Ari Folman’s animated documentary Vals Im Bashir (Waltz With Bashir) is a pioneer in many ways. The film was one of the first (along with $9.99) feature films emanating from Israel to be released in theaters. Beyond that, Bashir, a 2D animated film, was produced primarily with Adobe Flash, a medium that is typically reserved for television and internet projects. Of late, many Flash features have been emerging, but none (save perhaps Sita Sings the Blues) have been praised to this degree.

Four years in the making, Waltz With Bashir went on to grab more award nominations than the crew had artists, but no achievement was bigger than the film’s nomination for the Palm d’Or (Best Film) at the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival. It set the tone for the coming awards season, which saw the film pick up the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. Animated films are often left out of the “Best Picture” category, relegated instead to the animation corner of the ballroom, but at the 43rd National Society of Film Critics Awards, Bashir took the top prize – Best Film.

Yoni Goodman, the film’s animation director, took some time between award shows to answer a few questions.

AARON SIMPSON: What has been the best part of the international praise the film has received?

YONI GOODMAN: I think throughout the production our only thought was to finish the film. That was our goal and we thought of nothing past that. Initially it was supposed to be a small art house movie, with very limited distribution, and of course we had our fantasies of how people would react, but we never suspected the movie would go so far and attract that much of attention. The first real shock was the premiere at Cannes. We had heard stories about the event, but nothing could have prepared us for the real thing. At the end of the screening, we had a 20 minute standing ovation from 2,300 people, which was quite a shock (until that moment, I didn’t notice that the theatre had balconies). Later on that week, we were the talk of the festival, and that just didn’t stop. In a way, it hasn’t really stopped since, so we’re still in a 12-month rollercoaster ride.

AARON: Tell us about the whole rotoscoping confusion…
Read the rest of this entry »

Yoni Goodman, the animation director on the award-winning, Flash-animated feature Waltz With Bashir, has created a new animated short film. Closed Zone is a mixed-media short that uses analogy to comment on the Gaza strip blockade. The film was produced by Gisha, a non-profit that aims to “protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents.” The short has already been seen over 100,000 times on YouTube, thanks to coverage by the Huffington Post and the UK newspaper The Guardian.

In this behind-the-scenes segment below, Goodman and one of the producers discuss how the project came to be.

Before Waltz With Bashir made its big splash at Cannes, Ari Folman experimented with animation in a 2004 series. The Material That Love is Made Of, a documentary series, was animated in Flash at PIL animation in Israel, serving as the testing ground for the process Folman and his team would employ on Waltz With Bashir. The project was design by Mysh and David Polonsky and animation by Yoni Goodman, Ella Marshak and Oryan Ventura.

Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz With Bashir premiered yesterday in France and is generating a good deal of positive buzz at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The story deals with the Israeli Army’s mission in the 1982 Lebanon War, intercut with animated interviews with those who took part. The UK Guardian called the film, which cost approximately 2 million to produce, “extraordinary” and the film’s website reveals that it took about 4 years to produce. The film’s art director, David Polonsky, completed 80% of the movie’s 2,000 illustrations, which were based on video footage shot prior to production. These illustrations were then brought to life in a combination of Flash animation, traditional animation and CGI. The director of animation, Yoni Goodman, created the animation process that was instituted on the film, and he eventually revved up his team to where they were outputting an average of 1.5 seconds of footage a day. Goodman was supported by lead animators Tal Gadon and Gali Edelbaum. Waltz With Bashir is one of 22 films in contention for the Palm d’Or, or “Best Picture” at Canne. Here is the trailer, subtitled in English.