This event will be hosted by Dylan Mayer and is a part of his Spotlight on [Cinema] series, aiming to bring due attention to a versatile lineup of titles and artists.

Come for a pre-show presentation by Dylan Mayer as well as a post-screening virtual Q&A with The Peasants’ filmmakers: writers/directors DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman!! (DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman received Academy Award nominations in 2018 in the Best Animated Feature category for Loving Vincent. Prior to that Hugh Welchman won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2008.)

About the film: From the writers/directors of the acclaimed feature Loving Vincent comes THE PEASANTS - a hand-painted animation bravura telling the chain reaction of jealousy and deceit that ripples through a small village (a hotbed of gossip and ongoing feuds) when the richest (and oldest) landowner sets his marital sights on young Jagna… (The film's screenplay is based on Władysław Reymont's Nobel Prize winning novel of the same name.)

2023, Rated R, 1h54m

DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman’s Loving Vincent (released in 2017) was the first of its kind: a feature film animated entirely with oil paint. In the wake of that film’s success, writer/director DK Welchman said “Next time I’d want to be much freer in the terms of story and imagery.” The Peasants is that time. Around 40,000 oil painted frames create the 1,405 shots in this film, crafted by 120 oil paint artists who worked in 4 different countries across the span of 5 years. The Peasants is not only an example of great animation - and not only an example of great cinema - it is an example of a great magic trick, in that its illusion becomes more impressive the more that is learned about it…