Konstantin Bronzit: “Cinema is, first of all, a spectacle”

Konstantin Bronzit, one of the most famous Russian animation directors, works successfully both in his own short animation and in full-length audience animation. He has won hundreds of international awards, including three Grand Prix of the “animation Cannes” festival in Annecy. Two of his cartoons were nominated for Oscars – “A Closet – A Love Story” in 2009 and “We Can’t Live Without Space” in 2016. And another film with a space title – “He Can’t Live Without Space” (2019) – reached the Oscar shortlist.

In addition, Bronzit was at the origins of a series of cartoons about the heroes of the Melnitsa studio – the highest-grossing Russian animation franchise at the box office. Ten films and one spin-off collected a total of about 5.7 billion rubles. (data before 2015 – “Film Distributor’s Bulletin”, after 2015 – UAIS). Bronzit was the director and one of the authors of the script for the first film in the series, “Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin the Zmey” (2004). In 2018, he returned to the “heroic” franchise and directed the ninth part of the series, “Three Heroes and the Heiress to the Throne.”

The director currently has three films in the works. He is making two of them at his home studio “Melnitsa” – his new author’s short film (the title has not yet been announced) and the full-length continuation of the series “Luntik and His Friends”. The third film – another full-length film under the working title “Garbage” – he is simultaneously filming together with Dmitry Vysotsky at the Metrafilms studio, known for the animated series “Three Cats”.

In an interview with Vedomosti, the director spoke about how commercial animation in Russia has changed over 10 years, what difficulties arise when adapting animated series into full-length films, and also formulated what makes Luntik unique and why the theme of the search for paradise will always excite artists.