"Beautiful Forest," a Chinese cartoon or animated film will compete in the Oscars 2017 for Best Animated Short Film category. It is a sad story about birds dying from a gunshot.
The Chinese animated film has been screened in an art cinema in Los Angeles and had successfully passed the initial screening or preliminary stage, China Christian Daily reported. The movie features several paintings in gongbi-style, many of which are from the Song Dynasty (1127-1279).
Gong-bi is a technique in Chinese painting that requires care and realistic approach which is apart from the xieye style, that is freely expressive and interpretative. The "Golden Pheasant and Peony" by Emperor Huizong (1082-1135) of the Song Dynasty and the "Bird and Perch" by Lin Chun are among the ancient paintings featured in the film.
"Beautiful Forest" artistically depicts birds and flowers, which are symbols of joy and beauty, with intense colors. The seven-minute film brings the paintings to life. It has no lyrics, just background music from ancient instruments.
The first half of the cartoon movie shows a flock of birds perching and preying on other animals. The second half shows a gun pointed at a bird, then there was a gunshot. It ends showing a hole in a gongbi painting.
The film's painter, director and scriptwriter Yang Chun aims to regenerate China's venerable paintings through the movie. Chun is a graduate of Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts, according to GBTimes. He wants to revive the ancient practice of Chinese painting with the project.
An exclusive report from behind-the-scenes showed the Chinese animated movie entailing freehand sketching as well as thousands of paintings that capture the moves of the birds. Each move of the film's objects like the twisting of the birds' heads and spreading of their wings had to be freehand sketched.
As a result, Chun ended with thousands of paintings. Furthermore, the color modulation was quite complicated. For instance, Chun had to spend hours just to get the right tone of a leaf.
The list of winners of the Oscars' Best Animated Short Film category has several entries from Walt Disney Animation Studios. The studio has 49 nominations and 14 wins since 1932.
Watch the gongbi style of printing in the video below.