Soyuzmultfilm

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Soyuzmultfilm
Type Corporation
Founded 10 June 1936
Headquarters Dolgorukovskaya St. 23a,
Moscow, Russia 103006
(film fund: same address, postal code: 127006)
Key people Akop Kirakosyan (creative director)[1]
Ernest Rakhimov (film fund director)[2]
Industry Animated motion pictures
Products Animated motion pictures
Television programs
Employees Of creative studio:
123 as of April 14, 2007[1] (it is unclear whether this number includes contractors)

Soyuzmultfilm (Russian: Coюзмультфильм, translated as Union Animation) is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union. The studio has produced 1527 films during its existence[3].

It is currently divided into two studios: "Creative union of the "Film studio "Soyuzmultfilm" («Творческо-производственное объединение «Киностудия «Союзмультфильм») and the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund («Фильмофонд Киностудии «Союзмультфильм»).

Contents

[edit] History during the Soviet era

Winnie-the-Pooh by Soyuzmultfilm
Winnie-the-Pooh by Soyuzmultfilm

The Studio was founded in 10 June 1936 under the name Soyuzdetmultfilm. The name was changed to Soyuzmultfilm on 20 August 1937. Initially comprising only a few scattered workshops, Soyuzmultfilm grew quickly, soon becoming the Soviet Union's premier animation studio. The studio produced exclusively traditional animation until 1954, when a "puppet division" was founded and the first stop motion-animated film released. The puppet division would later also make cutout-animated films.

During the Soviet era, the studio employed a maximum of over 700[1] skilled labourers and released an average of 20 films each year (the highest number was 47, in 1973).

The 60s, 70s and 80s saw the release of many films whose characters became an integral part of Soviet culture: Winnie-the-Pooh (Винни-Пух), Crocodile Gena (Крокодил Гена), Karlsson-on-the-Roof (Карлсон, который живёт на крыше), The Musicians of Bremen (Бременские музыканты), Three from Buttermilk Village (Трое из Простоквашино), Nu, pogodi! (Ну, погоди!), Hedgehog in the Fog (Ёжик в тумане), The Mystery of the Third Planet (Тайна третьей планеты) etc.

The variety of animation styles and the unprecedented degree of artistic freedom given to its many animators made Soyuzmultfilm perhaps the most diverse of the world's major animation studios.

Soyuzmultfilm's creativity was fueled in part by the unique conditions of the Soviet Union which made it possible for the studio to disregard the commercial appeal of its films. Because animators were paid by the Academy of Film regardless of how well or how poorly their products sold (though they were not, in fact, "sold"), they were free to pursue their artistic vision without giving a thought to finances.

[edit] Soyuzmultfilm's decline

Hedgehog in the Fog by Soyuzmultfilm
Hedgehog in the Fog by Soyuzmultfilm

The collapse of the Soviet Union brought to a close the golden era of Soyuzmultfilm. New economic realities made it impossible for the government to support the studio any longer. In 1989, Soyuzmultfilm was made into a leased enterprise (expiring after 10 years) and forced into the capitalist marketplace.

Although the studio survived, it shrank dramatically, losing nearly 90% of its staff and releasing only a few films. One early misfortune happened when the Russian courts transferred the studio's puppet division building (in a legal decision involving many other buildings) to the Russian Orthodox Church. Before the animators could react to this turn of events, a Cossack squadron broke into the building and began throwing out the "devilish puppets". No studio employees were allowed to come in and salvage any item, despite the presence of much expensive equipment and a whole library of puppets. [4]

The main reason for the collapse, however, was the studio's deliberate dismantling by the new top management and the illegal selling off of its assets for personal gain (see: [5] - in Russian). In 1992-1993, Sergei Skulyabin was elected president.

In the mid-1990s, Sergei Skulyabin illegally took over the company and used hired thugs to keep the animators in line and the government officials from asserting legal authority. The legal director of Soyuzmultfilm kept a very low profile after having been beat up in an alley and forced to go to the hospital with injuries to the head, and during this period many documents were signed by Skulyabin illegally on behalf of Soyuzmultfilm.

