Loving Vincent delves deep into the mysterious life of Vincent Van Gogh in a glorious feat of artistic skill and commemoration. The 80-minute long movie will be made entirely of individual oil paintings crafted in the signature style and technique Van Gogh is highly revered for.
The animated biopic is composed of an extravagant total of 56 800 frames, each an oil-on-canvas painting.
The plot was constructed from 800 letters written by the artist himself, revealing those closest to him and offering a glimpse into his world in order to uncovering the events that led up to his curious death. The scenes of his painting and interviews with the characters in them are manipulated to tell a reconstruction of the story nearing his end.
In total, the Loving Vincent features more than 120 of his most well known paintings. The film is produced by two Oscar-winning film companies, Breakthru Films and Trademark Films, and will be the first ever feature length painted animation.
Breakthru Films is also behind the Painting Animation Work Stations (PAWS), specially designed and patented workstations created for the project. PAWS allow the 30 painters to work alongside each other in attempts to finish the film in two years.
The talented Dorota Kobiela, fittingly a classically trained painter, is directing the film. Her previous endeavours include Little Postman, the world’s only 3D painting animation. And The Flying Machine, a 3D feature film nominated for the Toronto International Film Festival.
