Georgian filmmaker Ana Chubinidze’s project, The Pocket Man, will soon be ready to be screened to international audiences as the film’s team celebrated the successful conclusion of its production with a teaser this week.
Chubinidze’s animation has been in production phase since 2015, worked on by teams in both France and Georgia.
The young Georgian illustrator revealed the first teaser of the film on Monday, and thanked professionals involved for their work on the project.
The animation follows a small man living in an old suitcase, who strikes up a friendship with an elder, blind man after their chance encounter in a big city.
Chubinidze told hosts of a Georgian Public Broadcaster program that her team planned to submit the finished French-Georgian-Swiss co-production for screening at 100 international festivals starting this year.
The illustrator first began her preparation of the project in 2013 with financial support from the Georgian National Film Centre (GNFC).
A scene from the animation film ‘The Pocket Man’. Teaser screenshot.
The animation was featured in a workshop organised by the GNFC in cooperation with the International Animation Film Festival Nikozi in Georgia and led by French producer Olivier Catherin.
Chubinidze’s work was announced the winning project of the workshop, with the filmmaker receiving an opportunity to present a demonstration of The Pocket Man at the 2015 Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France.
The prestigious festival was attended by cinema professionals from the well-known French studio Folimage, with Chubinidze’s film preview drawing special attention at the event.
Filmmaker Ana Chubinidze has been working on ‘The Pocket Man’ with teams in France and Georgia. Photo: Ana Chubinidze/Facebook.
She was then invited by the studio to continue the work on the film with teams in France and Georgia, with the final project co-produced by Folimage and Tbilisi-based Kvali XXI studio.
The subsequent work on the animation involved professionals from both countries and its conclusion last month was celebrated by the teams with the release of the teaser on Monday.
The successful conclusion of the film’s production has coincided with other positive developments for the contemporary Georgian animation.
Next month, the prestigious Berlinale film festival in German capital will hold the European premiere of director Natia Nikolashvili’s animation film Li.le.
The screening will mark the first-ever Berlinale appearance of an animation film created by a Georgian filmmaker.
Other successful animation film directors from Georgia include Tato Kotetishvili and Sandro Katamashvili, whose respective projects Dog Days and A Crow were featured at last year’s Annecy festival platform for co-production, financing and distribution.