Wizart Animation

Wizart Animation is a Russian animation studio headquartered in Voronezh, Russia.[1] It is one of the 9 active animation studios in Russia headed by Vladimir Nikolaev and specializes in the production of high-quality family animated feature films and TV shows, their distribution and promotion in the Russian and international markets. [2] [3] The animation studio is a subdivision of Wizart. It was formed in 2007 from a company specializing in software development as well as multimedia and software localization. It has been operating under the brand name Wizart Animation since 2012. Leaping from an independent animation studio, today Wizart has reached international success professionally producing 3D content for cinema industry and is one of the fastest and most dynamically developing animation studios in Russia. Wizart Animation has produced highly acclaimed animated features The Snow Queen, The Snow Queen 2, The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice, and Sheep and Wolves.[4]

Wizart Animation
Animation studio
Founded2007 (2007)
HeadquartersVoronezh, Russia
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
ServicesComputer animation
Websitewww.wizartanimation.com

The animated movies by Wizart have been sold to over 150 countries; participated in over 40 festivals; and won the audience’s hearts in South Korea, the Middle East, Turkey, Brazil, the Czech Republic and many more. [3] [5]

History

The studio was founded in 2007 by a group of artists from computer games and information technology industry. Their experience changes the animation industry in Russia which allowed them to launch a new type of computer animation studio that involve young artists from different cities of Russia.[6]

The newly independent Wizart animation studio is headed by Vladimir Nikolaev as chief executive producer and Yuri Moskvin as CEO. Vladimir Nikolaev has introduced the company's franchises through many film festivals like the 17th Open Russian Comedy Movie Festival held in Tula Oblast. [2] Yuri Moskvin role as a spokesperson for the organization as well as a leading producer for the studio's first franchise The Snow Queen paved the way for the studio's rise to publicity. Other key people include Anna Pokorskaya, the international distribution manager. Under their oversight, Wizart has managed to emerge as a global brand in animation. At the Animation Summit, Wizart revealed animation in Russia is developing in the right direction. Wizart's own film was the first Russian animated feature film with a wide theatrical release in China mainland. Distribution-wise, movies like The Snow Queen was appraised many different global distributors from South Korea, Brazil, Turkey, Middle East, and Czech Republic for a total of 140 different countries around the world. Its films are selected in more than 40 internationally acclaimed festivals (Annecy, Catalina, Varna, Gukiff, The Golden Elephant, Ojo De Pescado).[3]

In 2011 Wizart Animation created a new business department to promote and sell animation content in Russian and International markets. Their vision was a production facility to produce world-class family animated feature films and animated series, as well as international sales and a marketing department.

Its first project was the magical 3D stereoscopic story The Snow Queen (co-produced with Bazelevs and Inlay Film). It was released in 2012, earning $14 million worldwide, setting record for a Russian animated feature.[7] In 2014, it was followed by the sequel, titled The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King.[7] In 2015 the company was included in the TOP 25 Animation Companies to Watch, a list of animation companies with most international potential, compiled by the highly regarded Animation Magazine. [4] The studio's first original film, titled Sheep and Wolves, was released in Russian theaters on 28 April 2016.[7][4] In 2016, Wizart revamped its marketing team with addition of new members. The move coincided with it main goals set to promote its brand through advertising through international and domestic markets. [8]

Wizart Animation continued on its record to produce sequels to the franchise The Snow Queen. In 2016, The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice was released. The trequel became a breakthrough event as it went on to became the highest-grossing Russian film in foreign box office. [9] The fourth accompaniment to the franchise The Snow Queen 4: Mirrorlands was released in 2019.

The brands The Snow Queen and Sheep and Wolves have set new records for the animation studio. Areas once inaccessible to Russian movie industry are now opening such as the French territories. Wizart's ability to gain new screens has been a record for any independently produced European/American animated feature films released globally without any support from a major multinational corporation. The franchises are noted for its long stay at the theaters after its debut. With theatrical releases continuing internationally for years after the original premieres, and including the massively expanding secondary revenues. Overall the two franchises – The Snow Queen and Sheep and Wolves — have already made over $100 million worldwide. [10] [11]

Currently, Wizart is working on a variety of animation films to be released in the 2020s.

Units

Divisions
  • Wizart
    • Wizart animation
    • Wizart series
    • Wizart distribution
    • Wizart animation school

Wizart Animation School

Wizart founded the Wizart Animation School in 2013 with support of Voronezh region. The project was aimed to recruit new animators aiming to improve their skills with many perks. The students communicate and learn from the veteran employees of the Wizart animation studio who have more than one full-length project behind them. Online courses are offered that include Maya (1st grade), Animation in Maya (2nd grade), Digital sculpting (basic course), and Autodesk Maya. Students have the opportunity to learn how to animate characters, simulate the environment, light, render, sculpt, compose, create visual effects, and even manage the dynamics of virtual fabrics. [12] At the end of the training, the best students will be employed. 50 graduates of the school will be granted full-time employees at the animation studio. [13]

Feature Films and TV series

Traditions

Wizart’s main objective is to develop, produce, and distribute high-quality family animated feature films and animated series that combine innovative technologies such as stereoscopy and CGI animation. The stories can be related by children and even adults with a family-friendly content. They are known for its situational comedy adventure and fantasy elements. The stories narrate positive themes like believing in miracles and family importance. The company’s portfolio contains animation projects at various stages of production. Currently in production are movies to their beloved franchises as well as the preschool animated TV series, Yoko. [14] Chief Executive Producer, Vladimir Nikolaev for Wizart Animation Studio explains the animation studio's main goal is to find features that can be accepted into global animation community, who has stated, “From the very beginning, our goal has been to create commercial animation features that a viewer of any country will find interesting.” [15]

Snow Queen Franchise

The Snow Queen was initially meant to be an international project that took into account opinions and preferences of the global audience. The Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale is well known to young viewers and their parents in many countries, so it is not surprising that this project was in demand by international buyers. As a result, Wizart managed to combine the best Western and Eastern tendencies in The Snow Queen 3. [3] The main character Gerda was the key player in all the series whose adventures have captivated the audience. Alongside its iconic polar winter background and the theme of a family animation movie was the key ingredients that made it become a blockbuster hit in Russia as well as all around the world.

