productions this year. She says it is it’s always tough to be an immigrant, especially in the current political climate, but she praises the opportunity she has to  work with a lot of wonderful people that she couldn’t have imaged.

She adds also that, despite everything she does is US based, she’s always open to working more with Europe. At the moment she is co-producing with Spain another animated film called “Silence Sometimes” , a majority Spanish production, that was selected for the Sundance Producers Lab a couple of years ago and to the Berlinale Talentsproject market in 2024. Mireia Vilanova and Daniel Zvereff  whish they will be travelling the world through many film festival selections for Moonfish.

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