Today we are thrilled to announce that the world premiere of Loving Vincent will be held at the 2017 Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France. The film has been selected to screen in competition in the festival’s Official Selection, returning to Annecy after presenting as a Work in Progress back in 2015. It marks the first time in 50 years that a Polish director has had a film in the feature film competition.
"With its ambitious aesthetics that rise to the enormous challenge of making Van Gogh’s paintings move, Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman’s feature is one of the most anticipated films of the year. We’re happy to bring it to you!"
Marcel Jean, Artistic Director of the Annecy Film Festival
Loving Vincent is the world’s first fully painted feature film. Written & directed by Dorota Kobiela & Hugh Welchman, produced by BreakThru Films and Trademark Films. The film brings the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life to tell his remarkable story. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted by 125 professional oil-painters who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be a part of the production. As remarkable as Vincent’s brilliant paintings, is his passionate and ill-fated life, and mysterious death.
No other artist has attracted more legends than Vincent van Gogh. Variously labelled a martyr, a lustful satyr, a madman, a genius and a layabout, the real Vincent is at once revealed in his letters, and obscured by myth and time. Vincent himself said in his last letter: ‘We cannot speak other than by our paintings’. We take him at his word and let the paintings tell the real story of Vincent van Gogh.
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 into the medium of paint. Loving Vincent stars famous faces to match the famous paintings they portray; the cast includes Douglas Booth, Eleanor Tomlinson, Jerome Flynn, Saoirse Ronan, Chris O’Dowd, John Sessions, Aidan Turner, Helen McCrory and introduces theatre actor Robert Gulaczyk in his first film role as Vincent van Gogh.
The Annecy International Animation Film Festival runs from 12th - 17th June 2017. More international film festival screenings for Loving Vincent will be announced soon - sign up to our newsletter for updates.