The Animos Studio was founded in 1999 by Tengiz Aleksandrovich Semenov, a well-known film director, producer and screenwriter, winner of the USSR Lenin Prize, Honored Artist of Russia. Currently, he is the Studio’s General Director. The Studio’s Artistic Director is Natalya Orlova, a prominent director and artist of animation films, winner of the USSR State Prize.
The Studio’s first animation film was “Moby Dick” (director Natalya Orlova), made in collaboration with BBC-1, S4C (Great Britain) and HBO (USA) as part of the “World Classics” project.
Since 1999, the Animos Studio has continued working with foreign partners on a new series, “Animated Tales of the World”. Within this project, such films as “Timoon and the Narwhal” (director Natalya Orlova), “The Crown and the Sceptre” (director Maria Muat), “The Three Sisters Who Fell Into the Mountain” (director Ekaterina Mikhaylova) and “How the Tortoise Won Respect” (director Vladimir Petkevich) have been shown worldwide.
All the films won numerous Russian and international awards. “Timoon and the Narwhal”, directed by N. Orlova, got the Cristal prize for Best TV Production at the prestigious International Animated Film Festival in Annecy, France.
The Animos Studio is closely cooperating with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation in the field of animation and documentary cinema. One of the results of this cooperation in animation is the large-scale project “Russian Classics for Children”. As part of this project, 18 animated features have already been produced. Some films of this series have been awarded international and national prizes and diplomas.
Parallel to the project “Russian Classics for Children”, the studio produces auteur and experimental films, including debut films.
During its existence the film studio has produced 50 animation films in various techniques – puppet, hand-drawn, silhouette, clay, paint-on-glass, computer graphics.
With the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, a number of socially significant documentary films have been produced. Among them, “Knights of the Valley”, about the problems of the Russian world wonder – Kamchatka’s Valley of Geysers Reserve (director Irina Golubeva), “The New Sky” – about the secret mainsprings of the present economic crisis (director Tengiz Semenov), etc.
All in all, 20 documentaries have been produced. Many of them got awards at Russian and international festivals.
