Vertigo Releasing has acquired UK rights to DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman’s animated feature The Peasants from New Europe Film Sales.
The Polish animation debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, and will have its UK premiere on Wednesday, October 11 at the BFI London Film Festival (LFF).
It is Poland’s entry to the best international feature Oscar race.
Vertigo Releasing is aiming for a UK-Ireland release in mid-November, following the film’s Polish release on October 13 through Next Film.
New Europe Film Sales has sold the film to over 50 territories, including to Sony Pictures Classics for North America; and Wildcard Distribution in Ireland.
Adapted from Wladyslaw Reymont’s Nobel Prize-winning novel of the same name (Polish title: Chlopi), the film depicts a rural community where a young girl is married to an older, rich farmer; but is in love with his son. It is produced by Hugh Welchman and Sean M. Bobbitt for Poland’s BreakThru Films.
The Peasants uses an advanced oil painting animation technique employed for the Welchmans’ previous film Loving Vincent, which made over $40m at the global box office and was nominated for an Oscar for best animated feature.
Over 200,000 animation hours went into creating the animation, at studios in Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Serbia. Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, producers BreakThru Films helped to relocate as many of the Ukrainian artists and their families as possible; before reopening the Kyiv studio in August of that year to finish the film.
It is a second acquisition this week for UK-Ireland distributor Vertigo Releasing, which acquired Luna Carmoon’s Hoard, another LFF title, yesterday.
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