The nominees were announced today for the 30th Lumières, the cinema awards regarded as the French equivalent to Hollywood’s Golden Globes, as they are voted by members of the international press (this year representing 38 countries).
While Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez came away with the most nominations (six, out of 13 categories), the animated feature nominees offer a colorful cross-section of the state of the industry in Europe, representing a range of moving stories in distinct styles from globally acclaimed filmmakers.
The Best Animation nominees are Into the Wonderwoods , a 2D/3D ecological adventure by Vincent Paronnaud (Persepolis) and Alexis Ducord (Zombillenium); the dreamy CG post-apocalyptic animal tale Flow, by Latvian auteur Gints Zilbalodis (Away); The Most Precious of Cargoes by Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), a woodcut-inspired 2D story about the strength of kindness in the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, based on the book by Jean-Claude Grumberg; Oscar winner Michel Gondry’s (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) paper cut-out animated feature Maya, Give Me a Title, based on his unique storytelling connection with his daughter; and Savages by Swiss filmmaker Claude Barras (My Life as a Zucchini), a stop-motion adventure set in Borneo, where a courageous young girl sets out to save a baby orangutan.
Outside the main animation category, The Most Precious of Cargoes has also earned a nod for Best Music, for composer Alexandre Desplat, a two-time Oscar winner for The Shape of Water and The Grand Budapest Hotel who is known to animation lovers for his work on Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Isle of Dogs, The Secret Life of Pets and the Tales of Arcadia series.
