Age

ration between six countries (Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, the UK, Latvia, and Estonia), uses both 2D and 3D animation, and Irish actor Brendan Gleeson has lent his voice to one of the characters. The film is suitable for audiences of all ages and is based on a young adult novel of the same name by Irish writer Roddy Doyle. Italian animator Enzo D’Alò’s career spans decades and many of his previous films have screened at festivals around the world. A Greyhound of a Girl is his seventh animated feature film.

Producer Vilnis Kalnaellis and his studio Rija Films represent Latvia on the film’s production team. Having received funding from the Latvian National Film Centre (NFC), work on the film’s backgrounds and the animation process took place at the studio. This is the sixth time that an animated film Rija Films has contributed to has ended up in competition at Berlinale – these include films about the puppy girl Lotte that were co-produced with Estonia, and several of the studio’s own films. A Greyhound of a Girl is also a result of the long-standing col- laboration between Rija Films and Paul Thiltges Distributions from Luxembourg. Their first collaboration, the mythical adventure film Kirikou and the Sorceress (Kirikou et la sorcière, 1998) by Michel Ocelot and Raymond Burlet, was the Latvian studio’s first internationally acclaimed animation project. Another collaboration is currently underway, Reinis Kalnaellis’ feature animation Thelma’s Perfect Birthday (Telmas lieliskā dzimšanas diena). It is worth noting that Rija Films is also able to provide the necessary infrastructure for animation in Latvia for projects other than their own.

From Solo Project To International Cooperation

Latvian animation is constantly in circulation around the world. Not only are films regularly selected for competition programmes at Berlinale, but they are also selected for other international festivals and screen outside Latvia in cinemas and on streaming platforms.

A good example of this is the work of animator Gints Zilbalodis. After the creative success of his short films Oasis (Oāze), Inaudible (Nedzirdams), Priorities (Prioritātes), and Aqua, with which he established his signature style, Zilbal-