Sony Pictures Classics, the film’s distributor in the United States, has entered The Peasants as a contender in all Academy Awards categories, including Best Picture, Best International Feature Film, Best Animated Feature, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
According to Variety magazine, the film has the strongest prospects for an Oscar shortlist in the Best Animation Feature category.
The Hollywood Reporter has described The Peasants as “a ravishingly beautiful visual triumph.”
The Peasants is the latest offering from the directorial duo of Dorota Kobiela (DK) Welchman and Hugh Welchman, whose Loving Vincent, made in the same technique, won international acclaim several years ago.
It is based on the novel of the same title by Nobel Prize-winning Polish writer Władysław Reymont.
One critic has called the film “a cinematic pageant about a 19th-century Polish village where a beautiful maiden marries a widowed landowner while nursing a burning love for his son.”
The film’s producer, Sean Bobbitt, told the media: “The Peasants is a project that blends various art forms, with literature, painting and music creating a coherent whole that plunges the viewer into a world of deep emotions."
He added: "2024 marks the centenary of Reymont’s receiving the Nobel Prize for the novel. We are delighted to be able to present this fascination story to the world and vie for Academy Awards in all categories.”
The Peasants has opened a weeklong promotional showing in New York and Los Angeles before going on general release in the United States in 2024.
Its distribution rights have been sold to more than 50 countries.
In September, The Peasants was picked as Poland’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at next year's Academy Awards.
The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hand out the Oscar awards on March 10.
Image courtesy of Next Film
(mk/gs)