Montreal: The 40-minute animated imax feature The Old Man and the Sea had its official release June 11 at a screening in the presence of HRH Prince Charles at the new British Film Institute Imax Cinema in London, Eng.

Produced by Montreal’s Productions Pascal Blais over two and a half years and directed by two-time Oscar nominee Alexander Petrov, the $5.2-million production includes more than 29,000 hand-painted, oil-on-glass frames originated by the director.

Shot entirely in Montreal under the supervision of producer Bernard Lajoie, the film is actually two films in one and includes a live-action prologue, `Hemingway: A Portrait,’ directed by Erik Canuel. The animated sequences paint the story of an elderly Cuban fisherman and his 48-hour struggle with a great marlin.

Petrov, Canuel, Lajoie and producer Pascal Blais attended the bfi premiere.

Blais says the project required construction ‘from scratch’ of an imax animation stand, which features motion-control and multiplane enhancements. The actual imax camera installation was modified with a video-assist unit to help the director, and the camera was able to dolly in and out and rotate on itself to generate certain special movements, adds Blais.

While Blais says this is the first large-format animated feature, other Canadian producers such as Nelvana have produced imax short films. The Old Man and the Sea will initially be released in English, French and Japanese and subsequently translated into more than 20 languages.

Paul Fraser of Ogden Entertainment, New York, is the film’s international distributor and Blais’ distribution consultant for Canada. The Quebec premiere is set for Nov. 2 at the Old Port-Imax Theatre.

The film is an official Canada/Japan/Russia coproduction with Imagica Corp., Dentsu Tec and NHK Enterprises 21 of Japan and Panorama Animation Film Studio of Russia. The Canadian share is 50%. Funding sources in Canada include Telefilm Canada and sodec.