The franchise's main foreign collection came from China. The first film was released in August 2015. The project was well received by critics and audiences there. The premiere of the second franchise film took place on December 2016. The third film of the franchise was released on the spring of 2018 coinciding with the Qingming festival with the support of a major marketing partner Beijing Turbo Film Corporation Ltd. [16] The third film's theme of reuniting Gerda the main character's lost parents and importance to family was primarily one of the reasons why it gained massive popularity in China. The plot reflects one of the basic values of Chinese culture: fundamental value of the family. [17] Wizart’s animated movies has a great success in Korea also. The Korean audience took a liking to the first Snow Queen movie and South Korea became one of the ‘best-going’ territories in the geographic range of Wizart Animation’s international sales. [18]

The appraisal of global distributors from around the world for the third installment to the franchise was a key indicator that the animation industry of Russia developing in the right direction. Wizart’s General Producer Yuri Moskvin pointed in the press conference on December 16, 2016, “The first two movies of The Snow Queen animated franchise had a great travel all over the world. The third movie will be released in most Eastern European countries, right at the same time: in Croatia, Romania, Poland and the Baltic states. At the beginning of 2017, there will be releases in Korea, Bulgaria, Turkey and countries of the Middle East. This shows how much our foreign partners trust Wizart – the rights for the animated movie had been selling on the early stage of the production already; the simultaneous release and special promotional activities during the theatrical distribution period have been helping us with promotion a lot. It’s true that the Russian animation credibility is growing every year.” [19]

After setting a record in Bulgaria, Emil Simeonov, the General Producer of the distribution company Profilms in Bulgaria has remarked a positive outlook for Wizart in the future: "This kind of results right at the beginning means a huge success for both the Russian movie industry in Bulgaria and us, movie distributors. The animated movie was already attended by over 10,000 viewers and we’re expecting that the audience’s interest will only be growing during the cinema distribution period.” [20] The franchise has won many international awards including Russia's very first GUKIFF(Guro Kids International Film Festival) award. [21]

The theatrical box office of the popular franchise The Snow Queen has already gained more than $60 million worldwide. [22] To the present day, the movies of the franchise has been sold to over 150 countries and translated into 30 languages. [15]

Sheep and Wolves Franchise

The idea for Sheep and Wolves occurred to several people at the same time – all those people were working on the The Snow Queen. The script creation took more than two years. This was one of the hardest things about the project production. Over 200 people, including foreign animators, were working on the movie. A coverage of the experts who worked on the movie spanned a vast geographic scale. [3]

Filmography

Feature films
#The Snow QueenYear
1The Snow Queen[4]2012
2The Snow Queen 2: The Snow King[4]2014
3The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice[4]2016
4The Snow Queen 4: Mirrorlands2019
5The Snow Queen 52021
#Sheep and WolvesYear
1Sheep and Wolves[4]2016
2Sheep and Wolves 2: Pig Deal2019
3Sheep and Wolves 32021
#TitleYear
*Hansel and Gretel2021
*Ruslan and Ludmila2021

Television series
#TitleYear
*Yoko2016
*Snow Queen: Gerda and the Keepers of Wonders2019

The logo of Wizart features a firework.

References
  1. "Russian Animated Film 'The Snow Queen' a Hit With Distributors in Cannes". The Moscow Times. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  2. "Vladimir Nikolaev, the producer and chief executive of the Wizart studio, has introduced the Sheep and Wolves cartoon at the 17th Open Russian Comedy Movie Festival Russia, Smile!". sheepandwolvesmovie.com. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  3. "Anna Pokorskaya, the international distribution manager for the animation studio Wizart, performed at the Animation Summit".
  4. "Wizart Animation: Projects". Wizart Animation. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  5. "Wizart Animation Studio – Story of Success".
  6. The Snow Queen, a Russian 3D Animated Feature, Steroscopy News
  7. Beck, Jerry (8 February 2014). "Teaser: "Snow Queen 2: The Snow King"". Animation Scoop. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  8. "Wizart". wizartanimation.com. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  9. "Wizart's 'Snow Queen 3' Sets Foreign B.O. Record for Russian Film".
  10. "Russian animation gains popularity all over the world".
  11. Tizard, Will; Tizard, Will (9 May 2018). "Russian Animation Proves to Be an International Draw". Variety. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  12. "Wizart School". Wizart School (in Russian). Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  13. "Wizart School". Wizart School (in Russian). Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  14. "The Snow Queen 2 3D Trailer Released". www.stereoscopynews.com. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  15. "Wizart Animation Studio – Story of Success".
  16. Milligan, Mercedes (19 March 2018). "Wizart Announces 'Snow Queen 3' Release Date to Follow FILMART". Animation Magazine. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  17. "Projects of WIZART Studio are going to China, Great Britain and German".
  18. "The characters of The Snow Queen 3 will start to speak Korean!".
  19. "Snow Queen 3: Fire & Ice Released!". SOUNDTRACK CREATION. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  20. "The Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice keeps seizing the European market".
  21. "THE SNOW QUEEN 3: FIRE AND ICE received an award at the prestigious Guro Kids International Film Festival in Korea".
  22. "Unprecedentedly for the Russian animation two of Wizart Animation movies were included in the contest program of the international festival of animation films "Varna-2018"".
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