Boy in the Woods

Boy in the Woods is an animated short film about empathy, acceptance and the connection between a father and his autistic son. When a young boy becomes lost in a strange forest, his father discovers that finding him means more than simply following his path — he must learn to understand and enter his son’s way of experiencing the world.

Co-produced by Hype Animation and Fábrica do Futuro, the film was directed by Fabiano Pandolfi, written by Jordan Nugem, and produced by Gabriel Garcia and Francisco Hauck. Built as a musical tale, the project combines 3D animation and an original score to tell an intimate story largely through image, sound and emotion.

At the heart of Boy in the Woods is the relationship between a father and a child who experience the same world in different ways. The mysterious forest works both as a physical setting and as a metaphorical space, allowing the audience to experience some of the sensations, fears and moments of wonder perceived by the boy.

Rather than presenting autism as a problem to be solved, the story is centered on connection and understanding. The father’s journey becomes one of learning: instead of expecting his son to enter his world, he begins to discover how to approach his son on his own terms. This idea became the emotional foundation of the film.

One of the most distinctive aspects of Boy in the Woods is that the project began with music. The film was adapted from an original musical tale composed by Francisco Hauck, in which sound was conceived not simply as accompaniment, but as a storytelling device capable of suggesting environments, actions, characters and emotional states.

The production process therefore created an unusual dialogue between sound and image. Instead of treating the score as something added after the animation was complete, music and animation influenced each other throughout development. Hauck described this alternation between audio and animation as one of the defining elements of the project, allowing different artistic perspectives to gradually converge into the finished film.

The story gained an additional layer of meaning through composer and producer Francisco Hauck’s own experience as a father. Hauck later explained that he composed the musical tale around the same period in which his son was diagnosed as autistic. He did not originally set out to create an autobiographical work, but the two experiences became unexpectedly connected as the project developed.

That personal dimension helped reinforce the film’s central themes of listening, empathy and the effort involved in understanding another person’s experience. Music became a particularly meaningful bridge between the emotional worlds of father and child.

The forest was conceived as much more than a background. It becomes an extension of the boy’s sensory and emotional experience, transforming familiar elements of nature into something magical, overwhelming or frightening depending on the moment.

The visual language combines stylized 3D characters, earthy materials and an almost storybook-like environment. Trees, animals, butterflies, light and scale help shift the audience between an objective world and the boy’s subjective perception, using animation’s ability to transform reality as an essential narrative tool. Contemporary commentary on the film also noted its carved, handcrafted quality, particularly in the characters and environments.

Because Boy in the Woods originated as a musical piece, timing was fundamental to the animation. Movement, rhythm and editing needed to respond to musical phrasing, allowing the score to guide both the emotional progression and the physical action of the characters.

This relationship made the production different from a conventional animation workflow. Sound was not merely supporting the images; it was helping define them. The film’s emotional peaks, moments of tension and quieter passages were built from the interaction between music, character performance, editing and visual composition.

Boy in the Woods had its international premiere at the LA Shorts International Film Festival in 2020. The festival presentation introduced the film to international audiences before its wider online and television circulation.

The short was later presented through Canal Futura and Globoplay, where it was positioned around themes including autism, music and childhood. It also appeared in international animation programming such as the Barbican’s Marvellous Animations selection in London.