Hugh Welchman: Last News

The husband-and-wife team behind 2019 feature animation Oscar nominee Loving Vincent, DK and Hugh Welchman, is back in the awards race this season with The Peasants.

Karen Idelson Though there are still those who view animation primarily as a kids or family form of entertainment, over the last year many of the most challenging, risky stories have been told by the modern masters of animation. Films like “Suzume,” “The Peasants” and “The Boy and the Heron” have all been lauded for taking on compelling stories that often attract more adult audiences or even becoming crossover hits that draw diverse viewers. Makoto Shinkai’s “Suzume” earned well over $300 million in international box office.

EXCLUSIVE: Agnieszka Holland’s migrant drama Green Border will open the 22nd Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, running from March 6 to 28 in various locations across London.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Variety has been given access to the international trailer for animated film “The Peasants,” which is Poland’s entry for the international feature category of the Academy Awards. The film had its world premiere in the Special Presentation section of Toronto Film Festival last month, and screens next week at the London Film Festival.

Sony Pictures has snapped up rights in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand to The Peasants, the latest animated feature from Loving Vincent helmers DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman, which world premiered in Special Presentations at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. Further details on release plans have not yet been disclosed.

EXCLUSIVE: Poland will submit animated feature drama The Peasants for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.

It is an overused cliche to describe visually stunning films as “every frame of this movie could be a painting hanging on the wall.” It is now an actual fact for at least two films. “Loving Vincent” was the first animated feature-length film composed exclusively of hand-painted oil paintings as its individual frames.

Christopher Vourlias Six years after “Loving Vincent,” their groundbreaking biopic of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh earned an Oscar nomination and raked in more than $50 million at the global box office, the filmmaking team behind that hit is back with a bigger, more ambitious animated feature that utilizes the same stunning hand-painted animation technique to tell an operatic story of life and love in a 19th century Polish village. “The Peasants” world premiered Sept.

Gregg Goldstein When Hayao Miyazaki’s semi-autobiographical fantasy “The Boy and the Heron” has its international premiere Sept. 7, it won’t just be the first animated film to open TIFF, or the master director’s first in a decade. It will be part of an unexpected resurgence of animated work for cineastes at major international festivals.

EXCLUSIVE: Anonymous Content has partnered with New Europe Film Sales to handle North American rights for animated feature The Peasants, directed by Oscar-nominated Loving Vincent filmmakers D.K. Welchman and Hugh Welchman. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor New Europe Film Sales has closed several further distribution deals for animated feature “The Peasants,” the followup to Oscar nominee “Loving Vincent,” which grossed more than $50 million at the global box office. New sales include Benelux (Paradiso), the former Yugoslavia (MCF Megacom), Hungary (Vertigo), Portugal (Outsider Films), Turkey (Birfilm) and Scandinavia (Another World Entertainment). The company is in negotiations with buyers in Spain and the Baltics. U.K. and North America rights remain open. Key European sales previously closed include to Plaion in Germany and Jokers in France. “The Peasants,” which is directed by “Loving Vincent” filmmakers D.K. Welchman (formerly known as Dorota Kobiela) and Hugh Welchman, is being produced with the same painting technique as used in “Vincent.” The directors were inspired by a wide repertoire of realist and pre-impressionist paintings to depict the Nobel prize-winning novel of Wladyslaw Reymont on film. Set at the end of the 19th century, it tells a story of love and life in a small community, where rules and traditions dictate everyone’s role.

Sony Pictures Classics has taken North America, Latin America, Middle East, Scandinavia, Australia/New Zealand, Turkey, India, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan, Thailand rights and global airlines to Alex Helfrecht’s animated movie A Winter’s Journey. 

Ben Croll On Friday, the team at BreakThru Films behind “The Peasants” – producer Sean Bobbitt, filmmaker Dorota Kobiela and writer-producer Hugh Welchman – took the stage at an Annecy Work in Progress screening to reveal to the world just what they’ve been working on since turning an experimental hand-painted biopic, 2017’s “Loving Vincent,” into one of the most profitable Polish films of all time.If you thought the BreakThru Films team might take it easy, however, think again.

Christopher Vourlias Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales continues its pre-sales of “The Peasants,” the hotly anticipated follow-up from Oscar-nominated “Loving Vincent” director Dorota Kobiela, selling rights for Germany and Austria to Koch Media.As reported earlier, New Europe brokered a deal with The Jokers for distribution in France of the buzzy animated feature.“The Peasants” is produced by BreakThru Films’ Sean Bobbitt and Hugh Welchman, who also co-wrote the script, using the same technique that dramatically brought the paintings of Vincent van Gogh to life in “Loving Vincent,” which Kobiela co-directed with Welchman.Live-action photography wrapped last October, with footage now being hand-painted onto canvas by a

The number of actresses claiming to have been contacted by a manipulative sexual predator masquerading as an Oscar-winning filmmaker has doubled. First reported by The Hollywood Reporter in November, the conman has been cold calling women claiming to be Hugh Welchman, the director of the groundbreaking 2017 animated feature Loving Vincent.

Former CAA motion picture agent David Neumann has launched Newmation, a management company for film and TV animation creators. Neumann's initial clients include Oscar winner Hugh Welchman (Loving Vincent), Anita Doron (The Breadwinner) and Gary Trousdale (Beauty and The Beast, Hunchback of Notre Dame).

In early September, British filmmaker Hugh Welchman began receiving a series of bizarre and angry messages under his Instagram posts. They all came from one actress.

Christopher Vourlias Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has acquired world sales rights for “The Peasants,” the latest feature from BreakThru Films, the animation studio behind Oscar nominee “Loving Vincent.” Variety has been given exclusive access to the film’s international teaser.Principal photography has begun on a film based on the novel from Nobel Prize-winning Polish author Wladyslaw Reymont.