"Loving Vincent" nominated for an Oscar!





Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards were announced on January 23. Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent), a film directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, received a nomination for Best Animated Film.

Along with Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent), nominees in the Best Animated Film category are:

  • The Boss Baby, directed by Tom McGrath;
  • The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey;
  • Coco, directed by Lee Unkrich, Adrian Molina;
  • Ferdinand, directed by Carlos Saldanha

Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent)

In December Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent), a film directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman and co-financed by the Polish Film Institute, received the award for the Best European Animated Feature Film at the 2017 European Film Awards and also received a nomination for Golden Globes.

Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent) is the world’s first painted feature film, made by Polish director and painter Dorota Kobiela and by Hugh Welchman (winner of the Academy Award for Peter & the Wolf). Through 65,000 hand-painted frames, Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent) tells the story of the life and death of Vincent van Gogh, one of the world’s most acclaimed painters. Told as an investigation into the death of the artist, the story brought to life over 100 of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings.

Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman on the nomination:

“This all started in an attic just before my 30th birthday, when I felt lost about what I was doing with my life. It’s unbelievable that it has led to this. I am so proud we are the first Polish animated feature film to be nominated for an Oscar. I am equally proud that this year I am one of two female directors nominated in this category, which until now had only 4 women nominees out of all the 72 directors nominated. Maybe this is the year that we can start to change this imbalance. Most of all I am proud of my painters (over 60% of whom were women), my actors and my crew. They believed in an undertaking that many considered crazy – to paint an entire film in oil-paints on canvas by hand. I am a small part at the head of a great team of dreamers! Our dreams were sustained by Vincent, so I wish he was here so I could thank him too!” – said co-director Dorota Kobiela.

“I couldn’t sleep last night… I was so nervous. Loving Vincent is a Polish-UK co-production. It is the not only the first Polish animation feature film nominated for an Oscar, it is the first Polish animation feature film in history animated by a woman, my wife Dorota, I am so proud of her, and grateful to her for including me on this wonderful journey as her co-writer and co-director. Also as a Brit I am very proud that this film is the first animation feature film nomination from Britain that isn’t produced by the national treasure that is Aardman! I am so grateful to the Academy for recognising and honouring our labour of love, it really makes the world of difference to small films like ours, in amongst these $100m plus studio Goliaths. Really, their decision changes the lives of film makers like us.” – said Hugh Welchman.

World’s First Fully Painted Feature Film

Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent) was produced by Oscar-winning Breakthru Films and Trademark Films. Partners of the project include CeTA, Odra Film, Silver Reel, the Cinema and Management Group, the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016, and the MEDIA programme. The film was co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

The film was released theatrically in Poland on October 6, 2017. Distribution in Poland is handled by Next Film. Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent) was sold to over 130 territories around the world. World sales are handled by CMG Cinema Management Group. To date, the film has received accolades at a number of festivals, including the Annecy Animated Film Festival and the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Up until now Polish animations were awarded twice by the American Film Academy – in 1983 Zbigniew Rybczyński won the statuete for the Best Animated Short Film Tango, and the 2008 Academy award in the same category was won by the Polish-British co-production Piotruś i wilk (Peter and Wolf) – dir. Suzie Templeton, prod. Hugh Welchman. The nomination for Twój Vincent (Loving Vincent) is the first time acknowledgment of the Polish creators in the category of the Best Animated Feature Film.

The 90th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 4, 2018.

The film’s official website is available at: lovingvincent.com.

Based on press materials from the distributor of the film, Next Film.


23.01.2018