Animation biopic on theatre director Gabriadze up for Oscars nomination
The animated documentary uses drawings by Gabriadze himself to tell about his life with focus on earlier memories. Image via IDFA.
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An award-winning animated biography of Rezo Gabriadze, celebrated Georgian theatre and cinema director, is among 32 works submitted for nomination for the next Academy Award.
Rezo is directed by filmmaker Levan Gabriadze, son of the founder of a popular puppet theatre in Georgia's capital, and brings together documentary and animation genres together in its aim to tell his story.
Drawn by Gabriadze sr. himself and animated by Sveta Matrosova and Elizaveta Astretsova, the feature introduces him talking "about a life suffused with magical thinking" (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam).
Alternately solemn and light-hearted, tragic and surreal, the story covers a huge assortment of subjects: yes, there's the war, but there's also an incredible story about a love letter, and an argument about the location of a toilet" - IDFA
Much of the feature narrates about childhood memories of Gabriadze, from scenes in a "kerosene-heated" library to school moments and experiences in his grandparents' house in rural Georgia following World War II.
Produced at Russia's Bazelevs Production, the 62-minute animation was screened at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Brisbane last year and won the award for Best Animated Feature.
The animated film has been submitted for review to Academy Awards members, with five nominees to be picked out of the 32 submissions from around the world. Nominations will be unveiled on January 13.
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