New Directors Award at SAN SEBASTIAN, nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2012 ANNIE Awards, 11 nomatinations (including one for the Best Animated Film) in 2012 Goya awards; longlisted for the Academy Awards.

I’m lucky enough to be promoting and helping create the publicity for a great European feature film, called Arrugas (eng: Wrinkles). It’s currently longlisted for Best Animated Feature in this year’s Academy Awards. Here’s some information about it.

Arrugas (Wrinkles): A Heartbreaking Spanish Film About Alzheimer’s

WRINKLES is based on Paco Rosaʼs multi-award winning graphic novel, Arrugas (Wrinkles); and is brought to life by director Ignacio Ferreras (The Illusionist) and producer Manuel Cristóbal (The Living Forest). Creatively ambitious and unflinchingly honest, WRINKLES is Europeʼs finest current example of how the power of animation displays that classic battle: the one against our own fears – and how it’s the one which helps us grow the most.

Emilio (Alavro Guevera) is a retired bank manager. Taciturn, brave and observant – but suffering from the first stages of Alzheimer’s, he is placed into a care home. It’s not long before he discovers who his new family is – the mischievous, fast-talking roommate Miguel (Tacho de la Calle) and the kind-hearted Antonia (Mabel Rivera, The Orphange). Together, they strive to protect their dignity and prove their freedom.

Painted in delicious autumnal colors thanks to the palettes of Albert Rodriguezʼs (Juliaʼs Eyes), WRINKLES reminds us of the lushness which permeates the classical, full animation style; providing a subtle tenderness, and a remarkably simple but gorgeous backdrop for an engaging narrative.

What is the Wrinkles (Arrugas) Film about?

WRINKLES is already the subject of excellent review by The Hollywood Reporter, Ropes of Silicon, El Pais, Variety and Screen Daily – and It is to both Ferreras and Roca’s credit that art imitates life so well. This Oscar-qualifying film brings to life the themes of friendship, family, learning, and how we suddenly find ourselves in our wiser years – often, sooner than we think. WRINKLES gives a voice to a typically under- represented group of society. It explores sensitive, universal themes – all part of a tradition unique to Spanish animation.

Moving breathlessly through adventures (and certain misadventures), and featuring an original soundtrack composed by Nani Garcia conducting the with the Gallicia Philharmonic Orchestra; WRINKLES provides a rather more extraordinary take on the phrase “growing old gracefully” – and is at once heartbreaking and jubilant.

The most important film of 2012 is WRINKLES: because getting old is the next adventure!