Ari Folman to direct Anne Frank film
'Waltz with Bashir' director working on animated feature based on life, diary of famous Holocaust victim. 'There is a real need for new artistic material to keep the memory alive,' he says
Ari Folman's
film "The Congress"
won the European Film Award for Best European Animation earlier this week, but the Israeli director is not resting on his laurels and has already moved on to his next surprising project: An animation film based on the life and diary of Anne Frank,
one of the most famous Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
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The Belgian-Israeli production is being launched after Folman and his team were given full access to the archives of the Anne Frank Fonds Basel, which was founded in 1963 by Anne’s father, Otto Frank, as well as to other international institutions founded to preserve her legacy.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Folman and producer Diana Elbaum (who worked with him on "The Congress") negotiated the rights for the worldwide release, on all media and in all languages, for the new animated film.
“Bringing the Anne Frank Diary to all screens is a fantastic opportunity and challenge," Folman said, "as there is a real need for new artistic material to keep the memory alive for younger generations.”
The film's production is scheduled to begin in the winter of 2014 as a cross-border co-production with several European territories. In the meantime, the director and scriptwriter will be busy with the research in the different archives.
Folman has already engaged in processing painful memories into an animation film in "Waltz with Bashir," which dealt with his experience as a soldier in the 1982 Lebanon War and gained him international recognition and an Oscar nomination.