Georgiy Borodin writes of this time, "artistic work at the studio became psychologically unbearable and impossible. No one had the guarantee that come morning, he would not find his cabinet broken open, and his working table - cleared. Similar cases became almost a regular occurrence during the years of occupation. Animators who worked in other studios refused to believe the tales about the working conditions at the stolen "Soyuzmultfilm". Imagine, for example: you - the manager of one of the sections of the studio - come to your work cabinet and see in there several unidentified youths, engaged in packing away several large boxes with studio puppets to send them to an undisclosed location "at the command of Skulyabin". And when you, along with the director of the Puppet Dpt. (who is, by the way, responsible for the keeping of these puppets) keep them from being stolen by hiding them in a studio room which is inaccessible to these men, you are officially charged with attempted robbery." ([6])

Sergei Skulyabin was eventually ousted and fled to America, and the studio began a slow recovery.[7]

[edit] Films by Jove controversy

In 1992, the studio signed a deal with the American company Films by Jove, owned by Russian emigrants Oleg Vidov and Joan Borsten. It was the first international offer that the studio had received. The deal stipulated that Films by Jove would be granted the rights to 547 of the most popular classic studio films for a period of 10 years in all territories except the CIS; as part of the return, Soyuzmultfilm would receive 37% of the net profits. In 1993, newly-elected director Skulyabin extended the agreement by a further 35 years. Films by Jove restored many of the films and released many of them on television, video and DVD in the United States and Europe, albeit usually with dubbed voices and changed music.

According to current director Akop Kirakosyan, the original deal seemed promising at the time but turned out to be "deadly" for the studio. The expected payouts never materialized because Films by Jove never posted any net profits; all of the money officially went to things like new soundtracks, lawsuits and anti-pirating measures.[1]

Whether either deal was legal is currently being debated in court, with the Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund (see section below) claiming that because the company's lease on its possessions would have expired in 1999 (at which time ownership would have automatically reverted back to the government if no new lease were signed), Soyuzmultfilm had no authority to issue rights that lasted beyond that timeframe. [8]

On 11 April 2007, Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov announced that he is in the final stages of negotiating a price with Films by Jove to buy back the collection. A source close to Usmanov said that Films by Jove's initial price was $10 million, while Usmanov is willing to pay "several times less", as he considers that the rights already belong to Soyuzmultfilm and that he himself is only buying the physical film prints. [9]

[edit] Soyuzmultfilm today

In 1999, Soyuzmultfilm came back under the control of the government. A government edict on 10 January 2003 ([10]) divided the company into two separate companies. The separation was finalised on March 1, 2004.

The rights of all Soyuzmultfilm films before March 1, 2004 belong to the "Soyuzmultfilm Film Fund", headed by Ernest Rakhimov, and its official mission is restoring and marketing them. The mission of the "Creative union of the "Film studio "Soyuzmultfilm", headed by Akop Kirakosyan, is to create new films (anywhere from 3-7 short films a year) and to eventually privatize itself (currently, 100% of its stock is owned by the Russian Ministry of Culture).

Today the studio's major project is the upcoming feature film Gofmaniada, backed by Mikhail Shemyakin and directed by Stanislav Sokolov. It will be based on the tales of E.T.A. Hoffman. The film will use stop motion animation exclusively and will avoid using computer animation for special effects. The first 20 minutes of the film were screened on November 20, 2006, in St. Petersburg, and the full film is expected to be completed in 2008.[11]

[edit] Notable artists

Nu, Pogodi! by Soyuzmultfilm
Nu, Pogodi! by Soyuzmultfilm

[edit] Animators & directors

[edit] Actors

[edit] Selected films

The Bremen Musicians by Soyuzmultfilm
The Bremen Musicians by Soyuzmultfilm


[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Radio interview with Akop Kirakosyan (partially transcribed), 13-04-2007. (Russian)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links