Cape Town - A South African company scored an Oscar nomination on Tuesday for its work on ‘Revolting Rhymes’, which was nominated for Best Animated Short Film.
Produced by Magic Light Pictures, Revolting Rhymes was animated at Magic Light’s Berlin studio and Cape Town’s Triggerfish.
The film has already won nine major international awards.
The film, directed by Jakob Schuh and Jan Lachauer and co-directed by Bin Han To, is an adaptation of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake's classic book of fairytales.
It’s voiced by a stellar cast that includes Dominic West (The Affair) as The Wolf; Rose Leslie (Game of Thrones) as Red Riding Hood; and Gemma Chan (Humans) as Snow White.
“We’re beside ourselves right now, and just incredibly happy," say Schuh and Lachauer. "Happy for the film and happy for all our fantastic collaborators here in Berlin, our producers at Magic Light, as well as our wonderful team in South Africa. It’s a pretty unreal feeling to find your labour of love has been recognised in this way.
"We’re deeply grateful to the Academy for this nomination. This was a hard film to make. What always steered us forward was the level of love our team had for this story – and the blessings we received from Luke Kelly, Roald Dahl’s grandson, and from the great Quentin Blake. So, for everyone's work to receive such love in return today, it's the most beautiful reward."
Mike Buckland, head of production at Triggerfish, said: "Congrats to Jakob, Jan, Bin and the amazing team at Magic Light; it was such an honour to watch and learn from them.
"We also feel immense gratitude towards our insanely hard-working, generous and talented crew, who fully deserve this recognition that their work stands up there with the best in the world.
"We're hoping Revolting Rhymes' success will inspire many more Africans to enter the animation industry, which is growing rapidly here but still not fast enough to keep up with demand. And we can't wait for South African audiences to finally be able to see Revolting Rhymes when it comes to Showmax in the near future."
Triggerfish has also produced two of the top five highest-grossing South African feature films of all time: Adventures in Zambezia (2012) and Khumba (2013).
Johannesburg audiences will be able to see Revolting Rhymes at The Bioscope in Maboneng on February 16.
The 90th Academy Awards - known as the Oscars - will be held on March 4.
The other Oscar nominees for Animated Short Film are: Dear Basketball; Garden Party; Lou and Negative Space.
Controversial South African film ‘Inxeba’ (‘The Wound’) missed out on a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, after making it to the Oscar shortlist.