EXCLUSIVE: Poland will submit animated function drama The Peasants for Best International Feature Film on the 96th Academy Awards.
The image is the most recent work from DK Welchman (beforehand referred to as Dorota Kobiela) and Hugh Welchman, the artistic duo behind the ground-breaking, Oscar-nominated, hand-painted bio-pic Loving Vincent.
The pair co-wrote the screenplay adaptation from Nobel Prize-winning author Władysław Reymont’s traditional 1905 novel of the identical identify a few younger girl decided to forge her personal path throughout the confines of a late nineteenth century Polish village.
Poland’s Oscar entry selection was made on Monday by a range committee overseen by the Polish Film Institute.
There was a robust providing of Polish movies this 12 months, with different potential contenders together with Agnieszka Holland’s migrant drama Green Border and Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englerts’s transgender drama Woman Of.
Respected producer Ewa Puszczyńska, who headed up the committee, mentioned that the deliberations had been robust and heated and the choice was made on the idea of 4 votes in favor and two in opposition to.
She mentioned the votes had come down on the facet of The Peasants for the way in which the co-directors had additional pushed the boundaries of animation.
“In the committee’s opinion The Peasants reveals the brand new dynamic on the earth of animation, the place the digicam shouldn’t be solely an observer, however an energetic participant,” mentioned an announcement from the PFI.
“The movie offers with vital and up to date topics which are vital socially: oppression in opposition to ladies, their dependence and even “belonging” to males, sexual violence and mobbing. It’s a narrative that will likely be understood world wide, throughout borders and political divide”.
Separately, the image may also compete within the Best Animation class.
The Peasants premiered as a Special Presentation at Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.
It has since performed on the Polish Film Festival in Gdynia, the place it received the Special Jury Prize and Audience Award, and is headed to the London Film Festival, the place its periods on October 11 and 12 have already bought out. The movie may also play at The Hamptons and Busan.
As with Loving Vincent, the co-directors collaborated with a staff of worldwide animators and painters, who labored by hand to color over movie frames and animate the story in a course of that took round two years to finish.
The film was first filmed as a live-action feature-length movie with actors who included Kamila Urzędowska within the lead position in addition to Mirosław Baka, Ewa Kasprzyk, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Małgorzata Kożuchowska, Dorota Stalińska, Andrzej Konopka, Maciej Musiał and Julia Wieniawa.
Radosław Ładczuk, Kamil Polak and Szymon Kuriata shared cinematography duties.
Sean Bobbitt and Hugh Welchman produced the movie below the banner of Sopot-based BreakThru Films, with the help of the Polish Film Institute.
New Europe Film Sales handles worldwide gross sales agent and has bought the the rights to greater than 50 international locations, together with France (The Jokers), Benelux (Paradiso), German Speaking Europe (Plaion), South Korea (First Run), China (JL Film), Scandinavia (Another World Entertainment) and Spain (Karma).
There are superior talks underway for the UK, Australia, MENA, Italy, Latin American and the North America, with Anonymous Content co-repping rights on latter territory.
Next Film is a polish distributor on the movie and is gearing up for a large launch on October 13.
Selection committee chairperson Puszczyńska has an extended Academy Awards observe file having produced Pawel Pawlikowski’s 2015 Best International Feature Film winner Ida; his 2019 movie Cold War, which was nominated within the three classes together with Best Director and Cinematography, and Jasmila Zbanic’s Quo vadis, Aida?, which was nominated in 2021.
She was joined on the committee by Polish Film Institute Director Radosław Śmigulski; Aneta Hickinbotham, producer of Jan Komasa’s Oscar-nominated Corpus Christi; Ewa Piaskowska, screenwriter and producer of Jerzy Skolimowski Oscar-nominated EO; manufacturing designer Allan Starski, who received an Oscar for his work on Schindler’s List, and Maciej Ślesicki, director, screenwriter and co-founder of the Warsaw Film School, who additionally produced the Oscar-nominated titles Our Curse and The Dress.
The deadline for submissions for the Best International Feature Film class is October 2.
: .