UK animation students create charming cartoon trailers for Russian classics

A group of animation students from Kingston University, located close to London, have produced a selection of cartoon trailers for classic Russian literature.

Vintage publishers invited the students to make the short animated films to coincide with its republishing of six Russian classics for the centenary of the Russian Revolution. The cartoons had to fit together and be consistent in style with the covers of the new books — spanning a wide range of styles, the entries reflect the diverse time periods covered by the novels.

Vintage have announced three winners, chosen together with communication arts publication Creative Review — first prize went to Flora Caulton for her cartoon based on Boris Pasternak’s Dr Zhivago, while Katy Wang’s trailer for Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate took home second prize and Maria Morris came in third place with her animated tribute to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. In addition, Anna Tökés earned a special mention with her take on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

The competition marks the third year of collaboration between Vintage and Kingston University.

“Continuing Kingston’s rich association with Vintage [...] has been an inspirational experience for the students,” says Chris Shepherd, Senior Lecturer in Illustration Animation at the university. “They not only get a chance to work with top class authors but also develop their pitching skills in a professional context. At Kingston we’ve all been really proud of this incredible project.”

Source: Afisha (in Russian)