‘Loving Vincent’, the world’s first fully hand-painted feature film, nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Animated Feature, releases in South Africa on Friday 23 February.
The ambitious film, an account of a young man’s journey to Vincent van Gogh’s hometown, is told entirely through intricately crafted oil paintings in the artist’s unique style. It will be distributed in South Africa by Indigenous Film Distribution.
“Oscar voters had 26 new features to consider for a best animated feature nomination.” says Mayenzeke Baza of AAA Entertainment, sales agent for ‘Loving Vincent’ in Africa. “As remarkable as Vincent’s brilliant paintings, is his passionate and ill-fated life, and mysterious death. The feature brings his brilliance to life through a truly fascinating and visually beautiful experience.” added Pascal Schmitz, head of acquisitions for AAA Entertainment.
Written and directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, ‘Loving Vincent’ was produced by Poland’s BreakThru Films and UK’s Trademark Films. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125 professional artists who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be a part of the production. Vincent himself said in his last letter: ‘We cannot speak other than by our paintings’. The film takes him at his word and lets the paintings tell the real story of his life and art.
‘Loving Vincent’ was first shot as a live action film with actors, and then hand-painted over frame-by-frame in oils. The final effect is an interaction of the performance of the actors playing Vincent’s famous portraits, and the performance of the painting animators, bringing these characters alive through the medium of paint.
The 90th Academy Awards ceremony will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 4 March, when the winners will be announced.
“We are delighted to be bring a ground-breaking film of this calibre to South African audiences.” added says Helen Kuun, of Indigenous Film Distribution whom will be releasing the film in South Africa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_NDZAGW91I
