Mano Animation Studio’s The Glassworker has been selected for this year’s Annecy Festival in the ‘Work in Progress’ category.
Mano Animation Studio is a homegrown facility spearheaded by Usman Riaz with some of the best artists and animators in the country. The Glassworker has been in the works for some years now and will be Pakistan’s first hand-drawn feature film.
The Glassworker tells the story of a young man who works in his father’s glass workshop. Their lives are upended by the threat of an impending war, especially since the protagonist falls in love with an army colonel’s daughter. Every frame in the film has been meticulously drawn by Riaz and his team in a style that pays homage to Japan’s Studio Ghibli.
The Annecy Festival is held in France every year and showcases animated work from across the world. The festival has hosted studios like DreamWorks Animation and Sony Pictures in the past. The Glassworker will be screening at Annecy on 15th June and is due to be released publicly in 2023.