Discover the Bulgarian short that beat Disney to an Oscar nomination

Bulgarian-born Canadian director Theo Ushev’s Oscar-nominated short animation is making waves in Bulgaria, sparking hopes for a revival of the country’s animation tradition.

Blind Vaysha was nominated for the Best Animated Short Film, listed among such names as Google’s Pearl and Pixar’s Piper.

“We overcame Disney — something that is unheard of, like Ludogorets [Bulgaria’s premier football team] beating Barcelona at the Nou Camp,” Ushev told Bulgarian state TV following the announcement of his nomination.

While Blind Vaysha was supported by the National Film Board of Canada and, indeed, Ushev refers to himself as a Canadian director, the short’s success has caused great excitement in Bulgaria, writes the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.

According to their report, Blind Vaysha represents one of the best of a new wave of young Bulgarian animators that has emerged in the last couple of years, after a seeming drought of successful animations after the “golden age” of Bulgarian animation from the 1960s — 1990s. Furthermore, the short is based on a story by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, one of the most translated Bulgarian authors since 1989.

Will Blind Vaysha be victorious at this year’s Academy Awards? Watch out for it at the ceremony on 26 February in Hollywood.

Source: Balkan Insight