Eduard Nazarov

Eduard Vasilievich Nazarov (Russian: Эдуард Васильевич Назаров; 23 November 1941 – 11 September 2016) was a Soviet and Russian animator, screenwriter, voice actor, book illustrator and educator, artistic director at the Pilot Studio (2007–2016), vice-president of ASIFA (1987–1999) and a co-president of the KROK International Animated Films Festival.[1] He was awarded People's Artist of Russia in 2012.[2]

Eduard Nazarov
Nazarov in 2011
Born
Eduard Vasilievich Nazarov

(1941-11-23)23 November 1941
Moscow, USSR
Died11 September 2016(2016-09-11) (aged 74)
Moscow, Russia
OccupationAnimator, artist, educator

Biography

Eduard Nazarov was born in a bomb shelter during the Battle of Moscow. His parents were Russian engineers who met at the end of 1930s while studying at Moscow institutes. Nazarov's ancestors came from the Bryansk Oblast and had a peasant background. He became engaged in painting since childhood and while in the 9th grade entered an art school where he got acquainted with Yuri Norstein, his close friend since.[3][4]

After three years in the Soviet Army Nazarov entered Stroganov Institute. Simultaneously he started working at Soyuzmultfilm in 1959 as an apprentice, self-educating, since he was too late for the animation courses. He worked as an artist-renderer, an art director's assistant under Mikhail Tsekhanovsky and as an art director under Fyodor Khitruk, most famously creating Winnie-the-Pooh for the Soviet adaptation of the fairy tale.[1][3]

Since 1973 he had been directing his own short films, often combining duties of an art director, screenwriter and voice actor. Once Upon a Dog is generally considered his most prominent work; it was awarded the First Prize at the 1983 Odense International Film Festival and a Special Jury Award at the 1983 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.[5] During the 2012 Open Russian Festival of Animated Film ceremony dedicated to 100 years of national animation the film headed the "Golden Hundred" list of the best national animated films.[6][7] It also appeared at the 65th place of the Top 150 Japanese and World Animation list at the 2003 Laputa Animation Festival in Tokyo.[8]

Between 1979 and 2000 Nazarov had been working at the High Courses for Scriptwriters and Film Directors as an educator. He also illustrated various books and magazines.

His last film Martynko (1987) was made during perestroika and banned for four years because Nazarov refused to change the name of the cartoon princess Raisa. Censors saw her as a satire on the First Lady of the Soviet Union Raisa Gorbacheva despite all characters were borrowed directly from the fairy tale of the same name by Boris Shergin.[9] Around the same time Nazarov left Soyuzmultfilm, stating that it turned into "something between an isolation ward full of choking gas and a Cancer Ward".[4]

In 1988 he was awarded the Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR. Between 1987 and 1999 he served as a vice-president of ASIFA.[1]

During the 1990s he directed commercials and hosted a number of television shows dedicated to Russian and world animation. In 1991 he became a co-president of the KROK International Animated Films Festival, along with David Cherkassky. In 1993 he co-founded the SHAR animation school-studio along with Andrei Khrzhanovsky, Yuri Norstein and Fyodor Khitruk where he worked until his death.[1][10]

In 2004 Nazarov joined the Pilot Studio in their Mountain of Gems project, a grand government-backed TV series that combined efforts of many animators; between 2004 and 2015 they produced around seventy 13-minute shorts based on various traditional fairy tales of different Russian and former Soviet regions. In addition to art direction, Nazarov also co-wrote screenplays and did voice-overs to some of them.[11] After the sudden death of Alexander Tatarsky in 2007 he turned into an artistic director of the studio.[12]

Nazarov suffered from diabetes for many years and had to undergone a surgery late in his life, losing one of the legs. He continued teaching students through Skype.[1]

Eduard Nazarov died on 11 September 2016 and was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.[13] He was survived by his wife Tatiana.

Selected filmography
gollark: * quite easy
gollark: * possible
gollark: But why?
gollark: Bad.
gollark: I actually have *shock horror* an application for Keymash.

References
  1. In Memoriam: Eduard Nazarov (1941–2016) Archived 16 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine at the ASIFA official website, 16 October 2016
  2. President's Decree № 315 from 21.03.2012 at Kremlin.ru (in Russian)
  3. A Man in Shot. Eduard Nazarov documentary by Sergei Kapkov at the official YouTube channel, 2010 (in Russian)
  4. Yuri Norstein. All this would be funny... interview from The Art of Cinema magazine, 1991, p. 136—147 ISSN 0130-6405
  5. Once Upon a Dog awards at the IMDb page
  6. Once Upon a Dog animated film — the best in 100 years article by Komsomolskaya Pravda, 2 March 2012 (in Russian)
  7. 100 years of Russian Animation: Once There Was a Dog at the History of Russian and Eastern European Animation blog, 23 April 2012
  8. Laputa’s Top 150 Japanese and World Animation (2003) by Catherine Munroe Hotes, 6 October 2010
  9. Mikhail Panyukov. Gone the animator who insulted Raisa Gorbachova article from Express Gazeta, 13 September 2016 (in Russian)
  10. About SHAR animation studio at the official site
  11. Mountain of Gems. Full Cast & Crew at IMDb
  12. Famous Soviet and Russian animator, director and artist Eduard Nazarov died at Echo of Moscow, 11 September 2016 (in Russian)
  13. Eduard Nazarov's tomb
  14. Eduard NAZAROV "You need to make discoveries with every film" interview by Larisa Malikova for Novaya Gazeta, 14 November 2005 (in Russian)

Sources
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