The Glassworker will make history as Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated feature. After almost a decade in development, the movie finally has an official release date.
Written and directed by Usman Riaz, The Glassworker tells the story of forbidden love blooming in times of war. The story revolves around Vicent and Thomas, a father-son duo who run a glass workshop in their country. Their quiet lives are disturbed by the arrival of a general and the looming threat of war. The general, however, has a violinist daughter with whom Thomas falls in love. As such, The Glassworker echoes the fragility of art in front of the destruction caused by senseless war, an appropriate narrative background for a Pakistani movie.
The Glassworker only came to life thanks to Riaz and his team’s decade-long dedication. Under the banner of the production company Mano Animation Studios, the creative team behind the movie has used the resources gathered from a 2016 Kickstarter campaign to create all the tools they needed to pursue their hand-drawn animation team. That was quite a challenge, given that Pakistan doesn’t have an animation tradition. All the effort paid off, as The Glassworker is about to have its worldwide premiere at the most prestigious animation event in the whole world.
When is The Glassworker coming to theaters?
The Glassworker is scheduled to premiere on June 9 as part of the official selection of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. That is not only a rare honor but also evidence of The Glassworker’s quality, as Annecy is the stage for the best and most anticipated animated projects in the world — in 2024, the festival will also show the first footage of Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods.
Getting a prestigious premiere at a film festival is just one step of a movie’s release schedule. The most important is that people get to watch it in theaters. Fortunately, The Glassworker has already scored a release date in Pakistan, as the movie hits the commercial circuit on July 26, 2024.
What about the rest of the world? For now, The Glassworker doesn’t have a release date in the U.S. and other markets. So, the only way to watch it is by attending Annency’s festival in France or scheduling a trip to Pakistan. However, given the buzz surrounding the movie, it shouldn’t take long for The Glassworker to cross the ocean. Being selected to screen in Annecy makes a project hot enough to attract distributors, and it’s likely the movie will get a worldwide release in theaters or streaming after the festival.