Carte blanche Hugh Welchman and Dorota Kobiela
Animaphix dedicates a carte blanche to Hugh Welchman and Dorota Kobiela, the directors of Loving Vincent (2017), a tribute to the painter Van Gogh and the first fully painted film in the history of world cinematography.
An important opportunity, in the company of the Polish filmmakers, to learn more about their artistic journey, through the viewing of never-before-seen videos, and, above all, to discover all the secrets behind the film that in such a short time has conquered audiences around the world.
Bio Hugh Welchman
Hugh Welchman graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
His graduate film, Crowstone, won the Cinefoundation Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Sam Mendes Shakespeare Prize. He had his first professional experience producing Monty Python shorts and then founded BreakThru Films.
In 2008 Welchman was awarded an Oscar for BreakThru Films’ first major production, Peter and the Wolf. The film also picked up many other awards, including Annecy Cristal and Rose D’or. Peter and the Wolf premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, accompanied live by the Philharmonic Orchestra, then at the Hollywood Bowl, and has since been shown in over seventy concert halls worldwide.
The next film, Magic Piano & the Choping Shorts, premiered in Beijing’s Forbidden City, accompanied by pianist Lang Lang, then at London’s South Bank Centre and New York’s Lincoln Center. Since then it has been screened in more than 30 major venues around the world, always with live accompaniment. After falling in love with Polish painter and filmmaker Dorota Kobiela, Welchman married her film project, Loving Vincent.
Bio Dorota Kobiela
A graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, Dorota Kobiela has been honored with the “Ministry of Culture Scholarship” for special achievements in painting and graphic design for four consecutive years. Dorota began discovering animation and film and launched herself into learning these new artistic disciplines by attending the Warsaw Film School, Direction Faculty. She directed a live-action short film, The Hart in Hand (2006) and five animated shorts, The Letter (2004), Love me (2004), Mr.Bear (2005), Chopin’s Drawings (2011) ) and Little Postman (2011).
Little Postman was the first film in the world for Stereoscopic Painting Animation and won best stereoscopic short film at the LA 3D Film Festival, 3D Stereo Media (Liege), 3D Film & Music Fest (Barcelona).
For her sixth animated short film, Loving Vincent, Dorota aimed to combine her passion for painting and filmmaking and intended to paint the entire film. However, once she expanded the project into a feature film, the task of writing and directing was such that she “limited” herself to directing the one hundred and twenty-five painters whose thousand paintings animated the film. Loving Vincent is her film debut.